Rink announcement too late in the game for 2018 opening
It will be at least a year before the outdoor Canada 150 rink will be up and running in Gananoque, Ont., the town's mayor says.
Mayor Erika Demchuk said she was officially informed by Canadian Heritage Friday morning that the rink will be coming to the town, even though CBC reported the news Thursday.
Demchuk said she's ecstatic, but said there's lots of work to do before skaters can take advantage of the gift, especially with a municipal election coming Oct. 22.
'The timeframe just does not work at all.' - Gananoque Mayor Erika Demchuk
"There's just no way that we could possibly get it up and running for December.… It just can't happen," Demchuk said. "The timeframe just does not work at all."
On Parliament Hill last winter the rink sat on a gravel base, but Demchuk said it will rest on a concrete slab in its new home. However the town needs more than a $150,000 grant it's been promised for the required infrastructure and setup, she said.
Not enough time
Demchuk said the announcement came as a surprise, so there's been no time to prepare for the rink.
"Unfortunately, we're so late in the game, by the time we get an engineer drawing ... we wouldn't be able to get it up and running this year. There's just not enough time," Demchuk said.
She said the town can't free up the money it needs because of a spending ban leading up to the municipal election on Oct. 22.
Demchuk said the town plans to apply for grants to acquire needed equipment including a chiller to keep the ice frozen as temperatures rise.
Demchuk said the rink will be placed behind the town's existing arena. She said the pad can be used for basketball and pickleball in the summer.
Plan to name rink after late MP
The decision to relocate the former Parliament Hill skating rink to the small town was partly a symbolic gesture, sources close to the file told CBC News, as it sits in late MP Gord Brown's riding of Leeds–Grenville–Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.
Demchuk said there's a plan afoot to name the rink after Brown, who died in May.
"He just was such an integral part of Gananoque. This was his hometown and it's something that he's been working on long before the Canada 150 rink became available," Demchuk said.
The rink officially opened on Parliament Hill last December.
It drew considerable controversy over its initial $5.6-million price tag for a three-week run. The cost then jumped by $2.5 million when the rink's season was extended to Feb. 25.
Some 150,000 skaters used the rink.
With files from the CBC's Kimberley Molina
