With fewer children enrolling in hockey, and maintenance costs steadily increasing, yet another Cape Breton rink is in danger of closing.

For decades, people of all ages have been lacing up their skates and hitting the ice at the Whitney Pier rink. But the doors were closed on Monday, and the community isn’t certain if they will ever open again.

“We’re in the hole a lot of money. We lost $45,000 in rentals alone last year and all this was done because they wanted to keep the Pier rink open,” says board member Jackie Pearson.

The Whitney Pier rink’s main tenant – Sydney Minor Hockey – left for a newer facility recently built in Membertou. That loss, combined with rising operational costs, has left the board in the red.

Pearson says the Cape Breton Regional Municipality told him to keep the rink open and it would help with the start-up fees, but now the board of directors is facing a $40,000 power bill – a bill it initially thought the municipality and province would cover.

“The regional municipality says they are waiting for the provincial government,” says Pearson. “They hit the ball over to the other court. It takes them three weeks to answer it and then they throw it back. Meanwhile, we’re left in chaos.”

The board of directors says the doors to the rink will remain closed for good if it doesn’t receive financial assistance soon.

Pearson says, if the board knew from the start that financial assistance wasn’t possible, it would have closed the building two years ago and turned it over to the community.

“As far as minor hockey goes, I’m very disappointed,” says Pearson. “That’s where minor hockey originated, from the Pier rink. They owed the Pier rink a lot of money and the Pier rink didn’t shut them down, they kept them going until they paid it off, so that’s the hard part.”

If the Whitney Pier rink decides to shut down, it will be the third rink in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to do so in just three years, following the closure of the Centennial Arena in Sydney, and the Bayplex in Glace Bay.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore