Skaters will have access to eight outdoor rinks this March Break, but that's all that Toronto Council was willing to keep open despite an attempt by Councillor Case Ootes to keep 41 other rinks open.
Those rinks were closed Sunday for the season according to city policy, but Ootes (Ward 29, Toronto-Danforth) argued that because of the unusually cold winter, it made sense to keep them open during the March Break.
"I think every effort should be made to reopen those rinks," said Ootes at Wednesday, March 5's Toronto Council meeting.
"We may have continued cold weather through the spring break and I think it's a shame to close them."
Ootes had brought an 11th hour notice of motion to Toronto Council asking that the rinks stay open, after, he said, he'd been stonewalled by bureaucrats and the mayor's office in making a request earlier.
"I was asked why I didn't bring this up sooner. Well it's not my job to micromanage the parks department. I would expect our staff, once they'd been notified, to take the item under consideration and give it serious thought. That wasn't done, so here we are," he said.
But councillors were having none of it, particularly after seeing a briefing note from city staff indicating that reopening the rinks now would cost the city in the order of $380,000, with no guarantee the rinks would even be safe for skating.
The problem, according to Brenda Librecz, parks forestry and recreation general manager, is that even if the temperature itself is cold enough, the increased sunlight makes it more difficult to keep the ice solid. The city would have to run compressors constantly and would also be faced with recalling workers who had been laid off.
Councillors voted 18-13 to keep the rinks closed.
Eight skating rinks will remain open until the end of the March Break, Sunday, March 16, weather permitting.
These are: Albert Campbell Square, Dufferin Grove, Hodgson, Kew Gardens, Mel Lastman Square, Nathan Philips Square, Rennie Park and the West Mall.