New ice allocation policy creates equitable environment for all users
A new policy is good news for all arena users, according to Ivy Martin of the Collingwood Girl’s Hockey Association.
Martin has been advocating for fair ice time allocation for years. Clearview township has been giving the girls’ league three hours mid- week for the past several years. Last year they added another two hours. “You can’t get in if there’s a legacy arrangement,” says Martin. “This new policy creates a more equitable environment for all users, including girls’ hockey.”
Clearview Township council adopted the new Ice Allocation Policy for arena user groups at its Jan. 13 meeting.
The Collingwood Girl’s Hockey serves Town of Blue Mountains, Clearview and Wasaga Beach. Now in its ninth season, the group has 390 members with the majority ranging between Under 7 and Under 18.
“We’ve had to cap membership numbers because we don’t have enough ice time,” said Martin.
“We started out nine years ago with two teams and the town of Collingwood gave us a couple of hours. In that first year, our U18 girls were on the ice at 10 p.m. after a beer league,” laughs Martin. “Then they had to get up for school the next morning. In 2019 the town of Collingwood saw the need to update their ice allocation policy and things started to get a bit better.”
Director of parks and recreation Terry Vachon says the document formalizes principles for allocating ice time in a fair, equitable and transparent manner.
The priority for prime-time ice allocation will be as follows:
- Clearview Township programs and services, such as recreational skating programs, three-on-three tournament, etc…
- Clearview minor sports groups that provide programs serving youth 21 years of age and under and that are not currently in a pre-approved license agreement.
- Non-municipal minor sports groups.
- Tournaments and special events.
- Adult groups.
- Commercial and occasional groups. Non-municipal groups and occasional users.
Vachon told council that similar policies for allocation of baseball diamonds and soccer pitches will be presented at a future meeting.
Martin says the popularity of girls’ hockey has seen significant growth in recent years.
“Every winter Olympics we see a big increase in enrollment, and when the Professional Women’s Hockey Association did their Dream Gap Tour to kick off the 2022-2023 season, it was a tipping point,” she said.
Collingwood Girls’ Hockey currently offers house league teams in every division from U7 through U18 and competitive teams in U9 and up, as well as skills programming.
