Ted Reeve Community Arena sticks with decision to keep ice in main rink all year
By ALAN SHACKLETON
The Ted Reeve Community Arena Board of Management voted to stick with its decision of Dec. 2, 2025, to keep ice in the main rink during the spring and summer at its meeting last night.
By a vote of 5-4, the nine-member board decided that it would not reopen that decision.
Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford, a board member who was not at the Dec. 2 meeting, had made a motion under new business at the Jan. 13 arena board meeting that the earlier decision be set aside and reconsidered and put to a vote again at the next meeting of the board in February. At the Dec. 2 meeting, the board voted 6-1 to keep the ice in at the main rink during the late spring and summer months.
In response to the Dec. 2 decision, the Toronto Beaches Lacrosse Club started a petition calling for it to be reversed as it would have a profound impact on the club’s ability to offer a local box lacrosse program this coming season.
For the past three decades, the Beaches Lacrosse Club has been using the main rink at Ted Reeve during the spring and into July for box lacrosse. The club has also used the Ted Reeve Bubble pad for its activities during those months. Use of the bubble at Ted Reeve is continued to be available to the lacrosse club this coming spring and summer as part of the arena board’s Dec. 2 decision.
However, three speakers addressed the Jan. 13 board meeting asking for the earlier decision to be reversed due to its impact on the lacrosse club. They spoke about the popularity of the sport, the number of young people who are members of the club and the long relationship the Beaches Lacrosse Club, which is a community non-profit youth sports organization, has had with Ted Reeve Community Arena.
In past years the Toronto Beaches Junior A Lacrosse team has also used the main rink at Ted Reeve for its games in the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League (OJLL). The Junior A team is a private business and not directly affiliated with the Beaches Lacrosse Club. The Junior A team has announced it will now be playing its OJLL games at nearby Scarborough Arena Gardens, at Birchmount and Kingston roads.
In making his motion under new business to reopen the discussion on the summer ice in the main rink and to move a decision on it until the February board meeting, Bradford said concerns about the “process” surrounding the Dec. 2 meeting and what would and would not be discussed at it had been raised.
“We’ve all heard a lot about this, my office has heard a lot about this…we’ve seen a lot of commentary on social media,” he said.
“Look, I don’t believe anybody here signed up to be on the arena board for any other reason than to serve their community and we all have an attachment to this place regardless of the activities or sports your kids are in…From my perspective we have some challenges around process of this. I was not at the meeting (Dec. 2) but my understanding is that the way this was brought forward was under new business and it probably could have been done differently.”
Bradford said he (and his office) was under the impression that a decision on whether the ice would remain in at the main rink during the spring and summer was not going to be discussed at the Dec. 2 meeting.
“I appreciate Mr. Chair’s (arena board chair Iain McLeod) characterization in the email correspondence that this was an operational matter. But I would say, in my view, when we make a decision about if we’re keeping ice or not keeping ice in a space that dictates space allocation,” he said.
“What I’m trying to do here, and the board may decide next meeting to be in the exact same position and take the exact same position, and move forward as you did at the Dec. 2 meeting. That’s the prerogative of the board….or you might say let’s revisit this next year. But let’s make sure we are crossing the Ts and dotting the Is from a procedural perspective.”
Bradford said that while he was “not suggesting anyone was intentionally misled there was a communication breakdown about what was going to be discussed” at the Dec. 2 meeting.
“I want to take the temperature down on this, not that anyone’s intentionally trying to turn it up, but we’re all passionate people myself included,” he said. “I offer that motion in an effort to try and find us a pathway here.”
Bradford suggested a well-advertised board meeting on Feb. 10 with communication to all the arena’s stakeholders in advance of making a decision on keeping the ice in at the main rink all year was such a pathway.
In discussion on Bradford’s motion, McLeod said that under city procedural rules the matter had already been decided by a 6-1 vote at the Dec. 2 meeting and it did not need to be reopened. “It’s considered a settled action.”
The board then voted on whether to accept Bradford’s motion and it was defeated 5-4. Voting against the motion were Iain McLeod, Paul Casey, Adrianne Johnstone, Jonathan O’Keefe, and Jay McDonald. Voting in favour of the motion were Bradford, Edna Chua, Eric Shuel and Amanda Rachmet.
This is an ongoing story and Beach Metro Community News will continue to cover it online on our website and in upcoming print issues of our newspaper.
