Strike/Town of Oakville arena closure, News (Oakville Rangers Hockey Club)

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Nov 02, 2023 | Zoe Lachapelle | 11545 views
Strike/Town of Oakville arena closure
Greetings Rangers,   CUPE 136 is now on strike. This means that Maplegrove, Joshua's Creek, River Oaks, Glen Abbey, Sixteen Mile, Kinoak and Trafalgar Park are currently closed. The duration of the labour disruption is unknown but we are hopeful that it will not be long.  

 

Greetings Rangers,

 

CUPE 136 is now on strike. This means that Maplegrove, Joshua's Creek, River Oaks, Glen Abbey, Sixteen Mile, Kinoak and Trafalgar Park are currently closed. The duration of the labour disruption is unknown but we are hopeful that it will not be long.

 

Obviously, this is very disappointing and disruptive news for all Oakville ice users.

 

As a result of the arena closures, we have had to make some initial tough but logic-driven choices. These choices may change with time but below please find our initial plans for the next 7-10 days.

 

  1. All HL programming is postponed. The logic behind this decision is that we are able to extend the HL season into April to ensure that HL participants get the experience and ice time that they paid for. As well, there simply is not enough private ice available to play all HL games even if we wanted to. If the strike drags on, we may have to explore other options such as credits and refunds but for now, the HL season is simply paused.
  2. We will use all available private ice (and possibly ice in other municipalities) to try to accommodate Rep home games and Advanced House League home games. The logic behind this decision is that we are unable to extend the Rep or Advanced House League seasons due to OMHA/OHF/Tri-County/SCTA/MHL deadlines. As well, we can likely fit in most Rep and Advanced House League home games on private ice. Additionally, Rep and Advanced House League teams are used to playing on different days, at different times and at different arenas. Finally, Rep and Advanced House League teams are assessed their fees based on actual ice usage and ice costs vs. the HL flat rate which gives the club greater flexibility.
  3. All Rep practices provided by the club are cancelled. The logic behind this decision is that we need to create room for Rep and Advanced House League home games per the priority above. If your Rep or HL team has contracted private ice for practices, those events are not impacted.

We recognize that the logic-driven choices/priorities outlined above will not make everyone happy and we apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

 

We encourage all teams to continue to get together either for a team bonding pizza/movie night/Leaf game viewing, dryland training, street hockey or even renting a school gym to go over powerplays and breakouts.

 

More detailed email correspondence has been or will shortly be sent from the VPs of HL (for HL participants) and the VPs of Rep (for Rep participants) so please keep an eye on your Inbox.

 

As always, we want to thank you for being Rangers. We know that you have a choice every year on what to do with 3 of your most important priorities – those are your children, your time and your hard-earned money – and we are very appreciative that you have chosen to make the Oakville Rangers part of your lives. We will be back at it as soon as possible.

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me directly.

 

 

John Verdon

Oakville Rangers Hockey Club - President

 

 

Press Release from Town of Oakville

 

https://www.oakville.ca/town-hall/labour-relations-update/

 

 

 

 

 
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