The President of the Wingham Ironmen is concerned about the Township of North Huron's ice removal and installation policy, and says its putting the Provincial Junior Hockey team behind its rivals due to a new schedule format.
Ironmen President and Assistant General Manager Wayne Johnston attended North Huron's regular meeting on Tuesday, where he asked if council would consider shifting the dates that ice is removed and installed at the North Huron Wescast Community Centre to better accommodate the team. This follows a change in playoff structure by the PJHL that has shifted the beginning and end dates of both its regular season and playoffs, and added a championship tournament contested by four teams in May.
This change was made for the first time last season, but was made permanent by a PJHL committee following the success of last year's Clarence Schmalz Cup, which was won by the Lakeshore Canadiens.
"This year, we feel we've got a good hockey team," said Johnston, with the Ironmen currently occupying fourth spot in the PJHL Pollock Division. "The second round of our playoffs will not be over when the ice is scheduled to go out, and we find that this puts the hockey team at risk by having to guarantee so many hours of ice in a week, and may lead to possibly moving playoff home games out of town, which I don't think is beneficial to anybody."
Councillor Mitch Wright asked Johnston to clarify what was preventing the PJHL from reverting back to its original pre-Covid schedule. Johnston replied that the payoff has been the elimination of "three-game weekends" during the regular season, which he says is a lot for hockey players at that level. With the addition of the end-of-season tournament, the regular season was extended, leading to the elimination of three-game weekends during the 2022-23 regular season.
That wasn't good enough for Councillor Chris Palmer, who said "I think things should go back to normal. It's not right for your association to just decide to do a tournament in May. They've got to consider what the small towns think, and the cost. It could be $25,000-$30,000 per month in hydro to keep the arena going, so that has so be considered."
"Your association should be talking to towns, councillors and recreation departments to get their ideas before they decide to have a tournament in May. It doesn't work everywhere" added Palmer.
Johnston noted the PJHL is a league with 62 teams spread all across the province, but said he would bring it up at a future meeting, but noted "we're only one voice of 62."
Deputy Reeve Kevin Falconer seemed to take issue with the request, saying "the optics of this decision or conversation are not lining up when we're in the middle of trying to figure out if we can close an arena during the summer time when we can't afford to keep the lights on. Fun conversation on the street if extending one operation, and haven't dealt with the core problems that we have first. I'd rather eliminate, or come to a decision, on things that are on the table now before any thoughts of extending more services longer."
Council chose not to make a motion on the request following advice from Chief Administrative Officer Dwayne Evans, instead opting to include the request as part of a report coming to council in a cost review analysis for the North Huron Wescast Community Centre.