Heather Wright/The Independent

If there is a new arena to be build in Petrolia, it only happen with help from the town’s neighbours.

That’s the opinion of the people who are vying for councillor positions around the town council table Oct. 26 about a request for a double ice pad which came to council more than two years ago.

Lisa Vanderwal and Kelly Bailey started advocating for a second ice pad at Petrolia’s Greenwood Recreation Centre in February 2024. The hockey moms with kids in the Lambton Attack program gathered more than 870 signatures on a petition.

In November 2024, Petrolia council ordered an assessment of Greenwood Rec Centre to better understand its condition and what could come next.

That assessment shows about $3 million in repairs are necessary to extend the arena’s life another 15 years.

The Community Access Recreation Expansion (CARE) Committee was set up in 2025 to continue developing the idea. As part of the feasibility process, Vanderwal and Bailey are seeking the support of 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 township support for establishing an arena feasibility committee.

Enniskillen councillors were not ready to make any commitments, pushing the decision off until early 2027.

Deputy Mayor Judy Krall expressed concerns a regional effort would work, pointing to the fact the Plympton-Wyoming council did not even pay an annual fee of $10,000 Petrolia assessed Plympton-Wyoming in 2025 for arena use.

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

Monday, The Independent met with all 12 candidates running for the six council positions. All expressed Petrolia should not be building a double ice pad arena on its own.

“I’m not supporting it as a Petrolia investment. It has to be everybody or nobody,” said incumbent council candidate Bill Clark.

“We can’t support it ourselves. We can’t ask the people in the town to support it, regardless of how many people are behind it. It’s a massive, massive undertaking.”

Liz Welsh, who is also seeking another term, agrees.

“It must involve other municipalities. There must be buy-in, weigh-in, funding, everything from other municipalities,” she said. The Independent asked if that was possible considering the response the town has received lately on support for regular operations.

“Anything’s possible. Whether it might not happen in the next two years? But anything is possible.”

Candidate Marty Souch says the town has to start the process by mending some fences. Negotiations may be difficult until the municipal partners “realize what they’re going to lose. Then they’ll get on board.”

Candidates Nicole Ramsay agreed a regional approach is responsible as did Greg Nemcek, Miranda Cole, and John McDonald who says other municipalities may question why Petrolia should host a regional arena.

“It would have to have a good business case why here before you went to the other municipalities to kind of buck up,” he said.

Richard Poore said the town would have to seek provincial and federal funding partners too, noting the project is estimated at $45 million.

“Without significant upper tier funding opportunities and grants and so on, that’s a massive tax burden when already people get sometimes concerned about the annual investment we make into that property now.”

Incumbent Chad Hyatt agreed with a regional approach adding;

“The process to build a new facility is going to be long. And if it’s involving multiple municipalities, it’s going to be even longer. So I would say starting sooner than later is probably better.”

Paul Stilwell agreed with a regional arena but added since hockey has become “somewhat an elitist sport” because of its expense, there is still a good arena for those who do play.

Dawn Stilwell was present for much of the discussion but had to leave the round table early for a prior commitment.