Hockey players and skaters around Regina may have noticed a brand new outdoor skating complex in Harbour Landing. Unfortunately for them, the rink is currently unusable with no timetable on when it will be opened.
The project by Dream Development, formerly Dundee Developments, includes a regulation-sized rink with composite boards, multiple gates and screens on all sides. There are two sets of basketball nets for use in the summer.
Then there’s the skate shack which is unlike any other in the city. Unlike the wooden sheds of old, this shack is the size of a medium-sized house. It has faux rock siding, wooden benches on the outside and a rubberized pathway to protect your skates. It seems like a skater’s outdoor paradise with everything a skater could want.
It’s only missing one thing: the ice.
Currently the rink’s concrete surface is covered with snow drifts nearly as high as the boards themselves. The zamboni doors are chained shut and the player gates are blocked by three-foot snowdrifts. It makes the rink almost unusable.
Thanks to a few residents, the gate has been dug out so that people can still squeeze in. For most, that gives them the opportunity to let their dogs run around off the leash.
Amanda Federink, a resident of the townhouses near the rink, takes her dog there often in the winter because of the enclosed space and lack of ice in the rink.
“If you’re going to put in a rink, you may as well utilize it,” Federink said. “There’s a shack and everything.” She explained that she and others use it as a place to let their dogs run around but that “it should be utilized for its actual purpose.” When asked if she knew who was in charge of the rink she replied by saying, “Not a clue.”
So who is in charge of maintaining the rink and courts?
Louise Folk, director of development services for the City of Regina, said the property is the “asset of the developer” and that the city is currently in the process of transferring the rink from Dream Development to the City of Regina. Folk also said the city is “hoping to have the space programmable as soon as it’s ready to be developed.” While she wasn’t able to give a timetable on when that might be, she did say that it was unlikely that the rink would be in use this season.
Dream Development was unable to give a comment as of press time.
“I think it was last night we were out here and a car pulled up and they got out and you could see sticks and skates. They looked inside and just turned away,” Federink recalls.
The new outdoor rink is set up to be a place for families and individuals alike to go out and enjoy the weather, no matter the season. For now, however, looking is the only thing residents can do.