By Sue Vine
President, West Hill Minor Hockey Association
For more than 70 years, Heron Park Arena has been home to the West Hill Minor Hockey Association (WHMHA). Generations of families have come through its doors, and we’re proud to say the arena has even been the starting point for a number of NHL and PWHL players.
Each year, WHMHA must reapply to the City of Toronto for ice time. It’s a complicated process,even though our needs remain largely the same year after year, with only a few minor adjustments since the pandemic.
This season, however, we were shocked to learn on July 14 from Permits that we lost access to our large rink on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. We had no prior notice of these changes. These hours are the backbone of our program as most of our house league games are played on Saturdays and Sundays at Heron Park Arena.
Despite repeated efforts by our House League General Manager Kevin Mercer and the executive team to get answers, communication from the city has been minimal at best. Emails went unanswered for weeks, and when we did receive a reply on July 29, it was explained that our ice time had been given to other groups displaced by temporary arena closures elsewhere.
Mercer said that “the ice allocation policy doesn’t reflect the needs of the hockey community,” and further added that “the total lack of communication from permits and support from the city is extremely disappointing.”
Families of the players impacted have been equally outraged by this loss of ice time. Trisha Ralph-Coffey, a parent of a current U15 player, affirms that “to displace our own house league program for another association makes zero sense. If there is ice time available at Centennial and Malvern arenas, why is the city not giving it to the other associations instead of moving us?”
As a long-standing community-based league that is run by a totally volunteer board of directors, it’s disheartening to see that our players and families were not given priority, nor were we consulted in advance. Since July 14, we have been pushing for a resolution, but so far we’ve been told there is nothing they can do.
What made our situation even more difficult was that we had no councillor to send our complaints to and seek the support we needed. Hopefully, the newly-elected councillor of Ward 25 will help us to reclaim the respect that our hockey programs deserve.
West Hill Minor Hockey at Heron Park has been a cornerstone for youth hockey in Scarborough for decades, and we will continue fighting to ensure it continues that way for generations to come.
To show your community support, please consider reaching out to our newly-elected councillor, as well as emailing the Ontario ombudsman at ombudsman.on.ca/en/about-us/what-we-do.