Committee struck to work on solution to ice-time shortage in Moosomin
Possibility of a second rink being explored
January 26, 2026, 9:04 am
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A committee has been struck to work on a solution to a lack of ice time in Moosomin, including exploring the possibility of where and how to build a second rink in Moosomin as one of the potential solutions.
Rec Director Mike Schwean says the issue of a lack of ice time has snowballed to the point where almost all of the town’s minor hockey, rec hockey and the senior hockey team are practicing out of town at least once a week, often at inconvenient times.
“For years it has just snowballed and snowballed, and our ice has seen more and more demand,” he says. “We’ve found with all our rec facilities, as the community grows, all of our facilities are maxxed, but with the ice rink you are kind of are shoehorned into what you can do. More ice seems the logical option.
“We have 15 minor hockey teams and then the Senior Rangers and Steelhawks, and a thriving figure skating club and five rec teams, so there is just not enough ice for everyone.”
Schwean says not only are teams being forced to practice out of town, but when they do practice in town, it’s often not ideal times.
“When practicing in town it is often with combined practices, leading to either a split ice surface, or massive player numbers on the ice for one big practice making it close to unmanageable,” he says. “It is not optimal for a whole season.”
He said the other issue is, due to a lack of ice time, the practice times are often not ideal.
“We do have teams that skate in the morning, but it’s not that easy when half of your team is rural kids that live out of town when your practice is at seven in the morning, so it’s just not that easy. Even when these teams are going out of town, I think they are finding a lot of the times they are getting out of town aren’t really matching up well with the age group because other communities’ rinks are busy as well and they need to look after their own residents first. It’s tough for them to go out of town and practice at eight and nine o’clock on school nights.
“There’s no other way to cut it, it’s just ice shortage.”
A few years ago, the town received funding for a feasibility study to look at what it would cost to build a new, large arena that included a fieldhouse, curling arena, and the existing Mike Schwean Arena retained as a second ice surface. The estimated cost of that project at that time was $60 million.
While Schwean says a new multiplex could be a long-term goal for the town, a committee has been struck to look at what the town can do in the short term to create more ice time. He said one of the options the committee will explore is how and where a second, simpler indoor rink could be built at a much lower cost than a large multiplex project.
“We all agree there is a shortage of ice and talked about ways of funding a second arena, which was primary. We also talked a little bit about design, but design more in terms of how it equates to cost. So, it was more about funding—how do we fund it, how do we go forward.
“Our goal is to fund the capital expenditure with no tax dollars. There were some great discussion. For one meeting we certainly have legitimate ideas that we can go forward with.”
The committee set up to tackle the issue includes Schwean, Mayor Murray Gray, MLA Kevin Weedmark, Kristjan Hebert, Dan and Olga McCarthy, Todd Davidson, and Dale Nixon.
“They all bring their own high level of expertise and have ties to the project and community,” says Schwean.
Schwean says the group is looking to solve the issue in under five years.
“We see the urgency, so the sooner the better,” he says. “Hopefully it can be done within five years, but we need to set goals and our goal is to be quicker than that.”
He says if a second rink does become a reality, it would solve the town’s ice time issues.
“I am comfortable saying with a second ice surface we would be to serve the community at an appropriate level. It’s not just about fitting everybody in, but it’s also about giving everybody appropriate times, so we don’t have U18s going on the ice at 10 at night and we don’t have rec guys that have to work going on at 10:30 pm, getting off at midnight and having to go to work the next morning. We would be able to fit everybody in and for the most part give everybody more appropriate times.
“Right now when school is out we have no public skating or shinny unless something gets cancelled, so that is something we would like to have in town as well, the opportunity for everyone to go out and skate a little bit.
“I think with two rinks we certainly would use all the time up, but I think that would fix all our ice problems.”
Schwean says while a new rink is front and center, Parks and Rec also have plans for a facelift of the Mike Schwean Arena along with early fundraising ideas to cover those expenses.
“We envision two fantastic facilities the community can be proud that also allow us the ability to run events which equates to millions in economic return for Moosomin,” he says.
What is the next step now that the first meeting has been held?
“We have people on our committee that we designated tasks,” he says.
“Everyone brings their expertise and they are doing some of the behind the scenes stuff, and then we will meet again in a month or so and see where we are at and see where things progress. Nothing is ever certain, but hopefully we can announce plans this spring. Our target goal is to better serve the community, provide more ice and more appropriate ice times, to provide even more economic return to the community and to get this built with no tax dollars. It is a lofty goal, but this is a fantastic core committee and when an announcement is made I think the community will like what they hear.”
