Crews are containing the site of a leak that is preventing Charlottetown’s new Simmons Sports Center from opening, but it remains uncertain when that work will be complete.

Staff discovered earlier this month that they couldn’t make ice because of a leak in the pipes in the arena’s concrete ice surface.

“We just can’t put a timeline or a time frame on it because it would be premature to do that,” Coun. Mitchell Tweel, chair of the city’s parks, recreation and leisure committee, told CBC News on Saturday.

“If you go ahead and set a timeline … then you create an expectation.”

In a news release Friday, the city said crews were conducting tests to determine the location of the problem in order to complete repairs.

The publication notes that the work is complex because the infrastructure includes approximately 18 kilometers of pipeline.

Tweel said the leak appears to be near where one of the blue lines of the ice surface would be.

While city staff will prepare a report on the cost of the repairs once they are complete, Tweel believes the work will be covered under warranty.

“Hindsight is 20/20”

The building was expected to open on Oct. 14, but the city pushed that back to let the contractor find and repair the leak.

The arena replaces the original Simmons Sports Centre, which was built more than 50 years ago. That structure, which sat next to the new facility on North River Road, was recently demolished.

Tweel said the council discussed keeping the former rink open until the new sports center was completed, but some funding for the project was tied to the old building coming down.

“We were pretty confident … that we would be good to go. Testing was done right up until just a few days before the expected opening date,” he said.

“Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to say now we should have left it, and that’s a worthy debate.”

The new sports center will be open year-round and feature an NHL-sized rink that seats nearly 600 people, an indoor walking track and an outdoor pool.

Tweel said other locations such as the Eastlink Center and Cody Banks Arena are being looked at for ice time while repairs are completed on the new arena.

He said he has “full faith” the contractor will get the leak repaired and have the center open as soon as possible.

“It’s just an outstanding facility, I would suggest probably one of the nicest community facilities in Atlantic Canada,” Tweel said.