Côte St. Luc Minor Hockey Association

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Residents are not prioritized over non-residents when it comes to who gets ice time at the Samuel Moskovitch Arena and the outdoor skating rink next to the arena, and such facilities as parks, Mayor Mitchell Brownstein told parents of members of the Côte St. Luc Minor Hockey Association (CSLMHA).

Numerous parents attended the April council meeting, and the Mayor asked that only three residents ask questions on the issue, similar to the question topic policy at agglomeration council meetings. He also expressed a preference for one spokesperson summarizing the issue. Some residents challenged this policy.

The issue of ice time has intensified so greatly, including a letter-writing campaign, that Côte St. Luc produced a YouTube video explaining the city’s perspective (www.youtube.com/watch?v=stOE6CdszzI&t=84s), and Councillor Mike Cohen wrote a lengthy blog post at www.mikecohen.ca.

Parents explained to The Suburban that CSLMHA rents ice time from the city, the program has grown over the years, and that there is not enough ice time for the young players. Two teams need to be on the ice for practice rather than one. The parents have asked the city for more ice time and were refused.

CSLMHA, those engaged in figure skating and Youth Hockey (made up of adults) all want ice time at the arena. CSLHMA parents are asking for their fair share, not more or less, we were told. They say that because CSLMHA players represent a much higher proportion of CSL residents than figure skating (60 percent residents) and Youth Hockey (estimated at 35 percent residents), they should get a higher priority on the number of hours and ice team because the CSLMHA is serving more of the local community.

“But the city doesn’t seem to want to do that,” a parent said.

Resident Moe Liebman addressed council during the meeting, saying non-residents were receiving the same or higher priority than residents for ice time. Brownstein said the CSLMHA is an independent program, and the city prioritizes residents for registration in city-run programs.

For ice time, “we try to be fair across the board for all our programs, whether it’s figure skating, skating, free skate,” the Mayor added. “With the limited resources, we try to do our best to make everybody happy. But we as a council only create the policy and that is how we function, so our policy is to try your best to make sure that every organization…gets what they need.”

And when it comes to residents and non-residents and ice time, Brownstein said “every person is important. In CSL, everyone is welcome, whether you’re a resident or non-resident. We do not distinguish between the two. We hope [non-residents] will move to CSL if they like the facilities. We’re not going to start counting how many residents and non-residents are in each one of our programs. We don’t do it, we’re not changing our philosophy.”

Liebman countered that CSLers pay taxes to maintain local facilities.”I’m not going to get into it,” Brownstein responded. “That is our policy. We don’t tell [non-residents] not to use our parks or drive on our streets. We’re not going to change the policy, even if you pay taxes and they don’t. Sorry, that’s the policy for everything throughout the city and it will not change….We’re all human beings. That’s my policy. That’s our policy. We treat everybody the same.”

Liebman told The Suburban that he felt Brownstein’s response was “ridiculous and unfair. People are living in CSL to be able to make use of CSL facilities.”

Resident Allon Pollak told us, “I was surprised to hear what the Mayor said, in terms of allocation of ice time, that they don’t consider that a resident should have preferential access over a non-citizen. I’m going to look into whether this is the case in every other municipality on the island and in Quebec. It doesn’t make a ton of sense.” n