Councillor planning motion to keep outdoor rinks open longer

TORONTO – Despite the persistent freezing temperatures, most of the Toronto’s outdoor ice rinks are closed.

But councillor Paula Fletcher hopes that if next winter brings similar temperatures, her new motion will give the parks committee the ability to keep those facilities open.

“This weather is perfect skating weather and I think we need a little more flexibility,” she said. “Our staff needs to be able to say ‘ok, we’re keeping 52 rinks open for another two weeks because the skating weather is so perfect.’”

Only 17 of the city’s 52 outdoor rinks have enough money to stay open until March 16.

The budget for outdoor ice rinks is set the year prior.  Fletcher is planning to introduce to a motion that would allow the parks committee to set aside funds they could dip into to keep rinks open longer.

“Well that’s for them to look out for, you see if you have a contingency then some years you’re not using that,” she said. “But when we’re in a cold snap and when it looks like it’s going to continue, we are winter, we need to skate here.”

James Dann, the city’s waterfront parks manager, said city staff try to spread out the rinks that do remain open equally around the city. He added that available resources and usage determine are also part of the decision.

“We don’t have the budget to keep them all open, that’s why we retract back to the 17 from our full number,” he said.

The decision to close the rinks in February was made last year, he said, when the weather was above zero degrees Celsius rather than the frigid temperatures now enveloping the city.

“Last year at this time, it was three degrees. So last year we were starting to lose ice at many of our rinks already. This year we have natural rinks all over our city,” he said. “If every winter was to this much longer than we would definitely be looking at a longer season. This is not a normal winter.”

– With files from Angie Seth