Quote:
Originally Posted by darkharbour
That's not quite right, we have 12 ice surfaces in the Fundy Region since the Belyea closed, with a new one under construction in Hampton right now (although it will be replacing the older Hampton arena eventually).
The number quoted in PlaySJ was accurate for the time, it is understood in recreation studies and urban planning that a population service level of 1:12,000-1:15,000 is acceptable for ice surfaces in Canada. As a city and region are growing a lot now compared to the stagnant population then, so even just holding the current number of ice surfaces is probably the way to go, otherwise we are spending far too much on one type of recreation and will probably end up underserving another - often ones with larger user numbers but less influential ones - in order to balance budgets.
You also brought up one of the other issues, which is that a lot of users of SJ facilities come from other municipalities, which is why NB has a regional facilities model through the RSCs. TD Station and the Aquatic Centre are great examples of those shared regional facilities whose cost is distributed amongst all the member communities in the Fundy Region, but getting the political will to add to that count is very challenging, and not something many elected officials from bedroom communities are willing to take on.
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There’s five in the city proper including TD station right? Then two in Quispamsis, one in Rothesay, one in Grand Bay, and one or two in Hampton if you want to count one soon to closed and one under construction… are you counting the Rothesay Commons Outdoor rink or St. Martins? Counting either would be a bit of a stretch.
I think we can strive for better than acceptable, as ice hockey is Canada’s national winter sport, and figure skating is also one of our biggest winter sports. There’s a notable difference in commitment to ice rinks here in Saint John compared to Western Canada where I grew up. There’s a lot of people who seem to be hockey fans in Saint John, but the level of skating and hockey talent here is noticeably below the Canadian average, and I really think that has a lot to do with the lack of financial commitment to ice rinks. Saint John should have had a multiplex arena built decades ago. In Saskatchewan, people would have protested the situation with the Belyea. I don’t know if it’s just the lackadaisical maritime attitude or what, but I really think it’s something more specific to NB and SJ specifically, as evidenced by how few NBers, and even fewer Saint Johners have made it to the NHL in recent years.
As for the bedroom communities paying their fair share towards the recreational ice rinks in Saint John that their residents use in large number, that’s just pure selfishness and gas lighting (like when people like Nancy Grant or Libby O’hara fake out outrage at the suggestion that their towns aren’t already paying their fair share)
It’s pathetic the city didn’t go through with the plan for recreation cards for the residents of the bedroom communities, all because the president of the hotel association of Saint John, Paulette Hicks, a resident of Quispamsis, orchestrated a one time payment of $60,000 to the City to “buy time” for the constituent communities of the Saint John Region to work out an agreement for a regional ice strategy. Hicks then went on to become the first CEO of Envision Saint John, but seemingly did nothing in her new position to get the “towns by the bay” to cooperate with the City on a regional ice strategy. Recreation cards would have at least been a solution that might had led to the bedroom communities actually agreeing to cooperate financially on a regional ice strategy.
I think it’s abundantly clear that the bedroom communities are never going to willingly contribute a fair share to the city, no matter how much SJ improves its financial situation… I think it will take forced amalgamation from the province to bring about any type of real fairness here in the “Fundy Region”. I think this will inevitably happen, especially as more Canadians move here from other cities in Canada where the vast majority of the CMA resides in a single municipality, and as more and more older and conservative people die off.
I’ll never get why the KV elite are so committed to keeping up the separation farce, as it’s not just holding the urban centre back, it’s holding back the whole region. Imo, suburbs are only as good as the city at their centre. I think they fully understand this too, they’re just selfish and more concerned about keeping their taxes low. If comprehensive tax reform was ever realized, the entire region could adopt the same tax rate as Rothesay, or go even lower. I really do love Saint John and think the surrounding communities have a lot to offer too, but until we actually come up with solutions to fundamentally improve the dynamic between the communities of the region, there’s more to complain about than be proud of. I’ve yet to hear a better solution to improve this dynamic than region wide amalgamation, but I’m also willing to listen to alternatives to amalgamation… I’m just skeptical they won’t be designed in a way to maintain the fundamental inequity that currently exists here in the SJ region.
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