Bancroft’s Mayor Paul Jenkins has said that due to factors such as a maintenance and repair, inflation and changing demographics, the arena has been operating at a significant loss for years.
In 2022, The Town of Bancroft took over responsibility for North Hastings Community Centre, prior to that the town owned the building, but did not have authority over it. It was instead run by a commission, of which surrounding municipalities paid a yearly amount, based on their population base.
While municipalities have offered to match the contribution they made when the board was run by a commission, according to Jenkins, this does not come close enough to covering the operating costs of the rink today.
“Municipalities need to come to the table to look at this in detail” said Jenkins, “because the alternative is, we’re going to lose the ice surface”
The town is now collecting operating and user data to determine the percentage of users from various municipalities. A report will be issued in the spring.
The Town then hopes to sit down with area municipalities to come up with a more sustainable model for the rink.
