Women hockey players put heat on Kenora, Ont., for earlier ice times, fearing leagues may fold
CBC
Female hockey players are demanding the City of Kenora change its ice allocation policy to make the sport more accessible to them.
The northwestern Ontario city has recreational and competitive women's leagues. Players say they've been fighting for years for ice times that meet their busy schedules.
The city's updated ice allocation policy, approved by council in December, has pushed the women's ice times back to 10 p.m. The leagues say that may force them to fold.
"We're looking to access ice time that's accessible for working moms," hockey player Jill Hager told CBC News.
"We all know how challenging it can be, that work-life balance. There's tons of research about women in sports and the barriers that women face when they're trying to access recreation."
A national study on sport participation among Canadian girls shows one in three girls quit sports by their late teens. Kenora's women's hockey leagues are trying to create spaces for women to stay active throughout adulthood, Hager said.
"We are busy women. We are exhausted at the end of the day. The evidence supports that women still do more household chores, child rearing, volunteer work in our communities and coaching our children," Hager said during a deputation to city council earlier this month.
"We are tired of advocating year over year for fair and equitable ice time. We are done," she continued. "Once our leagues are gone, there will be no place for our daughters or sisters to play."
The City of Kenora has two indoor rinks.
Heather Pihulak, the city's director of corporate services and clerk, told CBC News in an email that changes to the ice allocation policy affected all adult groups, not just the women's leagues.
"As approved by council, the policy prioritizes all youth over all adult groups — period. This means that any ice time requests that were not youth were given the next time slot after prime ice time and did in fact push all adult leagues to later times because the youth requests filled the prime ice times," Pihulak wrote.
Any adult groups' requests for prime ice time from Monday to Thursday — between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. — that could not be fulfilled "were offered alternative times within [the] prime time hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in addition to after 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday," she said.
Players from the women's leagues say the addition of the Kenora Islanders Jr. A Hockey Club in the community affected the new ice allocation policy.
The team, which includes players ages 17 through 21, is part of the Superior International Junior Hockey League. In April 2023, the city denied the Islanders' ice time request, but accommodated the team later in the year.
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