A temporary closure at Stroud Innisfil Community Centre has stretched longer than anticipated, forcing the town's council to dig deeper for funding critical repairs.
At a Wednesday meeting, the town's council authorized funding through the Town’s Capital Reserve Fund to address repairs needed for the arena and banquet hall portions of the facility that were unexpectedly shut down on January 20.
The Town is extracting $1,080,000 from the fund to pay for expected repair costs of the building, maintain operations and mitigate further risks.
A previously approved Stroud Innisfil Community Centre Business Case & Site Study will be used and accelerated to guide long-term decisions about the future of the facility.
The town says the building is considered a designated substances site, meaning repairs will require specialized abatement procedures and replacement of affected flooring, ceilings, and finishes..
Stroud Arena's ice pad and banquet hall were closed temporarily on Jan. 20 by the Town of Innisfil due to an issue with an interior wall's alignment adjacent to the ice surface.
Those closures remain in place "due to an abundance of caution for patrons and staff,' say Town of Innisfil officials as the issues require review from independent contractors.
“Safety is our key priority, and we wanted to take the necessary steps to fully understand the issue and what is needed to resolve this," Nicole Bowman, the Town's director of operations, said in a news release. "Currently, we do not have a timeline on when the arena and banquet hall can re-open, but we are reaching out to all user groups of this facility to accommodate them as best as we can.”
Then, on Monday, the temporary closure of the Stroud Curling Club and library branch within the facility was announced due to a frozen pipe that burst the prior weekend. However, those areas have since reopened.
Challenges with the arena have even prompted nominations for funding from the 2026 Kraft Hockeyville program, an effort to help select Canadian communities upgrade local arenas in partnership with the NHL and its players association.
“The Stroud arena has long been a place for sport, gathering, celebration, learning, community connection, and so much more,” says Mayor Lynn Dollin in a news release. “The Hockeyville nomination is a chance for residents to share their memories, photos, and support for why this arena matters. Winning takes a community effort, and I encourage everyone to rally behind Stroud and help tell its story.”
The town is encouraging members of the community to participate in the campaign, which ends on March 1.
Through the program, judges determine winners from each province and territory which will receive $50,000 toward arena upgrades. Two of those 13 have the chance to get additional funding if selected among the top two nationally, with the winner of that head-to-head vote earning $250,000 in funding and the opportunity to host an NHL preseason game in September.
The Stroud Arena was built in 1975, with additions in 1988 and 2000 to accommodate the needs of the community. It's consitently used for youth hockey and other community programs, while the curling club hosts professional tournaments among other events.
The town says timelines for construction remain difficult to predict due to complexity of the work and the steps required before and after repairs.
It also warns that until greater certainty comes, Stroud summer camps will have to be moved to alternate locations, ice bookings for the 2026-27 season at the arena may be delayed, and banquet hall bookings will not be available through the summer.
