Sudbury ice time a premium as arena still being used for COVID-19 vaccination clinics | CBC News
With children five years old and over now eligible for vaccination against COVID-19 and boosters starting to roll out, the need continues for mass clinics in Greater Sudbury, and that means less ice time for some local sport groups.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts continues to use the Carmichael Arena on Bancroft Drive in the Ontario city for clinics, meaning the ice pad there is out of commission.
The Sudbury Ringette Association has about 110 players ages four to 19 who usually play at Carmichael Arena.
This year, the association has rented nine hours a week of ice time from the city. Its ice convener, Bradie Grainger, said it’s been a challenge this year to work out ice schedules for the seven teams.
“When you think of the ages of our kids, for the most part, it’s hard to get our players on the ice at 8:30 at night or 8 o’clock at night. As you can imagine they’re pretty young,” she said.
Travelling for ice time not unusual
Grainger said ice times now include two hours on Tuesdays and seven hours straight on Sundays, divided up at several arenas across the city.
“We try to get them one practice and one game a week.”
That means families may have to travel for weekly ice time.
Grainger said they are also working closely with the other two local ringette associations to play against other teams so they can be creative in sharing ice space.
Jody Cameron, manager of Greater Sudbury’s 14 municipal arenas, said that in September, ice was allocated and fairly distributed to sports associations knowing that Carmichael Arena would be out of service due to public health requirements,
“It can cause some problems because everyone tends to want those early-evening, the 5 to 8 [o’clock] period, Monday to Friday and then weekends, so there are a few challenges here and there,” he said. “But they’re making it work, understanding the importance of using Carmichael for a vaccination clinic.”
Cameron said ice availability issues should be rectified once Carmichael reverts back to being a sports arena.
Right now, one ice pad at the Capreol Arena is being used for production of the TV sitcom Letterkenny.
In November and part of December, the Sudbury Arena has been rented for 16 days for shooting the new show Shoresy.
Morning North7:53The use of an arena for vaccine clinics in Sudbury is causing ice time shortages
As public health continues to use a municipal arena for vaccine clinics, it reduces the number of ice pads available to local sports associations. We heard more about the issue from Jody Cameron, the manager of arenas for Greater Sudbury, and Bradie Grainger of the Sudbury Ringette Association. 7:53
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