EDITORIAL – The new skating pond: there’s more to life than the basics

(Video: Mel Rothenburger)

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE NEW SKATING ‘facility’ — it’s not exactly a rink; it’s more than a pond — was very busy down at Riverside Park today. It’s hard to estimate a crowd when everyone is swirling and whirling around and around, but there were certainly more than 200 people there at the time I checked in shortly after lunch.

Obviously, this new amenity is a major hit. Maybe the shine will wear off but those who predicted nobody would use the thing are way off base. It’s a true family facility. Moms, dads and kids were coming and going, toting their skates in cloth grocery bags, enjoying a pleasant winter’s day.

Some of the skaters were accomplished at this, Canada’s great pastime, racing around the loop like pros. Others, especially the little gaffers in their helmets, couldn’t skate worth a damn but they were having a good time anyway. That’s a great thing about this new ice surface — a lot of youngsters, and adults, who have never had the opportunity or inclination to lace up a pair of skates, are doing it now.

A lot of people think what some refer to as “Nancy’s rink” isn’t worth the $7 million cost. The money would be better spent on more social services and shelters for the homeless, they say. I have two things to say about that.

Life is about so much more than the essentials. People complain about there being “nothing to do” in the Tournament Capital but when community leaders provide more “something to do,” they complain again, about spending money.

Remember the old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? A healthy community is an active community, one that looks after itself beyond the fundamentals. It gives itself “things to do,” whether it be sports, recreation, cultural enrichment or passive entertainment. One can easily argue that such things are every bit as essential as social services.

And I harken once again to an example I’ve often used in the past. If you no longer attend the public school system, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay school taxes. We have a collective responsibility to look out for each other. So if you don’t go to school, or if you don’t swim at the Tournament Capital Centre or play at the McArthur Island Sports and Events Centre, you aren’t absolved of that responsibility.

As for spending the money, some have pointed out that while the capital cost of Nancy’s Rink was paid for with provincial money, there’s only one taxpayer. In other words, it comes from us regardless of whether it’s local property taxes or funding from some other level of government.

That’s true, but there’s a big difference between splitting the cost among local taxpayers versus splitting it among all taxpayers in the province or the country. It’s called getting our fair share of our own money instead of it all going to communities somewhere else.

I don’t know for certain whether the new outdoor skating patch will continue to enjoy the level of usage it’s getting in its early days, and maybe the money could have gone to some other bricks and mortar project. But I think the critics will be proven wrong.

I think it will endure as a feature other communities will wish they have.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.