Item - 2025.EY24.24

The Etobicoke York Community Council:

1. Requested the General Manager, Parks and Recreation, to report to the appropriate committee on replacement ice opportunities including the establishment of a new ice pad, or expanded arena, within the Etobicoke York District.

On April 23rd and 24th 2025 City Council adopted Notice of Motion 2025.MM29.9 titled Working With MLSE Foundation to Explore Feasibility of Reimagining Weston Lions Arena. The motion recommendations directed staff to engage with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Foundation and stakeholders to explore the feasibility of reimagining Weston Lions Arena to better deliver high-quality and accessible sport and recreation opportunities.

In June 2025 news articles were published through major outlets which noted that the new plans may involve the removal of the existing ice pad, a community asset that has been in place since 1949. The Council motion did not contain this detail.

The loss of an indoor ice pad will have a significant ripple effect throughout the entire Etobicoke York District and beyond. Indoor ice pads serve a variety of hockey leagues, ringette leagues, figure skating, pleasure skating and sport fitness and skills development, and dry pad activities. These sports encompass children, seniors, boys and girls and men and women, and citizens of all backgrounds and economic statuses. The implication of reduced ice availability in the area limits opportunities, results in further travel, or may push available ice slots further into the evenings and nights, impacting youth.

Youth Hockey, among other sports, continues to see a surge in popularity, especially post-COVID. Some of this growth includes new demographics such as women, girls and newcomers. Ensuring opportunities exist to break into life-long sports such as hockey are vital to the support and preservation of this cultural treasure and Canada’s national winter sport.

The purpose of this motion is, in light of the potential loss of an indoor ice pad in the area, to request the General Manager, Parks and Recreation, to seek replacement ice opportunities in the district to make up for this loss, and to consider the impacts to the City’s parks facilities master plan, and access by citizens to indoor ice facilities.