"Despite ongoing maintenance and repairs over the years, the ice rink has reached the end of its lifespan and will be closed, as scheduled, on March 31, 2027." That is the University of Victoria's statement on its recreation webpage, as quoted by Saanich News on October 28.
For most people driving past the Ian Stewart Complex at 3964 Gordon Head Road, the rink is a low building they never had a reason to go into. The building has mostly run as booked ice. It is the home rink for a figure skating club, two hockey teams and a small group of drop-in regulars. That shapes what the closure means for this part of Saanich. A casual skater loses very little this spring. The clubs lose the base their weekly schedules are built around. Once they go looking for hours elsewhere, the region's other rinks absorb the pressure, including the one Gordon Head families are now pointed to in Oak Bay.
A rink that has already had one reprieve
This is the second closure date the Ian Stewart rink has been given, and UVic has made no commitment past it.
- 1970: The rink is built. Oak Bay News put its expected lifespan at 40 years.
- 1991: UVic buys the complex. It serves as the university's primary recreation center until 2015.
- 2023: UVic decides to end operations, citing operating and capital costs it said were no longer sustainable.
- Early 2024: A minor ammonia release during a cold snap leads to mechanical repairs.
- March 2026: The original closure date passes. Those repairs bought the rink one more season.
- March 31, 2027: The final date, now confirmed.
When it announced the extension in March, UVic made it conditional. The repairs would keep the rink open until March 2027 "assuming no further significant system failures occur," a spokesperson told Oak Bay News. The spokesperson added, "We cannot at this time make any commitments beyond that point." The rest of the complex is close to the end of its lifecycle as well. It houses athletics spaces, offices, storage and emergency services.
Booked ice, mostly
Vikes Recreation's facility page lists skating, drop-in hockey, intramural hockey, and community minor hockey and figure skating programs at Ian Stewart. It also says rink access is by booking request. Most of the ice goes to organized groups.
Public drop-in time is limited. The Vikes Recreation drop-in page lists ice hockey at Ian Stewart on Thursdays from 1:30 to 3 p.m. for the September 8 to December 8 term. Helmets and full gear are required, and assessed students and active members skate at no charge. The January 6 to April 7 grid, which covers the rink's last term, has no times posted yet. For groups that book time, the Vikes rental page lists winter arena rental at $336 an hour, with rates valid from September 2026 to August 2027.
The groups using that booked time are local, and they have been there a long time.
- Racquet Club of Victoria Skating Club. Ian Stewart is its primary rink. Saanich News reported in April that the club has roughly 100 members and more than 50 years of history in Saanich.
- UVic Vikes men's club hockey. Ian Stewart is the team's home ice.
- Victoria Racquet Club Kings. The team also plays here. As of the March reporting, neither the Kings nor the Vikes club team had confirmed where they would play after the 2026–2027 season.
The skating club's schedule shows how many hours are involved. In the spring it uses about 24 hours of ice a week across six days. At the posted winter rental rate, that much time is a large block for any single rink to free up. That is why the closure reaches past Gordon Head.
The people still looking for hours
The skating club's summer arrangement shows what the search for ice already looks like. For summer programs it relies on morning ice at G.R. Pearkes Arena and the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. In the April Saanich News story, club president Brenda Reder said the club would have to find ice wherever it could, and noted that most available time slots in Greater Victoria were already taken.
Director of skating Deena Beacom has coached at Ian Stewart for 28 years. She told the same outlet the rink has been a valued community space from her own childhood through her coaching career.
Drop-in skaters have also spoken about it. A drop-in regular told Oak Bay News in March:
"I get it, the rink has had a good run here, and you can obviously see that it has passed its prime, but it still will be tough to see it go."
He added, "Finding ice time is always tricky, I guess this will just make it a little bit harder." In its October statement, UVic acknowledged that the closure comes at a time when the region needs more ice surfaces. It noted that it had given rink users four extra years to make other arrangements.
Where a Gordon Head skater goes this winter
Once the Ian Stewart rink closes, Oak Bay News reported, the closest alternative will be the Oak Bay Recreation Centre. Oak Bay also runs a full slate of public sessions, where Ian Stewart's posted drop-in time this fall is a single weekly hockey slot. Its drop-in schedule runs from September 8 to March 23, 2027. Sessions include Adult Skate, Family Skate, Everyone Welcome, Low Cost Everyone Welcome, Stick & Puck, Parent & Child Hockey and several divisions of Duffer Hockey.
Stick & Puck there is shared ice played with sponge pucks. Players bring their own sticks, helmets and gloves, which is a lighter gear list than the full equipment required at the Thursday Vikes session.
Oak Bay's 2026–27 admissions apply from September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2027:
| Oak Bay Recreation Centre, 2026–27 | Price |
|---|---|
| Adult single admission | $8.00 |
| Adult 60+ or post-secondary student | $6.50 |
| Child or youth | $4.50 |
| Family | $16.00 |
| Tuesday Everyone Welcome discount skate | $3.75 |
| Skate rental, Tuesday discount skate | $2.25 |
| Skate rental, single / 5-pack / 10-pack | $4 / $19 / $36 |
| Parent & Child Hockey, one adult and up to two children, rentals included | $8.75 |
Four Tuesday discount admissions come to $15, a dollar under the $16 family rate. Families that own their skates pay the least on Tuesdays. Once rentals are added at $2.25 each, four skaters on a Tuesday pay more than $16.
Families farther north have Panorama Recreation. Its August to April ice season includes Everyone Welcome, Toonie, Teen and Adult skates, along with Stick & Puck and Shinny Hockey, and skate rentals are available for drop-in sessions.
The region also has less ice than usual this fall. Esquimalt is replacing the floor and in-floor refrigeration system at Archie Browning Sports Centre. The Township's project notice originally set the closure for March to roughly September 2026, and its latest update says the project was extended to November 2026.
What replaces the ice on Gordon Head Road
UVic will hand management of the site to UVic Properties, which will look for short-term leasing opportunities for the building. In the longer term, the site becomes part of the mixed-use University District in UVic's real estate strategy.
The plans for the redeveloped site do not include a replacement rink. Public consultation put housing first by a wide margin. In a 2023 survey, 15 of 592 respondents opposed residential redevelopment, and UVic left new ice out of its five-year capital plan.
The nearest new-ice proposal in public planning documents is on the other side of the region. The West Shore Parks & Recreation Facilities Master Plan, finalized June 10, 2026, ranks two additional ice surfaces as its second-priority indoor facility. It recommends a feasibility study with municipal partners. The plan sets out the steps that would follow: site identification, an agreement among municipal partners, concept work and financing, and only then construction. Saanich's 2026 adopted financial plan includes $651,100 for the first phase of Lambrick Park renewal and continued site-wide planning there. The budget line does not mention a new ice sheet.
That leaves this winter as a fixed window. The Thursday Vikes session runs through December 8. Oak Bay's public schedule runs to March 23, 2027. The Ian Stewart rink closes eight days after that, on March 31.
When the rink closes, the Ian Stewart site starts its move toward the University District, and that will be one of the bigger changes Gordon Head has seen in years. FarupScott Group follows how changes like this affect the streets around them. If you live near the UVic end of Saanich East and want to understand what the University District could mean for your corner of it, we would be glad to talk it through. Connect With Us.
