Kamloops Memorial Arena on Victoria Street.

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Ice at the Memorial Arena, beside the Kamloops Curling Club, is scheduled to be removed for all of February and March so it can be used as dry space for the national women's curling tournament, according to an email from City staff to the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association.

"I thought, 'Holy smokes, not again," association president Nathan Bosa said. 

He said Kamloops is already crunched for ice space and the surprise email came just three weeks after regional hockey associations organized ice time for practices, games and tournaments.

"It can't happen. We can't replace that time. We've got hundreds of hours just gone," he said. "Who made that decision and how can they justify it?"

Curling Canada will use the space until the end of the tournament, but plans to completely moved out of the arena immediately after. The tournament lasts for less than two weeks.

The Memorial Arena wasn't used for hockey last year after the City extended a B.C. Housing shelter lease indefinitely in lieu of other shelter options.

Bosa is worried because hockey parents are already frustrated after ice time issues last year, being forced to travel to other communities more often. The association also has tournaments and league finals booked for the downtown arena, with very few options elsewhere in the region.

"As you know we are hosting the Scotties Curling Tournament here in Kamloops February 2023... To host this event they will be removing the ice from the arena so it becomes a dry floor. Unfortunately, we will be cancelling all bookings at Memorial. At this time we are not able to transfer your bookings to other arenas as they are completely full," an email from City staff to the hockey association reads.

All ice times in February and March at the arena will be cancelled to make way for the Scotties Patch fan zone, Bosa said.

City tournament and events supervisor Sean Smith is named in the email. He told iNFOnews.ca he could not comment and he's "still working on solutions."

The Sandman Centre will host the Scotties Tournament of Hearts from Feb. 17 to Feb. 26, 2023. Curling Canada announced the Tournament Capital won the bid in January this year.

A Curling Canada spokesperson said all equipment from the Scotties Patch will be cleared out on the day after the tournament.

"This year we were told it was open, so we booked everything we could. Now we can't even rebook anywhere," Bosa said, confused as to why this wasn't planned earlier.

The minor hockey association is one of a many organizations that use the ice space throughout the year, but there's also adult leagues and figure skaters that book time there.

"That's the problem we face in this city. We don't have a lot of facilities. We need more ice rinks," Rob Nordin of the Kamloops Curling Club said when asked about the plans for Memorial Arena.

While he was aware of the plan to take out the ice, he was confused about why two months of ice time would be lost for a nine-day tournament.

Bosa echoed Nordin's concerns for the lack of ice space in Kamloops. He added that the lack isn't limited to ice space, since the beer garden wouldn't be restricted to a dry floor arena if there were other nearby facilities.

Despite the clear message in the City email that there were no other options, Smith's response seems to indicate there may be other plans.

Mayor-elect Reid Hamer-Jackson, however, assured that he would work to find a suitable alternative once he's assumed office in November.

"I feel (the City) has to find whatever other space it can for the beer gardens," he said. "The good thing is when we get in there we can have a real good look at that and make some changes with my new team."

The City has new ice sheets slated in its recreation master plan, but no new budget items or official plans have been decided yet.

— This story was updated at 3:03 p.m., Oct. 21, 2022, to clarify that Curling Canada plans to use the arena for only the duration of the tournament, plus one day to clean and vacate the building.

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