Curling Association discusses future with council

Posted on April 16, 2026 by Vauxhall Advance

By Nikki Jamieson
Vauxhall Advance
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Following renovations, the Vauxhall Curling Association is looking forward to increased rink use.

As an addition to the Vauxhall council’s regular April 7 meeting agenda, Leavitt Howg, presidents of the Vauxhall Curling Association, appeared before council to discuss the past season. Howg thanked council for investing in the curling rink, which had been part of the arena improvement project last year. The ice maker had been a big improvement.

“I didn’t realize how unlevel that floor was before,” said Howg. “In the southwest corner, to just the hog line, there was a six, eight-inch difference before.”

Howg said he was happy with how the project turned out, and they were hoping to get more people out to try curling. Currently, they are exploring grants for future improvements, such as upgrading carpet, and are hoping to “get on track” for a casino. They were also looking into funding for helmets so kids aren’t deterred from trying curling. 

According to Curling Canada, children under the age of 12 should wear a helmet on the ice. 

Howg said about 10 kids were deterred this past season because they didn’t have a helmet. The VCA can see children as young as four participating in curling events.

“What other ice event or winter event do you not wear a helmet? You go skiing, you put a helmet on, going skating, you put a helmet on. Curling, yeah, you don’t think you’re going to slip and fall, but ice, no matter what, is still slippery,” said Howg. “We’re hoping to try to get funding to buy some helmets to stay there, so kids don’t have to buy a helmet, they can just come in and use it.”

When asked if he had any concerns, Howg brought up parking, noting there were issues when people from out of town needed to park at the arena for tournaments and big events, but they didn’t know where to park. He asked to see something “more definitive”, so people aren’t parking all over the events. He also asked about painting, noting they would like to paint the floor white to cut down on volunteer hours. Mayor Kimberly Cawley said her concern was if they painted directly on the concrete slab, then played floor hockey on it during the off-season would chip and destroy the paint job. Howg said they were okay with touching up the paint job. Cawley said they could discuss it more before the next curling season. Burns said they can also consider liners with the needed marks on them that they could roll out and reuse every year.