Council backs application to finally add all-weather field at Esquimalt school

Esquimalt council agreed to back a request for funding for a turf field project at Esquimalt High School, allowing young athletes to stay and play in the township.

Tom Woods, a volunteer with Esquimalt Ribfest, one of the many partners of the project, said Esquimalt is the only core municipality without a year-round, outdoor sports field. This, he said, hinders students and young athletes from staying in Esquimalt to play sports and other recreational activities 12 months out of the year, as the weather often forces them to head to Victoria, Saanich, Langford or Colwood.

There was a push from Esquimalt High School and partners to acquire a grant through a combination federal and provincial infrastructure funds in 2020, but that was unsuccessful.

Woods said the partnership of the Songhees Nation, SD61, Gorge Soccer, JBAA Rugby and more is reapplying and would like the support of council.

“We kickstarted this group again and this time we are bringing a million dollars to the table, which is a lot of loot,” Woods said. “Talk about putting your money where your mouth is, or in this case where are cleats are … we’d like Esquimalt council to be a major partner in this initiative.”

Aaron Walker-Duncan, president of Gorge Soccer, said the group is part of this partnership because they see first-hand the challenges young athletes face due to the lack of a turf field in Esquimalt.

“We have about 1,650 youth and adult members in Gorge Soccer, of which about 35 per cent based on their address are residents of Esquimalt,” he said.”We have a real challenge in providing and finding good all-weather field space. We do rent and use fields within Esquimalt, but quite often throughout the winter those fields are closed and not accessible.”

Several members of council expressed their support for the initiative, including Ken Armour and Darlene Rotchford.

“As I understand it, we are the only municipality in the core that doesn’t have a year-round field and it is not only from a financial perspective a loss of potential revenue for us, but it is just not fair to our high school kids,” Armour said. “It just makes sense to move forward with this.”

Rotchford added that investing in youth is key in ensuring they stay around over time and providing a year-round field in the community will reduce traffic and emissions.

Mayor Barb Desjardins said the council is giving its support to this initiative and will move forward once they hear more specifics about how council can give direction.

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