Bylaw passed to advance Sportsplex arena upgrades
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Brandon City Council passed a bylaw Monday evening that will allow the city to borrow $3.5 million for arena upgrades, and to replace the ice plant at the Brandon Community Sportsplex.
The ice rink has been closed since March 2023 because of safety concerns over the ice plant’s potential ammonia leaks, which can be fatal under certain circumstances.
City councillors passed third reading of the bylaw to borrow the funds, a move that has been approved by Manitoba’s Municipal Board. That was a necessary step because the amount was not in the city’s 2024 budget.
The arena at the Brandon Community Sportsplex on Knowlton Drive. (The Brandon Sun files)
The total cost for the new ice plant and upgrades at the Sportsplex are projected to be $6,061,200, Coun. Bruce Leubke (Ward 6) told the Sun on Tuesday.
According to the City of Brandon website, $3.9 million has already been secured from the province’s Strategic Infrastructure Funding. If necessary, additional funding could come from the Sportsplex reserve, which is $700,000, as the Sun reported earlier.
Mayor Jeff Fawcett told the Sun, “We are approved to borrow $3.5 million, and should need to borrow $2.7 million,” adding the city will borrow from a bank at the best rate.
“It will be a debenture,” Fawcett said, which is a type of long-term debt instrument not secured by any collateral.
After public consultations over the future of the Sportsplex that happened in July 2024, council ultimately decided to replace rather than repair the ice plant as the existing plant’s exemption from provincial safety requirements is scheduled to expire in September 2025.
It was later determined that the concrete pad the ice surface sits on, the cooling lines beneath it and the facility’s ventilation system needed to be replaced as well, because they no longer met current building codes.
The city said it was also looking to install new dasher boards and complete interior painting, with a target date for all the upgrades to be completed by late 2025.
During Monday evening’s council meeting, Fawcett asked Patrick Pulak, the city’s general manager of operations, if the timeline for upgrades was still accurate.
“Yes,” said Pulak. “The last update I received, we’re still with the goal of opening in September (2025), but working with hockey associations like Brandon hockey, I think they’re aiming for a date of January where they will start booking ice time, and if they get done earlier, bonus.”
» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com
» X: @enviromichele