The fate of the Northern Hockey School and their Celebrity Hockey game was debated at last night’s Smithers council meeting, where council mulled the idea of cutting summer ice time.
The hockey school is looking at year over year increases to run their program with summer ice fees in town, and are looking for a quote from the town before planning the summer event.
Councillor Frank Wray says the town can’t be in the business of subsidizing summer ice hockey.
Councillor Phil Brienesse also said the 50 per cent subsidy offered to hockey groups that use the two arenas is enough already. He says any more will make it unfair to those tax payers that don’t participate in hockey, or use ice time.
To save the long time game and summer ice in town, Councillor Bill Goodacre wants council to negotiate with the group. He says eliminating summer ice time is a downward spiral regarding the function and purpose of the two arenas.
Mayor Taylor Bachrach says they’ll need more information before any decisions are made.
“Because of postponement, we’ll pick up where we left off and continue talking about it at our next(finance)meeting.”