Squamish Minor Hockey Association recently met with Jason Curtis of S2 Architecture, who provided a preliminary estimate of $20,000– $30,000 for a comprehensive feasibility study with a 3–6 month timeline.
This scope would include demand analysis, site and configuration options, cost modelling, and an implementation roadmap, all fully aligned with municipal best practices and already drafted in detail.
This raises a fundamental question: why would the District pursue a $1,000,000 internal study over three years when an industry-standard feasibility process can be completed by qualified professionals for a fraction of the cost and time? Unless the goal is to further postpone expansion, the proposed approach is extremely difficult for the community to understand or support.
The need for a fast, externally led feasibility study is not theoretical; it is driven by documented facility instability. Humidity inside the arena is consistently around 99%, causing ceiling drips and wet spectators, with fogged-out sightlines. Water dripped from rusted overhead beams, discolouring the ice and creating slipping hazards in the stands. The ongoing instability threatens programming and could result in costly shutdowns. Skate Sea2Sky already reported losses exceeding $30,000.
This is not an abstract planning exercise. It is a deteriorating, over-capacity municipal facility that is already failing, and community organizations are bearing both safety risks and financial consequences.
Senior Levels of Government Have Acknowledged the Crisis
Correspondence from federal and provincial offices repeatedly emphasizes the same themes: Squamish’s recreation infrastructure is inadequate for its population and growth projections. Lack of facility capacity undermines equitable access, youth sport participation, and community health outcomes.
Travel burdens placed on families due to insufficient local facilities are recognized as a provincial concern. Recreation infrastructure is a priority area under emerging federal funding streams such as the Build Communities Strong Fund. The District has been explicitly told by the Province that infrastructure planning must keep pace with population and housing growth, and that municipal processes must meaningfully incorporate community input.
Yet, despite a decade of known need, no expansion plan has advanced beyond conceptual discussions. The District’s new internal Recreation Centre Task Force emphasizes “validation” and “preliminary studies,” yet its scope appears to duplicate work already outlined and costed by external specialists.
The task force structure, internal, slow, and resource-heavy, does not reflect the severity of current facility failures, the urgency expressed by families, user groups, and senior governments, or the existence of a ready-to-execute feasibility framework from S2
If the District proceeds with a three-year study before even reaching feasibility conclusions, expansion will be pushed to the mid-2030s at best. For a community that has already waited more than a decade, and where the only ice surface is actively deteriorating, this is not acceptable. A
Path Forward That Respects the Community
With S2’s 3–6 month feasibility proposal in hand, we respectfully request that Council: 1. Direct staff to obtain external feasibility proposals, including the S2 estimate, for presentation to Council. 2. Explain the necessity and added value of the $1M/3-year internal task force, and how it does not duplicate work already priced and scoped externally. 3. Commit to an accelerated planning process, consistent with both the urgency of the facility issues and the expectations of senior governments who have acknowledged Squamish’s infrastructure deficit.
SMHA and the broader user-group community remain ready to collaborate with the District, contribute data, participate in feasibility work, and support grant readiness. But the community cannot support a process that, in effect, delays expansion for another generation. We urge Council to pursue a path that is cost-effective, timely, evidence-based, and aligned with the lived reality of families who depend on Brennan Park every day.
Leah Hodges is the president of Squamish Minor Hockey Association.
Has the oversized, bureaucratic and neo-liberal Squamish Council delivered a single decision that was timely, efficient, cost-effective, and/or aligned with the interests of the majority who voted them in?