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Starting in December, the city will be enforcing the use of recreation cards at ice arenas.
Since the program launched in September of this year, approximately 50 per cent of residents and 25 per cent of non-residents have acquired a card.
Deputy Commissioner Tim O’Reilly urges rink users to get theirs as soon as possible.
“We’re still issuing recreation cards to people who haven’t received one at our Adelaide Street location. We have offered convenient times, and we’re going to be offering four more evenings later in November for people to obtain recreation cards that haven’t yet,” he said.
Participants will have until December 6th to obtain a recreation card, with enforcement starting on December 9th.
The city says there will be no access without a card, and delayed access if forgotten.
Enforcement will include regular spot checks at each of the City’s four arenas.
The city plans on hiring outside contractors for the enforcement, instead of using city staff, citing a difference in job qualifications.
The decision came under fire during Monday night’s council meeting, prompting a lively argument between Councillor Greg Norton and city manager John Collin.
“We’re contracting out to essentially quasi-sheriff deputies to check membership cards at city owned arenas. I never recall ever going through hired guns to use a membership,” said Norton.
“Respectfully I have never suggested that. There is no intention for them to be quasi-military, quasi security, quasi- sheriff,” responded Collin.
Collin says they aren’t sure who the contracted employees will be, as they are still in deliberations.
O’Reilly says the process of implementing the cards has been a learning process for city staff, especially when it comes to communication.
“Question that needs to be asked obviously is why are those numbers low. One of the issues that we’ve been dealing with is some misinformation,” he said.
He says they’ve also run into an obstacle with Hockey NB, who made the decision to not provide players’ addresses, a crucial piece in enforcement of the cards.
Hockey NB says providing the information violates Hockey Canada’s privacy codes, but after reaching out to the national association, city staff says that’s not true.
O’Reilly says the recreation card program about fairness, not penalizing, and is part of an effort in pursuing regional agreement.
