NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. — The Emera Centre Northside arena in North Sydney, N.S., officially opened in April 2011.
Almost 12 years later, people who live in the community are hoping the doors won't soon close for good.
“I think there's a little apprehension as to what's going on,” said Carla Carmichael, the office administrator for Northside Minor Hockey Association.
A meeting has been called for Monday evening by the board of the directors who run the facility about its financial future.
The Emera Centre is currently home of the Northside Minor Hockey Association, and without it, its teams would have nowhere to play.
“The building is one of two facilities that we use to operate our program and we can't do it without it,” said Carmichael.
The Northside Minor Hockey Association currently has 320 members and it requires all of the ice it can get, but that doesn't mean the building is turning a profit.
“Most facilities within the CBRM (Cape Breton Regional Municipality) that you see, the vast majority of them are certainly subsidized, breaking even is even difficult,” said Earlene MacMullin, a CBRM councillor.
MacMullin says the board has asked the CBRM about taking ownership of the Emera Centre.
She says despite the operating costs, they can't afford not too, if that's the only option.
MacMullin doesn't want to see any rinks close in the municipality.
“Whether it's financially in the books or not, we're going to have to figure it out, if the community decided to go that way,” said MacMullin.
MacMullin says whatever ends up happening, she's confident this facility will remain open.
CTV News reached out to the board of directors of the Emera Centre for an interview on Monday, but they declined, saying they would do interviews after the meeting.
