A city committee has blocked a plan to have Toronto take the power to schedule ice time from eight community-run arenas.
Instead, the committee has recommended the city supervise the eight boards of management to make sure they adhere to Toronto's equity policy.
That was the upshot of a day-long public hearing on the issue, where hockey players and organizers, arena board members and even figure skaters weighed in with often emotional pleas to leave the control of scheduling ice in the hands of arena boards.
"It seems the boards are running quite well. They're not losing money. I don't see the problem," said Mara Matson, who plays hockey at the McCormick Arena in Parkdale, one of the eight board-run arenas in question.
"They're (city) just making a big mess out of a thing that's already working."
At issue was a complaint launched last year by the Leaside Girls Hockey Association that the North Toronto Memorial Arena was violating the city's equity policy by denying their members ice time.
The association's president, Ron Baker, said his league, with about 900 players, was being squeezed out in favour of adult leagues and players. He was one of the few voices at the meeting speaking in favour of the recommendations, which would have seen the city's parks department centralize the allocation of ice time.
"This is an equity issue," he said. "Regardless of the intent or the motivations on the board, the effect of their decision making is discriminatory, chronic and systemic, and it's not being fixed."
According to a report from parks staff, seven of eight of the privately managed arenas have failed to meet the city's own policy for equitably distributing ice time.
Those arenas, which are mostly in the older part of the city, allocate ice time independently of one another and the city, and staff argued the task of allocating ice fairly across a system that included city run arenas would be easier if it were operated centrally.
But on Wednesday, Feb. 3, board members of those arenas fired back.
Graham Lloyd, board member with the North Toronto Memorial Arena, said the complaint from the Leaside association was an anomaly and in fact ice was available for them in their community.
"This started with one group that got the ear of the media and got the mayor's office involved," he said. "They claimed they were discriminated against. But the facts are hidden."
Gordon Thompson, chair of the North Toronto Memorial Arena, said that if the league were thrown into a public system, "it is very likely they would lose ice time."
Committee member and Leaside area councillor John Parker moved a motion that created a compromise. Arena boards would continue to be able to allocate ice time, but they would do so under the supervision of city staff.
If that allocation didn't comply with Toronto's equity policies, then, and only then, staff would intervene.
"We have been presented with an extreme approach," he said. "Throw the system we have overboard with all the values and benefits that come with that system - scratch that off the list - throw it out the window and present a new centralized systems."
The matter will go to Toronto Council for further debate Feb. 22.