Following a delegation from the Fort Frances Lakers, members of council concluded that maintaining ice at the Memorial Sports Centre is in line with the Town’s strategic goal to provide residents high quality of life.
Council voted to endorse the plan to make summer ice permanent during the Oct. 14 council meeting.
The meeting began with a delegation from the Fort Frances Lakers including GM and Head Coach Luke Judson and Assistant Coach Joe Basaraba, and volunteer Tara Allaire.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Allaire said the extra months of arena ice allowed high-level local players to remain at home in Fort Frances to train over the summer.
Prior to the pilot program, hockey athletes at the professional, college, junior and even high school levels have travelled to train elsewhere. The travel created extra barriers and costs for players, sometimes keeping them far from home during the offseason.
Allaire said permanent summer ice would allow the Lakers junior teams to apply for and join summer tournament circuits for their AAA programs, increasing tourism and spending in the town of Fort Frances.
“In terms of initiatives for tourism and growth, I think a lot of potential remains untapped in our community for sports tourism,” she said.
And the fruit borne of last summer’s ice access illustrates that.
“There’s a lot of untapped potential for Fort Frances to be a destination on these summer tournament circuits,” Allaire said.
“Unfortunately, until we know summer ice is permanent, there’s no way for us to apply to be stops on these summer tournament tours, or to even plan tournaments if we want to. The summer sports tournament tourism is a big business, and I think Fort Frances’ location on the Minnesota border, and our climate in the summer months has a lot of unrealized potential.”
Permanent summer ice means local hockey players can train without leaving home and has contributed immensely to the Lakers becoming a nationally ranked team, she said.
Summer ice will also contribute to an increase in future high-level players from Fort Frances.
Councillor Bill Morrison acknowledged that the Lakers organization has contributed greatly to the community over the years, having worked with them in his capacity with Weechi’ittewin Family Services. Last summer, the team was named the Town’s junior citizens of the year.
Mayor Andrew Hallikas echoed that sentiment.
“The Lakers have always been a positive influence on our community,” Hallikas said. “It seems that every year they’re doing more and more for the community.”
According to a staff report to council, prepared by Recreation and Culture Manager Elisa McLeod, the summer ice pilot project garnered strong community demand, positive economic impact, and manageable operational implications.
The 2025 season generated $45,221 in rental revenue. And that made up about 98 per cent of the $46,000 budget target.
Coun. Wendy Brunetta said she struggled with a decision about making summer ice permanent.
“Based on the report citing a deficit for 2026, it’s hard to say, ‘oh yeah, I want to support that because we’re going to go in the hole,’” she said.
Brunetta added that the Lakers delegation did help her shift her point of view.
“I’m leaning towards saying yes, approving this, because I want to encourage tourism activities for our community,” Brunetta said.
“I think it’s a way that perhaps at some point we can move to the profit side and maybe we just have to start here.”
Brunetta added that future councils could determine summer ice’s viability going forward depending on the financial situation.
“I think it’s a break-even (venture), which I’m prepared to accept,” Coun. John McTaggart said.
“I think the bigger factor is the economic driver that it may be for the community and for the area.”
Coun. Steven Maki noted more ice means less downtime for the arena’s freezer plant and equipment. He questioned whether some of the machinery that would normally be replaced in 10 years may require replacement after eight years.
“Is that costing budgeted into these (report) numbers so that we get a truer cost to operating through the summer?” Maki asked.
Operations and Facilities Manager Travis Rob said it’s hard to put a timeline on impacts to the arena’s ice plant. One compressor has logged 116,000 hours, while the other compressor has 105,000 hours on it. The latter was already rebuilt once and the former has not been rebuilt.
“Why? I do not have an answer to that,” Rob said.
Because the compressors are original to the arena, they may have a year left or a decade, he said.
“These are the types of compressors, unfortunately, that just operate that way,” Rob said. “All I can say is that operating these compressors through the summertime is very high risk. It pushes the compressors very hard.”
The compressors run between 23.5 and 24 hours a day during the summer months, Rob estimated.
“Working hard, too,” he said.
“These aren’t just running to keep things cool. These are running to combat Mother Nature.”
Coun. Michael Behan questioned whether the projected $2,700 deficit for 2026 was set in stone or if it was a generous estimate by McLeod.
“I guess my question, maybe for Manager McLeod, is that $61,000 for revenue, is that sort of the bottom figure you’re looking at, or with the Lakers presentation about adding more tournaments and getting two more junior AA teams involved, will that increase revenue so that we can get that deficit eaten away all together,” he asked.
“It is a very conservative number, I did go towards the bottom for that,” McLeod said. “I’m hoping that with the Lakers bringing in [more ice users], and also just it being a more permanent thing. Things can be planned more and more programming as well.”
“So, I can say that the projected deficit for 2026 of $2,700 is not cast in stone or firm?” Behan asked. “If anything, it might get a surplus in the end, that’s fair to say?”
“Correct, I’m hoping we don’t see a deficit,” McLeod said.
Council endorsed the recommendation from staff to make summer ice permanent unanimously.
– With files from Allan Bradbury
