Grand River Mustangs want more equal access to ice time, call on township to revise policy
CBC
As women's hockey continues to gain popularity, one Wellington County association says they can't grow the game because they're not getting their fair share of ice time.
The Grand River Mustangs is an all-girls hockey club based out of Centre Wellington. The association was established in 2005 and will also rent ice in neighbouring Mapleton Township.
Club's president Dan Gillie says the Mustangs have struggled to get equal access to ice time when compared to leagues for male players and he says it's because of the township's allocation policies.
"I think because girls hockey is new and in some communities, it's not established," he explained. "They haven't established a history of ice contracts that they can count on year after year."
Right now, Mustangs teams take ice time when they can within Wellington County but that's often during undesirable times.
"Essentially in many places, we get the unrentable ice — the ice that they can't get rid of," Gillie said.
"If it's early in the evening, say 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., that means the parent is leaving work early. They're picking their kid up from school or from the bus stop. They're rushing to the arena and that fits with some people but it only fits with a certain socioeconomic group," he said.
"Some people can leave work early, some people are shift workers but some people don't have that luxury."
Jodi Colwill is the mother of two Mustangs players. She also has a son who plays in the area. She says from her perspective, she has seen a major discrepancy between her son and daughters' ice schedules.
"My son is a U15 hockey player. He has played in multiple associations, not one time has had at a 6 a.m. ice time, and my girls have regular 6 a.m. ice," Colwill said.
"My youngest is eight and my other one is 11. Our girls are exhausted. We're expecting them to go to hockey and go to school all day, disrupt their sleep schedule and the boys don't ever have to do it."
Centre Wellington owns and operates three ice pads including two at the Centre Wellington Sportsplex in Fergus and one at the Elora Community Centre.
The township has an ice allocation fact sheet on its website and it says the policy was developed "to ensure fair allocation of facility rental time."
"Ice allocation is fluid, which means that indoor facility time is continually allocated based on the needs of residents, community organizations and non-profit organizations," the fact sheet says.