Chatham arenas not renting to Windsor-essex residents

Windsor and Essex County residents looking for ice time in Chatham-kent are getting the cold shoulder from parks and recreation officials.

All but one municipal arena in Windsor-essex are temporarily closed, with the region in the red-control level of Ontario's COVID-19 response framework.

Chatham-kent remains in the yellow-protect level. Its arenas are open, but not to people from Windsor-essex despite “lots of inquiries,” said Jeff Bray, Chatham-kent's director of parks, recreation and cemeteries.

“This week, we haven't taken any bookings from a red zone,” Bray said. “People have asked, but we haven't given any.... We just say administration is considering how to move forward on this and we'll get back to you.”

All municipal arenas in Windsor closed for a two-week period when the region moved into the red-control level Monday. All Essex County municipal rinks, except for one ice pad in Tecumseh, are also closed until further notice.

Several minor hockey associations in Windsor-essex have banned all team activities while the arenas are closed, so their teams can't come to Chatham-kent even if they could book ice.

Don Shropshire, Chatham-kent's chief administrative officer, doesn't want to rent ice to Windsor-essex residents.

“We're going to investigate what options are available to us,” Shropshire said. “On the one hand, you can't restrict travel, but we're also not wanting to stand up and offer opportunities to promote people travelling, especially when they're coming from areas of a higher risk.”

Windsor-essex could soon move into the grey-lockdown stage, said Dr. David Colby, Chatham-kent's medical officer of health.

“The very purpose of imposing those restrictions is to bring those kinds of activities to a halt because of potential for transmission,” Colby said.

“It is completely wrong thinking of teams to think, ` Well, if we can't play here, we'll play somewhere else.'

“Those are residents in a red zone. They need to stop thinking about, `How can we keep doing what we want to do?' through some kind of loophole by moving to a different jurisdiction, but rather they should be thinking about how they can respect the lockdown and slow transmission in their communities.”

Some Windsor-essex residents could see the red level coming, so they called last week about ice, Bray said. One request came from a hockey academy. Most others were from individuals likely asking for their men's leagues, he said.

The Southpoint Minor Hockey Association normally rents more ice in Leamington than in Wheatley, but it called last week to book more time at Wheatley Area Arena, he said. The association paused its season Monday and isn't scheduled to resume until January.

“We have all our safety protocols in place, so anyone coming in, regardless if they're residents or from a red zone, have to follow our COVID safety protocols,” Bray said. “We're very strict. If we find people not adhering to them, they'll have their ice permits revoked.

“If we wanted to restrict bookings to municipal facilities from people coming in from a red or grey zone, that's a decision that would have to be made at an EMT (executive management team) and/or council level.”

Chatham-kent arenas currently allow 50 people inside: 25 on the ice and benches, 25 in the stands.