Northern hockey association adopts rules of conduct for players during hotel stays

Hockey season is a busy time of year for hotels throughout the north, and a local minor hockey association is looking to ensure its members aren't negatively impact hotel staff or patrons.

Effective immediately, the Northern Ontario Hockey Association has implemented a hotel code of conduct policy.

During hockey season, hotels are a close second for many families in the north.

Hotel guests will soon need to be on their best behaviour, as the code of conduct is something that was created after a group of hotel operators reached out to the organization last spring.

"Obviously the concerns came during the hockey season,” said the association’s Jason Marchand

“They acknowledged that it's not just a hockey issue, but they asked for our support in providing essentially rules and code of conduct."

A full list of infractions is not yet available, but Marchand said it would include things like parents drinking in hotel lobbies and repetitive noise complaints.

"There have been facilities that have had to hire off-duty police officers at a cost of over $1,000 a night, which is not something that they're used to doing,” he said.

“In the end, we're trying to not be putting our organization in a position where teams want to go to tournaments and don't have a place to stay."

The Northern Ontario Hockey Association holds close to 100 tournaments in a typical hockey season. Each tournament will have an assigned representative for conduct and so will each team.

When an issue arises, hotels will contact the team rep and document the incident.

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"Subsequently the report will be shared with us,” Marchand said.

“We haven't formally discussed potential violations or sanctions for those violations. If it is something that does occur, typically we have a hearing to deal with the matter, whatever it is."