Mayor David Miller says adult male shinny groups and players in the competitive Greater Toronto Hockey League will be moved out of publicly owned arenas or pushed to different time slots to accommodate the growing number of girls in the game.

"They need to accept that they are less of a priority for public arenas than girls, and I don't think anyone can quarrel with that," Miller said Tuesday.

Miller was responding to the 900-member Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association, which threatened to launch a human rights complaint in an Oct. 30 letter to the mayor over what the league alleges is the city's failure to enforce its equity policy at city arenas.

He also called the "lack of action" in equity compliance at three arenas run by boards of management – North Toronto Memorial, Larry Grossman Forest Hill Memorial and Leaside Memorial Gardens – "unacceptable."

The 900-member Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association threatened to launch a human-rights complaint in an Oct. 30 letter to Miller over what it alleges is the city's failure to enforce its equity policy at publicly owned arenas. The association says the arenas shut girls out of prime-time ice and instead, in some cases, rent it to adult men for hockey.

Association President Ron Baker said Tuesday his not-for-profit league has spent more than $1 million over the past five years to play in expensive private arenas largely because city-owned facilities in players' neighbourhoods regularly refuse to give the girls' hockey association permits for ice Baker insists it's entitled to.

"We have a choice: We can just quietly go away or we can fight for the girls' rights," said Baker. He added that pursuing a human-rights complaint would be the "last resort" if the association – which uses 18 public and private GTA arenas to meet its practice and game ice needs – doesn't see a change soon.

And female hockey players do have rights, according to the city's equity policy.

"The policy is there for this very reason, the whole point being girls' and women's hockey in this city is on the rise and, yes, they should have equal access to ice time," said Stuart Green, a spokesman from Miller's office.

Regardless of gender, priority is supposed to be given at city arenas first to youth recreational hockey (house leagues), then to youth competitive hockey, and then to adult recreational shinny.

For house leagues, the best times are weekends and early weekday evenings, since players are at school. But because demand is so great, there are no guarantees. For instance, the competitive Greater Toronto Hockey League plays at Victoria Village Arena, where the Leaside girls have no access.

For all hockey players, city ice is coveted not only because it's close to home for community users, but also because it's much cheaper – about $140 an hour for youth – than private arenas, where rates can top $300 an hour.

What complicates the plight of the girls' hockey association is that most of the local public arenas – North Toronto Memorial Arena, Larry Grossman Forest Hill Arena, Ted Reeve Arena and Leaside Memorial Gardens – are operated at arm's length from the city by volunteer boards mandated to serve the immediate community. These operating boards are autonomous and historically have had leeway in determining their top user groups.

Keith Begley, in his second year as Ted Reeve board chair, said the Leaside league turned down one of four hours offered them this year. He said the board is committed to giving female hockey more time, moving groups around and dropping some Greater Toronto Hockey League games to make room.

Malcolm Bromley, Toronto's director of community recreation, said the city is working with management boards to accommodate everyone as hockey's popularity shifts – boys' numbers are down, adults' are up, and female registration is soaring. "(It's) fair to say we're playing catch-up in responding to the explosive demand for ice time for girls and women's hockey.

"It's not good enough to just say, 'If you've had ice in the past, you continue to get that ice at the expense of growing and burgeoning sports, like women's and girls' hockey.'"

Ward 30 councillor Paula Fletcher said anti-female attitudes "left over from the past" need to change. "It's just shocking that in this day and age, girls' hockey is being treated so poorly."

She's been pushing for a new four-pad arena – with plans for one surface exclusive to women – to be built in the port lands by March 2011. "We're coming up to the Olympics, and our big winners at the Olympics. Who are our gold medal people? It's the girls."

Baker says his number-crunching shows his league is entitled to 22 hours weekly at North Toronto, but the girls have zero access despite repeated league entreaties.

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Girls' hockey association alumna and current peewee coach Kim McCullough said it's frustrating to have to live with old stereotypes.

"We're still seen as second-class citizens. We're treated as a lesser version of the men's game," said McCullough, who's also the girls' hockey director at Toronto's PEAC School for Elite Athletes.

The association is encouraging its members to sign a petition, to be presented to Toronto City Council at its Nov. 30 meeting, calling on the city to enforce its equity policy at city-owned and board-run arenas.