TORONTO — City Council will look into lifting a skating ban on Grenadier Pond for winter 2016 -2017 after Parks and Environment committee unanimously voted to back a $50,000 ice monitoring program.
Councillor Sarah Doucette moved a motion at Monday’s meeting backing the program, which will train staff to test the ice thickness and determine suitability for skating.
“We are not going to stop people from skating, so let’s try and make it as safe as we can for them to skate.”
Staff would place red or yellow flags on the surface to warn of too-thin ice, she proposed.
“The idea is if we test the thickness of the ice, the red flag will mean ‘stay off it is unsafe’, a yellow flag will mean ‘use at your own risk’.”
Doucette added this program will notify residents when ice is not safe for skaters.
In section 608-21 of the Municipal Code, people are forbidden from skating on ice surfaces where signs are posted prohibiting the activity.
The Ward 13 councillor said residents aren’t abiding by signs that are currently posted around the pond.
“Right now… there are signs all around the pond saying ‘thin ice, stay off’ … nobody is obeying by them because they’ve been up year after year and some people see 100 people skating at one time,” Doucette said.
Doucette added there will be no green flag because there is no way to 100 per cent confirm ice is safe.
“What I’m really trying to do is allow people to skate on the pond but let them know when it is really not safe to skate,” she said.
“It won’t happen this winter because we need to get some trained and get the system in place.”
The motion will go to council and asks for the program to come out of the 2016 budget.
As for the 2015-2016 winter season, Doucette said the city could go to the Police Marine Unit to test the ice.
“We could always go to them and ask them to test it out for the season,” she said.
“We haven’t asked them at this point.”
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