Rink change area: Outside benches, but not enough, plus a very small indoor change room with lockers.

Every year there's music and skating at the square on Dec.31: New Year's Eve at Nathan Phillips Square

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Comments about this rink: e-mail us at [email protected].

2022 - 2023

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Rink diaries from earlier years:

2021 - 2022

Nov.27, 2021

Opened for the season

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2020 - 2021

COVID-RELATED RESTRICTIONS: To find out how to book a skating time, go to the city's outdoor rinks web page.
All shinny hockey has been removed except for Greenwood (and only children and youth are allowed there). The city's opening rules are described here and our rinks blog is here.

Nov.29, 2020

At 3.30 p.m. the rink at City Hall was surrounded by fencing and was staffed by both security guards and rink staff with clipboards. The ice looked fine but apparently yesterday this rink was not allowed to open. No one knew why. There is no skate rental and the rink, although very large, is being treated as a single pad with only 25 skaters allowed.

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2019 - 2020

Dec.8, 2019

The square is filled with vendors of gifts and food trucks. A Santa guy is taking wishes up on the performance stage, with a short lineup of kids waiting. The rink sound system continues to broadcast the usual radio station, its ads still booming out over the square. The lockers still use keys, and are apparently working. The doors to the washrooms continue to have their wheelchair symbols without a mechanism to actually open the doors. Of concern to the staff is the difficulty for older skaters when they have to step down to get onto the rink, or have to go up a slippery ramp to get off.

Nov.30, 2019, City news release

2018 - 2019

Opened Nov.24, 2018

Feb.8, 2019

''At 12 noon there's an out of date posting about our main civic rink on the city's website. It's been on since Wednesday afternoon and today is Friday:

Jan.12, 2019

A busy day at the rink. The radio station that the rink staff put on the P.A. is booming an ad for Shopper's Drug Mart across the square, followed by another ad. There are four rink staff sitting inside the office. The big window has no sound access for inquiries, but two of the staff come out after my sign language inquiries. They say they just put on whatever station is available. I ask them to register a complaint, and they say they will.

This has been an issue for years -- free ads broadcast across our main civic square! Embarrassing.

The accessible door openers have not been installed. The same fake signs are up as before.

Dec.27, 2018

The lockers are all fixed. A rink guard said they were fixed yesterday (on Boxing Day). It's nice that the Star's Fixer got involved, but it's no way to run a rink. Maybe the Fixer can ask city staff about the door-opening access buttons that are just pretend.

The fake signs have been all there is (no door-opening mechanism) since the rink building was put up in 2011. Management seemed to be unaware of this problem when we talked to them in 2015 but said they'd attend to it. Three years later it's still the same!

I just called 311 and wrote to Councillor Cressy as well. If the lockers got fixed in two days, maybe there's hope for the doors.

Dec.23, 2018

A Star article by the Fixer says that all lockers at the rink at city hall are out of service.

Chris Selley on twitter: "I mean, honestly, how does a LOCKER go "out of service"? How many freaking moving parts does it even have? But in any event, here's 45 coin-operated lockers on Kijiji for $2,985. Sorted."

Joshua Hind on twitter: "the City’s procurement is so slow and bureaucratic that PF&R could buy the lockers on a PCARD, but it would be summer before they had a vendor in place to install them."

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2017 - 2018

Jan.17, 2018: amplified music

There are only a few city rinks that have music for skating. Nathan Phillips and Colonel Sam Smith both play music. And it's not unusual to hear long strings of ads booming out over city hall square, along with the music.

We assumed that the city must be getting some money to broadcasts these private radio ads over the public square, so we asked the city through Freedom of Information. It turns out that the ads are broadcast all over our main civic square for free! From the FOI response:

"City staff may play commercial radio at rinks, however there is no policy or protocol governing this, it is very much a local decision."

Really?

At Colonel Sam Smith, the rink staff like CHFI. Maybe at city hall too. And they can share their taste, and the ads, with the world at large, just as they choose.

Will the New Year's Eve Party go on despite the cold? [It didn't]

Facebook Link

Dec.8, 2017

Holiday fair at City Hall

This fair is on from Dec.1 to Dec.23. There are rides for kids including a carousel, plenty of market booths selling the usual international bounty (clothing, jewellery, art) and many warming stations -- mostly propane heaters but one area with muskoka chairs and a couple of campfire cages. There's also free wine tasting -- a surprise. And the stage is set up for music later.

Note: despite all those nice things set up (by a private company) to make Nathan Phillips Square lively and fun, there is still -- sadly -- no automatic door into the public washrooms. During the summer the doors were simply propped open, to comply with the law. But in the winter when it's cold, that workaround is not possible.

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2016 - 2017

In October 2016, the city awarded a contract for Replacement Of Refrigeration Plant, Pool Piping & Upgrades to Aplus General Contractors Corporation, for $4,240,000 (not including HST).

Dec.2, 2016

The rink has been listed as open every day since its scheduled opening on Nov.26. This website gets a fair number of inquiries for a phone number for skate lending. The company that runs the skate lending is private, not city-owned. They list this number 1-647-380-1921.

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2015 - 2016

March 19, 2016

From skater Nicole Fritz: "The ice was pretty gouged, but what a beautiful day to have our last skate of the season!"

March 12, 2016

At 11.30 on a mild and sunny Saturday morning, the rink is holding up well, and it looks like before too long the sun will disappear behind the hotel, so that it won't be able to lick at the ice so directly anymore. Even though the ice is good, there are only 8 skaters on the rink. There are 4 rink guards chatting at the side, making a ratio of 2 skaters per rink guard. There's another city staff person inside the office. On a day of uncertainty about ice conditions, it would certainly be possible to spare one staff person to answer a direct phone line -- if there was one -- and let a few more prospective skaters know how the ice is.

The fake automatic door opener is still in place at the public washrooms -- a picture of a wheelchair, but it's not connected to a mechanism. The meeting at which we told rink management about this problem -- which they were shocked to hear about, and said they would follow up right away -- was on February 3rd.

March 9, 2016

The rink has been watery all week but a few people still come to skate, and at 8.15 pm the skate lending is open. For a change, there is actually a customer at the Heros Burger food counter, although they seem to be chatting -- maybe a friend has come by to help the time pass more agreeably. There are two rink guards standing at the side. The usual radio station is on. The ice looks quite thick at the sides, with a layer of water. There are 8 skaters on the ice, two more sitting on the side.

Feb.3, 2016

The ice has some water overtop in patches, but people seem to have a fine time skating on it.

January 16, 2016

Saturday morning: The washroom has been fixed, hurray. The rink has four green skate aids, which are being used by kids and their parents, with obvious enjoyment. The radio station booming out over the rink sound system is on a talk show, interspersed with commercials. Outside and inside the washrooms, there are fake disability buttons, just little screwed-on plastic plates. Eventually the real, operating mechanism will probably come, but when?

January 12, 2016

At 1 pm, both, the website and 311 say all Toronto/EY rinks are closed, including this one, but that's unlikely. Harbourfront shows happy skaters on their webcam, and Dufferin Rink has been open since 9 a.m., according to their staff.

January 4, 2016, email from Haroon Qureshi, to City Councillor Kristin Wong-Tam

From Josh Smart (Facebook post): "I have been playing at city hall after 10pm for 20 years. I have seen many different attitudes to the game there. There was a time in the early 2000's when every single light that could've turned off was , including the spotlights on the top of city hall... One thing that has remained the same though... Is the inability to get any real answers about why these things are happening."

Dec.31, 2015

Nathan Phillips Square New Year's Eve dancing and skating.

Dec.25 2015

At 10 a.m.: City Hall rink is open.

Dec.5 2015

November 28, 2015

The rink opened on time and with very good ice. In fact, skaters reported that they had been skating (and playing shinny) at night for several days already. This is despite daytime temperatures of 15 celsius, and on Wednesday overnight, the same.

November 23, 2015, 2 pm

The rink is not supposed to open until 5 days from now but it has lots of ice -- more than in some other years on opening day. The rink staff were just putting the zamboni away -- obviously they've been using it already.

Views of the rink

From The City of Toronto Website 2014-15

For the skating schedule, go to City Hall, then click on Skating.

Notes

• This rink is always opened first and closed last. Because it's in the shadow from a big hotel to the south, its ice is better than rinks that are in direct sunlight.
• Parking underground in city hall lot (pricey but handy).
• 5 minutes from two subway lines and 2 minutes from the Queen Streetcar.
• Skate Rental: 416 304-1400. This is also the most reliable number to find out how the ice is.

Rink Diary 2013 - 2014

2022 - 2023

---

Rink diaries from earlier years:

2021 - 2022

Nov.27, 2021

Opened for the season

---

2020 - 2021

COVID-RELATED RESTRICTIONS: To find out how to book a skating time, go to the city's outdoor rinks web page.
All shinny hockey has been removed except for Greenwood (and only children and youth are allowed there). The city's opening rules are described here and our rinks blog is here.

Nov.29, 2020

At 3.30 p.m. the rink at City Hall was surrounded by fencing and was staffed by both security guards and rink staff with clipboards. The ice looked fine but apparently yesterday this rink was not allowed to open. No one knew why. There is no skate rental and the rink, although very large, is being treated as a single pad with only 25 skaters allowed.

---

2019 - 2020

Dec.8, 2019

The square is filled with vendors of gifts and food trucks. A Santa guy is taking wishes up on the performance stage, with a short lineup of kids waiting. The rink sound system continues to broadcast the usual radio station, its ads still booming out over the square. The lockers still use keys, and are apparently working. The doors to the washrooms continue to have their wheelchair symbols without a mechanism to actually open the doors. Of concern to the staff is the difficulty for older skaters when they have to step down to get onto the rink, or have to go up a slippery ramp to get off.

Nov.30, 2019, City news release

2018 - 2019

Opened Nov.24, 2018

Feb.8, 2019

''At 12 noon there's an out of date posting about our main civic rink on the city's website. It's been on since Wednesday afternoon and today is Friday:

Jan.12, 2019

A busy day at the rink. The radio station that the rink staff put on the P.A. is booming an ad for Shopper's Drug Mart across the square, followed by another ad. There are four rink staff sitting inside the office. The big window has no sound access for inquiries, but two of the staff come out after my sign language inquiries. They say they just put on whatever station is available. I ask them to register a complaint, and they say they will.

This has been an issue for years -- free ads broadcast across our main civic square! Embarrassing.

The accessible door openers have not been installed. The same fake signs are up as before.

Dec.27, 2018

The lockers are all fixed. A rink guard said they were fixed yesterday (on Boxing Day). It's nice that the Star's Fixer got involved, but it's no way to run a rink. Maybe the Fixer can ask city staff about the door-opening access buttons that are just pretend.

The fake signs have been all there is (no door-opening mechanism) since the rink building was put up in 2011. Management seemed to be unaware of this problem when we talked to them in 2015 but said they'd attend to it. Three years later it's still the same!

I just called 311 and wrote to Councillor Cressy as well. If the lockers got fixed in two days, maybe there's hope for the doors.

Dec.23, 2018

A Star article by the Fixer says that all lockers at the rink at city hall are out of service.

Chris Selley on twitter: "I mean, honestly, how does a LOCKER go "out of service"? How many freaking moving parts does it even have? But in any event, here's 45 coin-operated lockers on Kijiji for $2,985. Sorted."

Joshua Hind on twitter: "the City’s procurement is so slow and bureaucratic that PF&R could buy the lockers on a PCARD, but it would be summer before they had a vendor in place to install them."

---

2017 - 2018

Jan.17, 2018: amplified music

There are only a few city rinks that have music for skating. Nathan Phillips and Colonel Sam Smith both play music. And it's not unusual to hear long strings of ads booming out over city hall square, along with the music.

We assumed that the city must be getting some money to broadcasts these private radio ads over the public square, so we asked the city through Freedom of Information. It turns out that the ads are broadcast all over our main civic square for free! From the FOI response:

"City staff may play commercial radio at rinks, however there is no policy or protocol governing this, it is very much a local decision."

Really?

At Colonel Sam Smith, the rink staff like CHFI. Maybe at city hall too. And they can share their taste, and the ads, with the world at large, just as they choose.

Will the New Year's Eve Party go on despite the cold? [It didn't]

Facebook Link

Dec.8, 2017

Holiday fair at City Hall

This fair is on from Dec.1 to Dec.23. There are rides for kids including a carousel, plenty of market booths selling the usual international bounty (clothing, jewellery, art) and many warming stations -- mostly propane heaters but one area with muskoka chairs and a couple of campfire cages. There's also free wine tasting -- a surprise. And the stage is set up for music later.

Note: despite all those nice things set up (by a private company) to make Nathan Phillips Square lively and fun, there is still -- sadly -- no automatic door into the public washrooms. During the summer the doors were simply propped open, to comply with the law. But in the winter when it's cold, that workaround is not possible.

---

2016 - 2017

In October 2016, the city awarded a contract for Replacement Of Refrigeration Plant, Pool Piping & Upgrades to Aplus General Contractors Corporation, for $4,240,000 (not including HST).

Dec.2, 2016

The rink has been listed as open every day since its scheduled opening on Nov.26. This website gets a fair number of inquiries for a phone number for skate lending. The company that runs the skate lending is private, not city-owned. They list this number 1-647-380-1921.

---

2015 - 2016

March 19, 2016

From skater Nicole Fritz: "The ice was pretty gouged, but what a beautiful day to have our last skate of the season!"

March 12, 2016

At 11.30 on a mild and sunny Saturday morning, the rink is holding up well, and it looks like before too long the sun will disappear behind the hotel, so that it won't be able to lick at the ice so directly anymore. Even though the ice is good, there are only 8 skaters on the rink. There are 4 rink guards chatting at the side, making a ratio of 2 skaters per rink guard. There's another city staff person inside the office. On a day of uncertainty about ice conditions, it would certainly be possible to spare one staff person to answer a direct phone line -- if there was one -- and let a few more prospective skaters know how the ice is.

The fake automatic door opener is still in place at the public washrooms -- a picture of a wheelchair, but it's not connected to a mechanism. The meeting at which we told rink management about this problem -- which they were shocked to hear about, and said they would follow up right away -- was on February 3rd.

March 9, 2016

The rink has been watery all week but a few people still come to skate, and at 8.15 pm the skate lending is open. For a change, there is actually a customer at the Heros Burger food counter, although they seem to be chatting -- maybe a friend has come by to help the time pass more agreeably. There are two rink guards standing at the side. The usual radio station is on. The ice looks quite thick at the sides, with a layer of water. There are 8 skaters on the ice, two more sitting on the side.

Feb.3, 2016

The ice has some water overtop in patches, but people seem to have a fine time skating on it.

January 16, 2016

Saturday morning: The washroom has been fixed, hurray. The rink has four green skate aids, which are being used by kids and their parents, with obvious enjoyment. The radio station booming out over the rink sound system is on a talk show, interspersed with commercials. Outside and inside the washrooms, there are fake disability buttons, just little screwed-on plastic plates. Eventually the real, operating mechanism will probably come, but when?

January 12, 2016

At 1 pm, both, the website and 311 say all Toronto/EY rinks are closed, including this one, but that's unlikely. Harbourfront shows happy skaters on their webcam, and Dufferin Rink has been open since 9 a.m., according to their staff.

January 4, 2016, email from Haroon Qureshi, to City Councillor Kristin Wong-Tam

From Josh Smart (Facebook post): "I have been playing at city hall after 10pm for 20 years. I have seen many different attitudes to the game there. There was a time in the early 2000's when every single light that could've turned off was , including the spotlights on the top of city hall... One thing that has remained the same though... Is the inability to get any real answers about why these things are happening."

Dec.31, 2015

Nathan Phillips Square New Year's Eve dancing and skating.

Dec.25 2015

At 10 a.m.: City Hall rink is open.

Dec.5 2015

November 28, 2015

The rink opened on time and with very good ice. In fact, skaters reported that they had been skating (and playing shinny) at night for several days already. This is despite daytime temperatures of 15 celsius, and on Wednesday overnight, the same.

November 23, 2015, 2 pm

The rink is not supposed to open until 5 days from now but it has lots of ice -- more than in some other years on opening day. The rink staff were just putting the zamboni away -- obviously they've been using it already.

Rink Diary 2012 - 2013

Feb.1, 2013 from skater Linda Sims

I am going to be skating at Nathan Phillips Square, and wondered whether there are lockers we can rent to hold our purses/phones/other valuables?

Feb.2, from cityrinks to Linda

Hello - there are lockers, it seems. See here: http://www.cityrinks.ca/wiki/wiki.php?n=CityHallRink.FrontPage#Diaries If you get a chance to let us know if they are accessible and what your experience was like - please do.

Feb.2, from Linda to cityrinks

Thanks for this information. I went skating and it was terrific – good skates, plenty of lockers, and lots of fun!

March 8, 2013, from skater Fiona McAlister:

Your website says that the nathan phillips square rink closes for the season on March 10 but according to the city of Toronto it closes on the 15th. Normally that difference of 5 days wouldn't matter but it happens to cover March break so visitors to the city might want to know that the rink is actually opened. Your site is the one that comes up first when I google Nathan Phillips Square skating so I imagine that is true for other tourists too.

Response from cityrinks:

Thanks for pointing that out. Cityrinks.ca actually has individual pages for 56 compressor-cooled rinks plus 18 natural ice rinks. On the home page we wrote March 15, but I'll change the sub-page too.

If you look at the home page you'll see that we're the unofficial website, i.e. we're not a municipal site, we're outdoor-rink enthusiasts who want the rinks to work well. Outdoor rinks don't work at all well in March, the sun is too high already and has too much power: http://cityrinks.ca/wiki/wiki.php?n=HowToFixIt.OutdoorRinksAndWeather. Compressors are strong but the March sun is stronger :-)

Note today's "latest news" on our home page -- if the sun keeps shining during most of the day, the rinks will start to be mush by 1 pm, and will be mostly unskateable by 3. Some ice surfaces may come back for an hour or two by this evening, if they're not too rutted from people trying to skate on them.

So out-of-town visitors might want to leave their skates behind, no matter what the city's rink schedule says...

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Diary 2011 - 2012, Diary 2010 - 2011, Rink Diary 2009 - 2010 Diary 2008-2009, Diary 2007-2008, Diary 2006 - 2007, Diary 2005 - 2006, Diary 2004 - 2005

Rink Capital Costs

Total cost of City Hall Rink reno was increased by $750,000.00 net of all applicable taxes ($763,200.00 net of HST recoveries), revising the current contract value from $1,935,019.00 to $2,685,019.00 net of all applicable taxes.

See here for Contract award details.

CELOS Estimate of Rink Operating Costs (2009)

posted January 07, 2009

We have gone to several disparate sources to arrive at an estimate of annual (seasonal) operating costs of Toronto's 49 outdoor rinks ("AIR's" - Artificial Ice Rinks).

Our best estimate of direct costs from these approaches is

• maintenance staff $1.3M
• rink guards $0.5M
• energy $1.4M

Total direct cost estimate $3.2M (average about $65,000 per rink - 12 week season)