Heather Wright/The Independent

Mayor Brad Loosley seems determined to make sure Plympton-Wyoming pays for the use of Petrolia’s arena.

He’s directed town staff to look at ways to recover money he believes Plympton-Wyoming owes the town to help support the upkeep of the arena.

For years, Petrolia has been asking neighbouring communities to contribute $10,000 to the cost of operating the Greenwood Recreation Centre reasoning their residents use the building and the municipality should help pay for it.

In the past, Plympton-Wyoming contributed $10,000 although other communities, such as Oil Springs, simply refused.

Recently, Petrolia moved to shore up that support by putting municipal agreements in place guaranteeing the money and, in Plympton-Wyoming’s case, building in a cost of living factor, so the grant would increase yearly.

But the most recent PW council has been reluctant to pay the fees with Councillor Mike Vasey and others being vocal about the amenities Petrolia residents use in Plympton-Wyoming for free.
During its 2026 budget deliberations, Plympton-Wyoming councillors decided to give Petrolia $5,400 saying there are hard figures to see how many PW residents use the arena.

Monday Feb. 23, Loosley took action. Using the Strong Mayors Powers, Loosley directed Julie Bullock, the director of parks and recreation, to bring back a report to council to recover the $4,600 Plympton-Wyoming withheld from the town.

Loosley also asked Bullock to “advise council of the per user amount that would make the $4,600 difference due to the loss of the funding previously provided through Plympton-Wyoming.”
He also told staff to look into a non-resident participation fee to charge users directly or to bill to the associations they’re involved in the future.

The mayor is also looking for another user agreement with the municipalities.

“This only involves municipalities that do not offer the same services or have an arena like we have.”

Loosley told The Independent he used the powers because he didn’t want to have a discussion with council. That, he says, can come when the report is returned to council. It’s not clear when that might be.