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Halifax Hawks: Replacement Ice Must Be in Place Before the Forum Closes
With costs past $126 million and zero new ice surfaces, association says the Forum pause is Halifax's chance to get more ice for its money

HALIFAX, September 29, 2026. As Halifax Regional Council meets today, the Halifax Hawks Minor Hockey Association is calling on council to use the pause on the Halifax Forum redevelopment to secure more ice for the city's young athletes, and to guarantee that replacement ice is built and operating before a single Forum surface is taken away.

City staff paused the Forum's heritage demolition application on Friday after projected costs climbed beyond what council had approved. The project now exceeds $126 million, and the mayor's office has said it would take two ice surfaces offline for around four years only to end with the same number of pads it started with.

"This pause is an opportunity, and we want to see it used well," said Matt Fredericks, President of the Halifax Hawks. "For this kind of money, Halifax should be getting more ice, not the same ice four years later. And whatever council decides, new ice has to be in place before the Forum closes. We are not here to fight about a building. We are here because thousands of kids across hockey, ringette, figure skating and speed skating share the same ice, and there isn't enough of it."

The shortage is documented in the city's own reports

The city's April 2026 staff report found that Halifax is already short 136 hours of prime time ice every week, equal to the youth prime time capacity of about three arenas. The same report estimates that roughly four additional ice surfaces are needed just to keep pace with population growth since 2017. Only one new pad, in Spryfield, is currently under study.

The report also shows figure skating short 25 to 30 percent of the ice it requires, with more than 460 participants on waitlists in 2025, after growing 38.6 percent since 2017/18. It notes that the fair play formula for figure skating is outdated. The Hawks point out that this is a sport made up largely of girls and women, and it is the one the current system serves worst.

The report further acknowledges that the city's 2012 Long Term Arena Strategy and 2017 Indoor Ice Surfaces Review concluded no new ice was needed, based on the fact that requested bookings were being met, and that this approach lacked real demand analysis. The Hawks are urging council not to repeat that mistake a third time, especially while committing the largest recreation investment in the city's history. A system this far behind, they say, cannot absorb the loss of two surfaces. New ice must be in place first.

Why 5 Short understates the problem

Removing the Forum and Civic's two surfaces without a replacement would take Halifax from three arenas short to five, the basis for the Hawks' 5 Short campaign. But the association stresses that 5 Short is the conservative figure. It only counts ice that was formally requested and not provided.

It does not count the teams that cannot find practice ice to buy at any hour, or the families who have stopped asking because they already know the answer. Hawks teams have driven an hour each way on Sunday nights to share ice in West Hants because nothing in the city was available. University rinks at Saint Mary's and Dalhousie serve their varsity programs first and cannot be counted as reliable community capacity. Adult leagues are routinely pushed to 10 and 11 p.m.

"Every season our coaches are trying to build players with half the practice time they need," said Tim Boyce, Technical Director of the Halifax Hawks. "Kids want to be on the ice more, and we have to tell them no. That demand never shows up in the city's numbers, because once there's no ice to book, people stop asking. Full use of an allocation is not the same as enough ice. Taking two more surfaces away before new ones are open would turn a shortage into a crisis."

A project of this size, the Hawks say, should be closing that gap. The current plan does not add a single surface, and it would take two away for years before giving them back. That is why replacement ice must be operating before the Forum closes, not promised for some point afterward.

Without new ice, there is no real plan

With no replacement in place, the Hawks note, the only way to absorb the loss of the Forum and Civic would be to spread the shortage across every association in the region: pushing children into early morning and late night slots, relying on rinks outside the municipality that are already full, cutting back public skating and learn to skate programs, and asking associations to stop growing. The association calls that a crisis in the making, and the price of spending more than $126 million without adding ice. The only real way to manage the closure, they say, is to ensure new ice is in place before it happens.

New ice can be built quickly and at modest cost

Concerns have been raised that keeping the Forum open until new ice is built could take many years. The Hawks say Canadian examples show it does not have to.

Air supported domes can go from start to finish in months. Canadian suppliers have delivered a complete dome ice rink, including both the structure and the ice surface, in about two months. Even large municipal domes in Canada, such as Edmonton's, have gone from the start of construction to opening day in about a year.

Covered outdoor rinks can be delivered in a single construction season. Perry Township in Ontario is planning a new covered rink at Novar with construction expected to take roughly five months. Collingwood is adding a roof over its outdoor rink within a single year of funding being announced. Black Diamond, Alberta roofed its outdoor rink over one summer. Toronto has built a covered rink and roof at Greenwood Park. Each of these projects cost a small fraction of what Halifax is now considering for the Forum.

Full twin pad arenas are also being built far faster than the Forum project has moved. North Bay opened a new twin pad arena this summer, about 20 months after breaking ground, on time, on budget, and for roughly half the current cost of the Forum project. That added two new ice surfaces to North Bay's system. The Forum plan adds none.

"Interim ice must be in place before the Forum closes, so that kids stay on the ice while council pursues a better redesign of the Forum site, one that adds ice surfaces rather than simply replacing them," said Fredericks. "Other communities are proving it can be done. There is no reason Halifax can't."

More ice for the money

The Forum project was estimated at $38 million in 2014 and now exceeds $126 million. After more than a decade and a tripling of the price, it would still leave Halifax with exactly the ice it has today, after four years with less. The Hawks say other Canadian communities are adding ice quickly and affordably, and Halifax should expect far more for this investment, starting with new ice in place before any existing ice is removed.

The Hawks are calling on council to:

• Require that suitable replacement ice be built and operating before any Forum or Civic ice surface is closed, and keep the Forum ice running safely until then.
• Direct staff to cost and publicly present options that add ice surfaces for the money being spent, including interim domes or covered rinks and a redesigned Forum site with additional pads.
• Measure real demand, including waitlists, ice purchased outside the municipality, and players turned away, before any further decisions are made.