Group circulating petition to bring the matter back before council
A local sports group is fighting to keep what it sees as its home following a decision made in the Fort Frances council chambers.
The Borderland Skating Club, a long-running figure skating group operating in Fort Frances, has been sounding alarm bells and gathering community support after the summer’s decision in council to move the group out of its long-held dressing room at the Memorial Sports Centre. The move came following a request from the Fort Frances Lakers hockey team, who say the dressing room the team is in currently is no longer suitable for its needs. In a letter to council dated April 2, 2025, Lakers general manager Luke Judson noted the size of the dressing room the team currently occupies is impacting its ability to “recruit, develop and retain players,” and notes that in the event that the dressing room situation is not addressed by the town, the Lakers have had discussions with “regional partners” that include the possibility of the team moving from the Memorial Sports Centre.
“Our team attracts fans, sponsors, and young athletes to the community, and we have made significant strides in increasing attendance, community involvement, youth participation, and visibility,” Judson wrote in the letter.
“If no viable solution is provided at the Memorial Sports Centre, we have been in discussions with regional partners in exploring alternative options, including the possibility of relocating operations to another facility.
In its own letter to council dated May 9, 2025, the Border Skating Club board note that they feel “targeted” by the Lakers hockey team, having previously met with and declined the team’s proposal to swap dressing rooms. The club has been in their current dressing room since 2000 with the opening of the Memorial Sports Centre, and their fundraising during the new facility’s construction period is what secured them their dressing room. This, they say, is evidence that the room is theirs, and should remain so.
“To summarize the history of the Border Skating Club dressing room, it was designated for the Club’s exclusive use in 2000 when Ice for Kids was built,” the club’s letter reads.
“Border Skating Club was a proud Gold sponsor, additionally many of our coaches and families of skaters contributed as individual donors.”
In discussion with the Border Skating Club board, they say the efforts they went through to secure the funding should be a significant factor in deciding whether or not they are allowed to stay in a room they feel ownership over, particularly as the club says that the town was the one who told them how much money they needed to raise to secure the room.
“They asked us to meet a commitment, and we did,” said board member Gerry-Lynn Cousineau.
“We met our goal.”
The club says the total amount raised during the construction phase of the arena was roughly $5,000, a figure that bears out owing to the club’s inclusion on the sponsorship wall at the Gold level, but that figure also doesn’t include donations to the project from club families who donated individually. The room itself doesn’t have a number on the outside door, while the remainder of the dressing rooms along the same corridor do, which the board say also points to the idea that the room was designated to them on a permanent basis, not for a limited time.
Additionally, the dressing room doesn’t include a urinal.
“It goes right back to the planning stage,” Cousineau said.
“There was no urinal put in here because we didn’t have enough boys to justify it.”
When the town approached the club with the possibility of leaving the room, the board said they were asked to provide the costs they would foresee with a move to another dressing room in the facility. However, they said providing said figures, totalling several thousand dollars, did not constitute a willingness to make the move in the first place.
Despite the fact that council has made the decision to move the skating club out of the room and the Lakers into it following the end of the 2025-26 hockey season, the board has maintained they disagree with the decision, and feel the town could be setting a precedent that will discourage community groups from making larger efforts to support fundraising initiatives in the future.
“So many people have said to us, ‘you fundraised for that space, your gave them money, why would we ever fundraise for anything in the Town of Fort Frances?’” Cousineau said.
“It’s just very frustrating.”
The board is hoping the voices collected on their petitions will bring enough attention to the matter that council will step back from their decision and work with all the parties who make use of the ice surfaces at the Memorial Sports Centre to find a solution that benefits everyone, while not taking away what has been theirs for decades.
“It’s frustrating and we’re disheartened,” said board member Felix Blasky.
“[The town] needs to fix this. They need to do what’s right. And taking away a room that we fundraised for, that we met a goal for, isn’t right.”
The town has also received letters from both the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association (FFMHA) and Fort Frances Girls and Women’s Hockey Association (FFGWHA) expressing their concerns with the motion that reallocated the dressing room space. The FFMHA noted in their letter that while they support the Lakers desire for more space and recognize the Border Skating Club’s desire to stay, they feel the proposed solution is lacking, particularly owing to the decision to move the skating club into the Ice For Kids Dressing Room #3, which FFMHA says will disrupt their own operations during the ice-in season.
“This space is one of the four larger rooms FFMHA depends on to support both on-ice teams and those preparing to take the ice,” they said in their letter.
“Reassigning this dressing room would significantly disrupt the logistical framework of our programming. We urge Council to consider a solution that serves all user groups equitably. Rather than allocating $175,000 toward renovations that benefit only a single group, we advocate for a more inclusive approach: investing in a facility-wide dressing room upgrade, or exploring the construction of a shared dryland training area. This would modernize the facility without compromising longstanding partnerships or programming commitments.”
The FFGWHA, meanwhile, noted that they “cannot support the motion as written,” highlighting that they feel no single user group should be prioritized over others when it comes to allocating space at the rink, especially at the expense of equitable access.
“If dedicated spaces are being considered, then a fair and transparent process must be in place to provide the same opportunity to every group,” the FFGWHA letter reads.
“Otherwise, space must remain shared and flexible, and efforts should be made to restore and improve shared access in line with the facility’s original design intent.”
Both hockey groups express their desire to see the $175,000 that has been allocated for dressing room and storage space renovation,” according to the town’s report, to instead go towards facility-wide renovations that will benefit all of the user groups of the ice surfaces.
Members of the Border Skating Club have copies of the petition to be signed. The club said they will return before council in the near future.
The Fort Frances Times will continue to follow this story as it develops.
