A group of representatives for youth sports is demanding lower rates for the city’s facilities.
David Melanson, of the Moncton Youth Arena Stakeholders, believes investing in youth sports is essential.
“I always say its win-win, and we see a lot of people that are in our correctional system which is tragic. I am a firm believer that if a lot of those people would have played sports, they wouldn’t be there,”
According to the Atlantic Hockey Group has stated that Moncton has the highest hourly ice rates in Atlantic Canada.
“Our operating budget was 50 grand, and the way we did that to not cost parents an arm and a leg from the get-go, we would ask 2 thousand dollar and the rest was fundraised,” Melanson says.
He says in previous year teams would raise funds by holding bottle drives but fears the pandemic won’t allow them to do so this year.
“We can’t be sending kids door-to-door doing bottle drive, I don’t think Hockey Canada will sanction that kind of activity, for safety reasons. So again, lots of opportunities to raise money are not going to be there this year,” he says.
The city has agreed to look into options to help relieve some of the financial burden.
