The Pontiac Agricultural Society (PAS) is planning to apply for a grant from Quebec’s Ministry of Education that it hopes to be able to use to improve the arena’s energy efficiency and accessibility.
The funding is available through the province’s Programme d’aide financière aux infrastructures récréatives, sportives et de plein air 2026, and is intended to help maintain sports, recreational, and outdoor facilities across the province, with a particular focus on greening them and increasing public access to these facilities.
The grant can fund up to 66 per cent of the total cost of proposed upgrades and repairs, with the rest to be covered by the applicant.
The Pontiac Arena Fund, the arena fundraising committee formed in 2025, has raised over $250,000 that will be used to apply for the grant which, if obtained, will fund about $1 million worth of upgrades.
“I think any time you have an opportunity to turn a dollar into three through the use of provincial or federal money you want to act on it,” said Arena Fund president Mike Rusenstrom. He said in terms of energy efficiency improvements, the money would be used to replace the arena’s cooling components, like its compressors, dehumidifiers, and brine pumps.
“I feel like [these repairs] are top priorities, and that definitely any time you can upgrade equipment that would give you a 20 to 30 per cent improvement of energy efficiency, that’s a bonus.”
In terms of improving accessibility, the funding would be used to install barrier-free entrance doors at the front of the building, replace the interior doors with fire-code compliant doors leading to washroom areas, and improve the accessibility of the washrooms.
“Definitely there are other improvements [to the arena] that we would like to see, but I think based on where we’re at right now, in our fundraising efforts, that this is the best use of the funds and being good stewards of the money today,” Rusenstrom said.
Floor should be prioritized, says Shawville
The Ministry of Education requires that every application for this funding include a resolution from the municipality where the project will be located approving the proposed work.
The Municipality of Shawville held a special council meeting on Thursday (Apr. 2) to do so, passing a resolution that expanded on the generic resolution text provided by the Arena Fund to include a few additional WHEREAS clauses to clarify the municipality’s position on the proposed arena repairs.
“We did also add a couple WHEREAS [to include] that we think it’s important that they continue operating the arena, and can’t do any repairs that would make the arena unusable come September. [ . . . ] And then we’d like [them] to prioritize the floor, if they can, in their application,” said councillor Julien Gagnon following the passing of the resolution.
He said typical life expectancy for an arena floor like Shawville’s is about 35 years, and that Shawville’s is now going on 55 years.
If a leak forms in the now corroded and rusty piping under the cement floor, a bandage fix could buy the arena two years before it would need to have its entire floor replaced, at a minimum cost of about $2 million.
“That’s why, the way the arena is operated now obviously, we have no way for the Municipality of Shawville to be bearing a $2-million repair on our own, even with a two-year window,” Gagnon said.
Shawville’s resolution of support passed Thursday strongly recommended that the grant be used to fund a “comprehensive professional study” of the arena’s flooring system, the first step in replacing it, and that such a study “be treated as a priority component of the overall project.”
The resolution also states that the municipality will have no financial responsibility “for any capital, operational, maintenance, or other funding contributions toward this project, and its support shall not be interpreted as a financial commitment of municipal funds.”
“If they need more money, they would just have to come and ask and we would reassess at that time,” said councillor Katie Sharpe.
“All we want to guarantee is that they don’t budget for a million dollars worth of work and say now we’re on the hook for a quarter million because they just don’t have the money and it’s [our] arena,” Gagnon added.
Since the resolution of support was passed on Thursday, the Arena Fund has requested the municipality pass an updated version that better complies with the grant application guidelines, which would mean removing these additional WHEREAS clauses.
Shawville mayor Bill McCleary told THE EQUITY Monday that Shawville council plans to meet Apr. 9 to pass a new resolution.
The application deadline for the grant is June 22.
Shawville puts out formal call or arena partners
In a post published to its Facebook page on Mar. 31, the Municipality of Shawville announced it is “actively seeking partners to help share in the operation, funding, and day-to-day support of the arena.”
The municipality is solely responsible for the cost of maintaining and operating the arena, which it rents from the Pontiac Agricultural Society.
Shawville collects user fees from neighbouring municipalities based on the number of youth residents they have who use the arena, and the Municipality of Clarendon has contributed more than just what it owes in user fees, but at the end of the day the deficit is Shawville’s alone to carry.
“We’ve committed to keeping this arena going. We would like partners to help us manage it, because Shawville residents cannot afford the deficit on their own,” McCleary told THE EQUITY in an interview. “The other municipalities that have more users than us are just not paying enough.”
At Thursday’s special council meeting, councillors suggested a couple of options for partnership models they could see working, including a committee formed between the municipalities of Shawville, Clarendon and Pontiac (the arena’s primary users), or a co-op supported by municipalities.
“We only have dollar amounts coming from partners, and never a per cent of the budget, so that scares us,” said councillor Sharpe. “If we have extra expenses, we’re still on the hook for all of it and then we have to go begging people for money to help us, if we can even get that.”
The arena budget documents dating back to 2019 will be published to the municipality’s website this week.
