An article in the Gazette the morning after the August 11 town council meeting [LINK] failed to mention that over 40 letters in support of the project were tabled (and many more have been received since) against less than a dozen in opposition and that a record number of residents were present to speak for the venture. We need to emphasise that this is on no way a commercial venture and that the objective of the recent letter to residents was simply a feeler to test the level of support before proceeding with a business plan and detailed costing. It may well never be built but the idea has merit – what’s wrong with looking at the pros and cons?
A few voices were raised in opposition – that’s to be expected – and questions were asked as to just “who are Team Ice?”. That’s easy to answer – Team Ice is comprised of those citizens who believe this is a project worth looking into. There is no formal membership and nobody pays dues to be associated with us – all we ask is that anyone interested in following the discussion let us have your contact details so that we can keep you informed about what is happening. Just email us at teamiceequipeglace@gmail.com or use the form on this site’s contact page and we will add you to our mailing list.
Team Ice - Équipe glace - Baie D'Urfé 
Judging by the number of emails based on the template referred to by this Webpage and sent to Baie d’Urfe’s Mayor and Town Councilors, the proposal of equipping our town with refrigerated skating facilities is supported by a sizable number of citizens. The agendas for the council meetings of 11 August and 8 September show that the Town has by now received 55 such emails, signed by 67 citizens.
I am convinced that the artificial ice will contribute significantly to enhancing the quality of life in our town and is not the unnecessary extravagance as which opponents like to portray it. Many of us must have skated or taken their children or grandchildren skating on the artificial ice in front of the Beaver-Lake chalet. But not everyone may be aware that the half-dozen hockey rinks built since 2008 in less-privileged neighborhoods, with financing from the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation in the framework of Canadian Tire’s BLEU BLANC BOUGE program, are all refrigerated.
Many towns in the Alps (some with a population much smaller than Baie d’Urfe’s) have in recent years installed refrigerated outdoor rinks, essentially in response to the threat of global warming to their attractiveness as resorts. Unlike these towns, our town does not depend on tourists for its survival, but I would argue that without adequate recreation opportunities for people of all ages we are losing Baie d’Urfe’s attractiveness as a place in which to live and raise a family. The link between a town’s appeal and the preservation of its property values should be evident even to those interested more in low taxes and the accumulation of impressive municipal surpluses than in the quality of public skating facilities.
We must bear in mind though that planning, designing and building the necessary infrastructure will take some time, and I therefore propose that, so as to rapidly achieve a good measure of progress, the initial realization be limited to building the chalet to its definitive design (including provisions to accommodate refrigeration equipment), laying out the rink and free-skating area in their definitive positions, and operating them with natural ice. The proposed initial phase will be difficult and time-consuming enough. Where would the facilities be located? Could some of the necessary features, the parking area and the washrooms for example, be shared with other activities? If the Town has undertaken a comprehensive assessment of its citizens’ recreation needs and developed a plan to meet them, I’m not aware of it.
With winter approaching, I’m afraid we will be stuck with spending another season using (or staying away from) the since 2007 temporary, pitiful arrangement at Berthold Park. To make skating in Baie d’Urfe again an activity enjoyable by all, in the short run the most obvious and simplest way by far, at no extra cost to boot, would be to reactivate the warm-up room integrated expressly for the skaters in the Aquatic Club’s building, set up the hockey rink on the tennis courts (as was the practice in past winters until not too long ago) and flood what remains of Churchill Park for free skating. Indeed, it is difficult to understand why skating was shifted from the Coop area to Berthold Park eight years ago.
Paul Egli
65 St. Andrews, BD
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Thanks Paul
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