The Luskville Community Centre was packed on Feb. 17 for an information session hosted by the Municipality of Pontiac about the amount it pays to Shawville every year for the usage of that municipality’s arena. 

The municipality called the meeting to inform residents about a possible future increase in the payment, called the “user fee”. All taxpayers contribute toward this amount, and it is calculated annually based on the number of hockey and figure skating athletes in each municipality. 

Last year, Pontiac’s contribution was just over $29,000, but Pontiac mayor Roger Larose said that amount could increase as soon as next season. Larose said that Shawville advised him at a recent meeting that the amount could increase as much as twofold next season, though that amount likely will not be enforced.  

Larose said some parents were under the impression their minor hockey registration fee would also increase as a result, which he said is not the case. 

“Parents with kids who play hockey at the Shawville arena, they didn’t know that the municipality was putting money into it. I wanted to clarify that,” he said after the meeting. 

Over the past several years, Shawville has been faced with increased arena costs due to aging infrastructure and machinery. Last year, the arena ran a deficit of $177,236.16, with more money than ever going toward the repair and hydro costs of the ice plant. 

Now, Shawville is trying to find other ways to make up that deficit, which includes increasing the user fee for municipalities. Shawville taxpayers each currently foot $215.88 of the bill, whether residents are arena users or not. The rest of the deficit is paid through the user fees received from other municipalities. 

“We don’t think that’s fair because we only have less than a quarter of the users of the arena, but yet we’re paying for more than half of the deficit,” said Shawville councillor Julien Gagnon, who also chairs the municipality’s arena committee.  

Some municipalities have increased their contribution to help cut into the deficit. Clarendon raised its contribution to more than $50,000 this year. Shawville council has been meeting with Pontiac’s council to try and get that municipality to do the same, as it has 118 of the arena’s 301 total registered users. 

Gagnon said Shawville has not made any formal request to Pontiac’s council to double the user fee. He said the nature of the meetings has been to inform Pontiac council about the deficit, and to invite a bigger contribution toward the arena. 

“If they had some extra money that they had allocated in their recreation budget, and they could send it to us to kind of offset some of those costs, we [would be] happy to accept it,” he said. 

“And if not, we would revise that in 2027 and hope that maybe when they make their budget at the end of this year, that they’ll include an extra little contribution for the Shawville arena. At that point, we would just eliminate the user fee.”  

He also said Shawville is offering Pontiac and other municipalities a seat on an inter-municipal committee for the management of the arena, but there has not been any interest yet.

Larose said council has not discussed how much money it will give toward the arena, but that they are willing to work together to find a solution that works for everyone. 

“My goal is to work with Shawville to see how far we can go together, to see what we can get, to see what we can do for the next couple of years. I don’t want to invest in something that’s going to be a five-year contract [ . . . ] It’s got to be something that is long-term and something that is good for my citizens.”

Residents at the Tuesday meeting expressed concern about the state of the Shawville arena, many adding that they preferred having a rink closer to home in Quyon. 

Stephanie Bond said her child plays minor hockey in Shawville, but due to lack of ice time his team has been playing in Fort-Coulonge, about an hour’s drive from home.   

“It’s to the point where our children miss a lot of practices, and are not capable of playing, and do not want to play because they have to drive an hour and 20 minutes. This is definitely not what we signed up for,” Bond said.

Larose responded by saying he is not sure a new arena would be worth the investment, since the minor hockey and figure skating participants only represent a minority of youth in his municipality. 

He said his council is also focused on the several-million dollar investments the municipality is making in its Quyon and Luskville parks, making it potentially tough to shell out for a new arena.

“We might have to invest a couple million to bring the sewer line, the water line, and we’re not ready. And we’re not even sure if the treatment plant is big enough,” he said at the meeting. 

Other parents responded by saying that they would like the option to send their children to play hockey in Gatineau or elsewhere in the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais. 

While the current boundaries dictate that anyone residing west of chemin Terry Fox in Aylmer must play minor hockey in Shawville, Larose said he intends to meet with Hockey Outaouais to find out what the options are for families who may wish to send their kids to play elsewhere.  

Shawville council is still is still analysing results from its Sept. 2025 survey asking residents about their opinion on a new arena, and is awaiting the results of a study from engineering firm J.L. Richards about what a new build would cost. 

But Gagnon said council still has to pay off the $177K deficit and any new repairs that have to be done in the meantime until a new arena is built. He said if council can form partnerships with other municipalities, it will become easier to make decisions on which direction they will take.  

“Do we repair? Do we build new? Once we form those relationships, that same operating committee can help us decide what we want to do next, and we’re open to that.” 

Gagnon said if they are to look into a new arena, Shawville needs the participation of neighbouring municipalities in order to even consider going ahead with construction. 

“We can’t afford a $10, $20, $30 million-dollar build if that amount of money is coming just from [Shawville] taxpayers. We have to be able to have a bigger tax base to be able to offset these costs.” 

Larose said his council needs to take stock of their own residents’ opinions, including from the Tuesday meeting. He said while council has not decided anything, he is open to working with Shawville to make sure that his residents are served well by the arena. 

“We’re a long way from a decision, but we want to get everyone to work together,” he said.