KENORA – Women’s hockey took a big hit this summer when the city on Lake of the Woods allocated ice time at its indoor rinks, according to Jill Hager.
The two women’s leagues – one competitive, one recreational – in Kenora have been relegated to 10-11 p.m. ice time instead of the 9-10 and 9:30-10:30 slots of the last few years.
That has “negative implications” for women’s hockey in the city, Hager told Kenora council last week.
In fact, she said, it amounts to “moving backwards” and the “marginalization of women in sport.”
Coun. Lindsay Koch said she will present a notice of motion at the next city council meeting to seek a review of the ice-time allocation policy.
The women’s leagues will meet with Koch this week on the matter “and so hopefully we can come to some solutions,” Hager said Tuesday in an interview with Newswatch.
“We’ve never asked for anything earlier than 9 p.m.,” she said.
“I mean, we understand our youth obviously take priority (for earlier ice time).
“We’re just looking for something that can help us balance family life and being able to participate in recreation at a time where we can still get up the next day and make those school lunches and go to our jobs and do all those things with more than maybe five hours of sleep.”
The 10-11 p.m. hour is a step backwards to a time when women’s hockey in Kenora saw participation plummet due to late ice times that were incompatible with players’ family and work lives, she said.
The new schedule followed a new city policy, published in June, that touts both “equitable allocation” and a “Podium Pathway” principle of “developing high performance athletes capable of winning at the highest levels.”
While the women’s competitive league includes “some folks that have played higher levels of hockey” in the past, Hager said, “we’re certainly not describing ourselves as elite athletes” in the Podium Pathway mode.
She added that another factor is that the Islanders junior team, which had its first season in 2023-2024, is making ice time even more scarce for non-elite adult hockey.
“That’s had a trickle-down effect” impacting women’s teams and men’s recreational teams, she said.
She’s quick to add that she supports Kenora having the Islanders.
“We want (junior hockey players) in our community,” she said. “But why would someone choose our community if they don’t have a recreational outlet?”
