Rainbow Road Recreation Area · $81,567 still owed
The rink is coming. We're down to the last $81,567.
The campaign runs to December 31
It's an 83′ × 46′ surface and a professional board system, crated in Victoria and waiting for Salt Spring Island.
The simplest way to give is an Interac e-Transfer to hello@skatesaltspring.ca — it costs the campaign nothing, so the entire amount goes to the rink.
$3,433 raised of $85,000. $81,567 still owed.
Every dollar raised repays the advance. This meter counts community donations only — none of the advance is counted here as money raised.
Need a tax receipt? Charitable receipting is being finalised right now. Email us and we'll hold your pledge — you'll be receipted the moment it's live, and nothing is lost by telling us today rather than waiting.
Let's bring it home.
Salt Spring has about 11,000 residents and no public skating surface. The nearest rink is a ferry ride away. This is the first one the island has ever had within reach.
You can't build anything great alone. Whether it's a Stanley Cup or a community rink, it takes people coming together, believing in something bigger than themselves. I'm proud to support the vision for a Salt Spring Island Community Rink.
Luc RobitaillePresident of the Los Angeles Kings · Hockey Hall of Famer · Honorary co-chair
Where the project actually stands
The equipment exists and is paid for in part. The CRD has selected the site and accepted staff's recommendation that it operate the arena, with the installation and operating budget going to the 2027 provisional budget process. What's missing is the balance of the purchase price.
A Can-Ice synthetic ice surface with an Athletica professional dasher board and netting system — arena-grade, and it needs no refrigeration, so it runs year-round.
Purchased from the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society, which installed the surface for the 2024 Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada at Ship Point and for the Victoria Cougars' Stanley Cup centennial.
Getting it here means a truck, a ferry and a crew. That cost is not part of the purchase price and is not funded yet — it's the next thing we have to solve.
In June 2026 the CRD's Local Community Commission selected Rainbow Road Recreation Area, behind the community pool, as the location, and accepted staff's recommendation that the CRD operate the arena. CRD staff are now preparing an installation and operating budget for the 2027 provisional budget process, with approval expected in March 2027.
The purchase of the rink itself is entirely privately funded. That's the $85,000 this page is about.
The Society has secured the rink. Now we need the community's help to raise what's still owed on it — $81,567 of the $85,000 advanced so the purchase could complete. Nobody donated it and nobody wrote it off. It is owed, and the Society is the one that owes it. We're raising it by December 31, and every dollar raised repays it.
Three ways in
All three start with an email. We'll take it from there.
Interac e-Transfer to hello@skatesaltspring.ca is the best way — it's free, so the full amount reaches the rink. Prefer a card? Give any amount here. Cheque, or a conversation about something larger, by email. There's no minimum that doesn't matter — this gets repaid in whatever amounts the island can manage.
Email to contribute →Your name on a dasher panel, in front of every skater on this island for years. For a business this is an advertising cost rather than a donation, which is a cleaner line for your books. Ask us for the rate sheet.
Ask for rates →We need the container emptied and the rink hauled from Victoria, plus skates and a sharpener. A flat deck, an excavator, a warehouse, a trade, or a weekend of labour all move the number as surely as cash does.
Tell us what you have →Who we are
If you're being asked for money by an organisation you've never heard of, you're entitled to check it. Here is everything you need to.
This site has no forms and no advertising trackers — every link opens your own email app. We count page views through our host so we know whether the campaign is reaching people: it's anonymous, sets no cookies, and follows nobody across the web. If you write to us, your address is used to reply to you and is never shared, sold or added to a list.
Fair questions
No. The purchase is secure, which is not the same thing. The $85,000 was advanced so the rink wouldn't be lost on a date — it was not a donation and it was not written off. It is a debt the Society carries until the island raises it.
So the campaign is exactly as necessary as it was before, and this is the part that needs you. Every dollar raised repays the advance. We're aiming to have the full amount raised by the end of October, and the campaign runs to December 31. Getting the rink from Victoria to Salt Spring is a separate cost on top, and it isn't funded either.
A private commitment to fund the purchase was in place and didn't come through before the money moved. Circumstances change, and we hold nothing against anyone over it — it is simply why we're asking the island instead.
The equipment, the deposit and the site selection are all unaffected. The only thing that changed is who is paying for it.
Not yet. Charitable receipting is being finalised right now. Until it is live we cannot issue receipts and won't imply otherwise.
If a receipt matters to you, email us and we'll hold your pledge — you'll be receipted the moment it's live, and nothing is lost by telling us today rather than waiting. If a receipt doesn't matter to you, we can put your contribution to work immediately.
Victoria used it for events — Hockey Day in Canada, the Cougars centennial — which meant setting it up and tearing it down each time, with crane trucks and crews. That's what made it uneconomic there. Salt Spring is installing it once, permanently, at Rainbow Road, with the CRD operating it. Same asset, a different model.
The surface and boards are crated in Victoria. Getting them here means a truck, a ferry and a crew, and that cost isn't part of the purchase price — it's the next thing we have to solve. Installation timing is with the CRD, whose budget for it goes to the 2027 provisional budget process.
The purchase of the rink itself is entirely privately funded — that's the $85,000 this page is about. Separately, the CRD's Local Community Commission selected Rainbow Road Recreation Area in June 2026 and accepted staff's recommendation that the CRD operate the arena. CRD staff are preparing an installation and operating budget for the 2027 provisional budget process, with approval expected in March 2027. No public funding has been approved, and none of it buys the rink.
Yes, on steel blades, with real hockey stops. There's modestly more friction than refrigerated ice. For learn-to-skate, public skate, and shinny it isn't what anyone remembers about the experience — and it needs no ice plant, no compressors, and no seasonal shutdown, which is the only reason a community our size can realistically sustain a rink at all.
The panels are ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, which contains no fluorine and therefore cannot contain PFAS. The surface slip agents are fatty acid amides approved for food contact by the FDA and the EU. We'll send the manufacturer's safety data sheets to anyone who asks.
The CRD will operate it, funded through user fees and sponsorships rather than ongoing public subsidy. Operating costs are low because there's no refrigeration — cleaning, periodic panel maintenance and lighting. CRD staff are preparing the detailed annual figure as part of the 2027 provisional budget.
The Salt Spring Island Healthy Living Society, a registered BC non-profit (S0083594), chaired by founder Jesse Giddings. The rink will sit on CRD land at Rainbow Road and be operated by the CRD.
Luc Robitaille, President of the Los Angeles Kings, serves as honorary co-chair — an unpaid role. He's opening doors to corporate sponsors; the community campaign is what gets the rink onto the island.
In the community
The Society is continuing the community fundraising campaign through the fall with the support of Country Grocer. Watch for it at the till — you'll be able to add a donation to your shop. We're grateful to them for standing behind this.
Write to us
Every message here reaches the Society and gets read. We arrange everything by email — it's how a small volunteer board keeps up.
hello@skatesaltspring.ca