Hockey groups and ice users in Saugeen Shores want plans to build a third ice pad accelerated.
The Town has plans to build a third ice pad by the Plex in Port Elgin in 2034.
Back on November 10th, 2025 council received a report from consultants at Monteith Brown which projected 1,400 ice users by 2034 but local user groups including minor hockey and the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks felt the findings presented by consultants were not accurate.
At council’s January 26th meeting, Jordan Mackinnon, Saugeen Shores Winterhawks President made a delegation to council, outlining the need for another ice pad and the current lack of ice time for user groups. He told council he felt the Monteith Brown projections didn’t tell the whole story and there was not enough consultation with ice user groups.
Monteith Brown’s November 2025 report talked about slow growth saying, “Nationally and provincially, participation in ice sports has been declining nationwide. According to Hockey Canada, registrations declined by 8 per cent nationally and 12 per cent in Ontario between 2014/15 and 2023/24.” They attribute the decline to escalating household costs limited family time, limited coaching staff, aging populations and more competition from other sports.
A delegation to council Monday by Saugeen Shores Minor Hockey noted, hockey is not declining locally.
Becky Smith, Saugeen Shores Minor Hockey Association Board member and registrar gave their stats to council, noting, “All of the user groups have come together and we’ve had a few meetings now because we feel like the report was not an accurate representation of what’s happening in Saugeen Shores.”
Smith said, “The context in the report about hockey declining in Canada is not an accurate reflection of what’s happening here in our community. There are many user groups that were not considered in the report which significantly understates the number of users we have here.”
Smith said Saugeen Shores Minor Hockey is the largest program of its kind in Grey Bruce and Huron, explaining, “We’ve seen over 40 per cent growth in the last five years.” She added, “The participation in girls hockey has more than tripled in the last 10 to 11 years.”
“In 2015, we had 65 girls playing hockey in Saugeen Shores and this year we have 190 girls,” said Smith who noted their U-11 girls teams are both ranked among the top five in Ontario.
She said, “Every year we have kids that move here with their families and they hope to continue to play hockey. We know if Bruce C is built, this will bring even more families to the area with children who want to play hockey.”
She said, “Our current ice availability limits our capacity to retain and grow the girls program,” explaining, “This is almost always because we cannot offer them enough ice to continue to develop.”
Smith said for example, girls who go to the U-13 team in Owen Sound get ice time four to five times a week, but Saugeen Shores can only offer two ice times a week.
She said next season, minor hockey will be forced to turn away 20 to 40 kids, many of whom already live and play hockey in Saugeen Shores. “That is not because of a lack of interest or volunteers, that is simply because there is no ice available to support program growth,” said Smith.
She said it forces organizers to make the choice between keeping roster sizes at a level that supports proper development or they overload teams to accommodate demand.
“Without a third ice pad, we’re not just limiting growth, but we’re actively holding our kids back.”
While the consultant’s report said ice pad use would be at 1,400 participants by 2036, Smith said a review by local user groups found they’re already at 1,500 users, which includes minor hockey, the Grey Bruce Bulls which is the boys rep team, figure skaters, adult and senior hockey and high school varsity teams.
“Demand has been significantly underestimated. We are not planning for future growth, we are already behind,” said Smith.
Meanwhile, she told council when players and their families play in other cities and travel for tournaments, their money leaves the local economy. She said for example, her family spends between $12,000 and $15,000 on hockey with two kids. She said going to Owen Sound for ice time means they’re getting dinner or groceries there, not in Saugeen Shores. “Most of those dollars are leaving our community through out of town tournaments, travel, hotels. Hockey tournaments are a proven economic driver in the winter time and without enough ice to host them, we are missing a significant opportunity to keep those dollars here in Saugeen Shores and attract that type of activity to our community,” said Smith.
Smith said they can only host one tournament per season. The girls Silver Stick in December brings 36 teams to Saugeen Shores and fills hotels and restaurants.
“A third ice pad would allow us to be the permanent home of women’s hockey, high performance youth development, home for our grey Bruce Bulls, our boys hockey rep teams and it would also open the door to consistent winter tournaments and figure skating competition bringing families, visitors and economic activity to Saugeen shores during months when the community is traditionally quiet. This isn’t just about adding ice, it’s about unlocking the full potential of our community as a year-round sport and tourism hub.”
Councillor Dave Myette noted, “I’m sure that every council member around this table, if we could wave a wand right now and put a third ice pad in this community, we would do it. We understand the need. It’s clear to everybody,” said Myette, noting Smith’s estimate of what her family spends out of town is pretty striking.
He added, “The paint is hardly dry on our new aquatic and wellness centre and then we’re looking at the next project.” Myette said he’d like to see a comprehensive estimate of what it would take, saying,”Whether we have the borrowing capacity, how we could raise community finds to back something like this, and I would really love to be able to make it happen.”
Councillor Rachel Stack noted she would like to see girls getting the same ice time opportunities as the boys, relative to their numbers.
Vice Deputy Mayor Mike Myatt noted, an example of economic spinoff from tournaments can be seen with the Lamont Baseball park which he said hosted ten tournaments, filling 2,000 hotel rooms in Saugeen Shores, Kincardine and Owen Sound. “I think there’s a lot of benefits to it,” said Myatt.
But he noted, the request for an accelerated project also comes at a time when the town just finished a $50 million rec centre and before that, a $12 million baseball park. “We’ve got a fire hall $7- 8 million that’s being built in two years, we’ve got the Southampton town hall $8 -10 million.”
He added, “I’d like to think somehow we could make it work. This council tends to find ways to move ahead with good projects.”
Myatt said, “We live in a bubble here, and while numbers across Canada may be down a little bit, we have Bruce Power. We have a nuclear plant here. A lot of young families and numbers, I think are just going to continue to grow from what I’m seeing from your report.”
Councillor John Divinski encouraged user groups to consider how fundraising could help move the project timeline up.
Deputy Mayor Diane Huber felt with a roughly $20 million price tag, there would be resistance in the community to another big spend on recreation right now.
“A $20 million price tag is going to be a hard pill to swallow for anybody on council without a real good plan about how user groups can help make that happen. I don’t think that’s an impossibility, I just think that we need to really think of that a s a reality and get creative on what actually would service and take care of this need for extra practice time and that sort of thing without, as I said a couple of weeks ago, all the bells and whistles being in there because we really can’t afford that.”
Councillor Bud Halpin also supported the desire to build a third ice pad, but listed the major recreation spending the town has done in recent years. “We’ve made historic investments in recreation,” listing the Pryde Aquatic and Wellness Centre and the Lamont Sports Park, adding, “We’ve put about $1 million into each arena over the last couple of years doing upgrades and everything as well. Plus the money going into North Shore Park and Jubilee Park for recreation and Helliwell field for new soccer.” Halpin noted, “I heard loud and clear, loud and clear, from the taxpayers that they were weary of their taxes going up 25 per cent over five years. People are weary of their taxes going up. So this is the line that council has to walk. We have an aggressive ten-year plan– budget ahead of us which includes a new fire hall.”
Council thanked Smith and other ice users in attendance. Mayor Luke Charbonneau expressed optimism that staff and user groups could work towards a plan for getting a third ice pad sooner than 2034.