Blake Ellis/The Independent

Enniskillen Township councillors aren’t ready to talk about a regional arena yet.

That after two Petrolia residents who are part of the Community Access Recreation Expansion Committee came to council Sept. 21.

Lisa Vanderwal and Kelly Bailey first started advocating for a second ice pad at Petrolia’s Greenwood Recreation Centre in February 2024. More than 870 signatures were gathered on a petition calling for an additional ice pad to be built.

In November 2024, the petition and proposal was presented to Petrolia council and it supported moving forward with an assessment of Greenwood Recreation Centre to better understand its condition, remaining useful life and its need for future planning.

The Community Access Recreation Expansion (CARE) Committee was established in 2025 where work as continued on developing this concept. As part of the feasibility process, Vanderwal and Bailey are seeking the support the councils of Enniskillen, Oil Springs and Plympton-Wyoming in the creation of the regional arena feasibility committee.

Sept. 21, Enniskillen received a letter asking for Enniskillen’s support for establishing an arena feasibility committee.

But Enniskillen councillors were not ready to make any commitments.

Deputy Mayor Judy Krall suggested council delay giving any support for now and pointed to an article in The Independent where the Plympton-Wyoming council indicated it did not even want to pay an annual fee of $10,000 Petrolia assessed Plympton-Wyoming in 2025.

Instead, it slashed the grant to under $5,000 with some councillors arguing if Plympton-Wyoming is supporting Petrolia’s arena, Petrolia should be supporting Plympton-Wyoming’s minor ball program or pool.

Plympton-Wyoming is not the only community which doesn’t help with arena costs; Oil Springs has ignored the request for years.

Krall also indicated the Town of Petrolia has done an assessment study on the arena.

“In my personal opinion, it is a lot of money to put out,” said Krall.

Councillor Tim Williams said the concerns were the same when the Greenwood was built decades ago.

The assessment then was another arena in Petrolia was not feasible. “That was quite a while ago now,” said Williams. “How much has changed I don’t know.”

Williams was also concerned if council agreed to support the forming of this committee, it might be seen as Enniskillen
being willing to help.

Council decided to table it until after the upcoming municipal election and will not consider it until 2027.