Almost a year and a half ago, on March 17th 2024, the Kitimat Ice Rink was hit with quite a bit of damage by a fire that was later believed to have been caused by an electrical issue.
And after spending about a year working out details with an insurance company and selecting a contractor to do the repairs, the work to make the rink usable again finally began recently.
But repairs aren’t the only things that will be done as part of this project.
“But also including in there is a complete cleaning of the facility to ensure that there is no leftover material from the fire left in the facility such as soot and ash, there’s going to be a complete painting of the facility, we’re replacing all the lights, the ice lights, we are also replacing all the boards and the flooring within the facility so that when people come to the facility, they’ll see not a brand new arena but a refurbished arena.” - District of Kitimat Director of Leisure Services Martin Gould
Technicon Industries was the contractor who was selected to do the repairs as well as the upgrades to the rink.
They started their work on about the first of June and Kitimat’s Director of Leisure Services provided an update on how they are progressing to this point.
“They’re doing the final survey of what they need to do and starting to put things in process or in place for the first part of the repairs, which is removal of the boards and the ice boards, removal of any damaged wood, things like that from the fire, other materials and then they will be doing a complete cleaning of the facility before they start any painting and so forth” - District of Kitimat Director of Leisure Services Martin Gould
Ultimately, the expectation is that the rink will be open for the public to use by the 2026 Fall Season.