Rink change area: There are two change rooms but they are almost always locked. Skaters have to change out in the hallway. Very clean, with one vending machine. The rink operator's office is at the opposite end of a long hall, away from the ice surface. It's unmarked and the door is kept closed. Lots of lockers but you have to bring your own combination lock.

To book permits call 416-394-5595.

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

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Rink Diary

2022 - 2023

Jan.22, 2023

The city's skate lending pop-up is scheduled to be at this rink today.

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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.28, 2020

opened for the season

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2019 - 2020

No reports

2018 - 2019

Jan.6, 2019

Since Jan.3, Giovanni Caboto was listed as having a service alert, no additional information. The notice was finally removed this afternoon.

Jan.3, 2019

It snowed last night and at 2 pm this rink still shows a service alert. All other city rinks not under construction are listed as open.

2017 - 2018

Dec.4, 2017

Although the sign posted on the rink fence says the construction work will finish in November, it looks like there's still lots of work to do.

At 11.30 a.m., some city staff making a delivery were knocking on the locked changeroom doors. Eventually the door was opened for them. The rink schedule says that this rink is unsupervised until 4 p.m. -- but does that mean there's no access to the change area either, nor the washrooms?

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Announcement on the city's Giovanni Caboto rink page:

Please Note: During the off-season facility shutdown, Giovanni Caboto Artificial Ice Rink (AIR) will undergo miscellaneous State of Good Repair maintenance. Construction will take place on the following dates:

Giovanni Caboto Artificial Ice Rink (AIR): June, 2017 to November 2017

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September 11, 2017

A letter was sent to the city councillor, offering a donation of a complete skate loan collection for this rink.

Our reasons:
* people love to borrow skates: newcomers, school classes, kids and youth who grew out of their skates
* we have 110 pairs of skates, 20 hockey sticks, 20 helmets to donate
* this kind of program has been done by city staff for 12 years at Dufferin Rink, 9 years at Wallace and Campbell -- lots of experienced staff, each one teach one
* staff often have time on their hands to lend skates and also to maintain skates
* the city has insurance that can cover this (the city is self-insured under $5 million anyway), but skate lending programs are rarely threatened with a claim if they do responsible skate maintenance.

Offer declined.

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2016 - 2017

In September 2016, the city awarded a design contract for Professional and Architectural and Engineering Services, for the Outdoor Pool and Artificial Ice Rink, to Peter T. Mitches & Associates Ltd., for $127,000.00 (not including HST).

Nov.22, 2016

The ice surface looks freshly hosed at 1 p.m. but none of the water is frozen -- maybe their compressors have not been turned on yet? Or perhaps the hosing was very recent, with hot water.

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Posts from earlier years

2015 - 2016

March 11, 2016

This rink was scheduled to stay open until March 20, but was shut down for the season on March 11.

Dec.27, 2015

The rink was closed down on Dec.24 and not reopened until late Dec.26.

Dec.22, 2015

The rink was open, ice looked fine on both pads, shinny hockey on both sides, with a few pleasure-skaters on the north pad. The zamboni driver staff said the rink is unsupervised, and since that means no rink guards, people can play shinny where they want. No rink guards doesn't mean no staff -- the zamboni driver is there full time, but working with the public is not his job. So this rink functions a bit like the tennis-court rinks after hours -- and the scene looked pretty nice. The zamboni driver was shooting the breeze inside the change area, with three guys who were just putting on their skates. All of them were talking about the boards that had been donated by Canadian Tire -- that they were shoddy and partly propped up.

The zamboni driver said the ice had been very good all day and for many days, but that when the temperature goes back up to 15, they would lose the ice and it would take them three days to get back.

Who knows, he might be right. Today was only 14.

Views of the rink

This Rink has two skating pads. Typically one side is used for pleasure skating (during hours when rink is staffed), and the other for shinny.

From The City of Toronto Website 2014-15

For the skating schedule, go to Giovanni Caboto Rink page on the City website, then click on Skating.

Rink Diary

2022 - 2023

Jan.22, 2023

The city's skate lending pop-up is scheduled to be at this rink today.

---

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.28, 2020

opened for the season

---

2019 - 2020

No reports

2018 - 2019

Jan.6, 2019

Since Jan.3, Giovanni Caboto was listed as having a service alert, no additional information. The notice was finally removed this afternoon.

Jan.3, 2019

It snowed last night and at 2 pm this rink still shows a service alert. All other city rinks not under construction are listed as open.

2017 - 2018

Dec.4, 2017

Although the sign posted on the rink fence says the construction work will finish in November, it looks like there's still lots of work to do.

At 11.30 a.m., some city staff making a delivery were knocking on the locked changeroom doors. Eventually the door was opened for them. The rink schedule says that this rink is unsupervised until 4 p.m. -- but does that mean there's no access to the change area either, nor the washrooms?

---

Announcement on the city's Giovanni Caboto rink page:

Please Note: During the off-season facility shutdown, Giovanni Caboto Artificial Ice Rink (AIR) will undergo miscellaneous State of Good Repair maintenance. Construction will take place on the following dates:

Giovanni Caboto Artificial Ice Rink (AIR): June, 2017 to November 2017

---

September 11, 2017

A letter was sent to the city councillor, offering a donation of a complete skate loan collection for this rink.

Our reasons:
* people love to borrow skates: newcomers, school classes, kids and youth who grew out of their skates
* we have 110 pairs of skates, 20 hockey sticks, 20 helmets to donate
* this kind of program has been done by city staff for 12 years at Dufferin Rink, 9 years at Wallace and Campbell -- lots of experienced staff, each one teach one
* staff often have time on their hands to lend skates and also to maintain skates
* the city has insurance that can cover this (the city is self-insured under $5 million anyway), but skate lending programs are rarely threatened with a claim if they do responsible skate maintenance.

Offer declined.

---

2016 - 2017

In September 2016, the city awarded a design contract for Professional and Architectural and Engineering Services, for the Outdoor Pool and Artificial Ice Rink, to Peter T. Mitches & Associates Ltd., for $127,000.00 (not including HST).

Nov.22, 2016

The ice surface looks freshly hosed at 1 p.m. but none of the water is frozen -- maybe their compressors have not been turned on yet? Or perhaps the hosing was very recent, with hot water.

---

Posts from earlier years

2015 - 2016

March 11, 2016

This rink was scheduled to stay open until March 20, but was shut down for the season on March 11.

Dec.27, 2015

The rink was closed down on Dec.24 and not reopened until late Dec.26.

Dec.22, 2015

The rink was open, ice looked fine on both pads, shinny hockey on both sides, with a few pleasure-skaters on the north pad. The zamboni driver staff said the rink is unsupervised, and since that means no rink guards, people can play shinny where they want. No rink guards doesn't mean no staff -- the zamboni driver is there full time, but working with the public is not his job. So this rink functions a bit like the tennis-court rinks after hours -- and the scene looked pretty nice. The zamboni driver was shooting the breeze inside the change area, with three guys who were just putting on their skates. All of them were talking about the boards that had been donated by Canadian Tire -- that they were shoddy and partly propped up.

The zamboni driver said the ice had been very good all day and for many days, but that when the temperature goes back up to 15, they would lose the ice and it would take them three days to get back.

Who knows, he might be right. Today was only 14.

Rink Diary 2013 - 2014

March 1 2014

Sunday afternoon at 4.45 -- a happy-looking bunch of pleasure-skaters, since the rink was re-opened and the season extended. Very quiet on the shinny side with a few kids and young teens. Most youth shinny players at this rink wait until the evening, when they can play shinny without helmets.

Dec.9 2013

At noon the rink had been cleaned of snow and the ice looked good. There were two shinny players, one with a helmet, the other without. The front doors were unlocked and the inside hallway was immaculate. However the stairway leading to the front doors from the street had not been cleaned of snow. There may still be a jurisdictional dispute -- whose responsibility is it to clean the walkway? For years this problem was solved by simply leaving the front doors locked and making skaters come in the side gate to the inside rink doors. Happily, the front doors are now unlocked. There was no staff in sight, for the CELOS visitor to ask about what plans may exist for clearing snow off the stairs to the front doors. It might be a good idea in the interim for the CELOS rink visitors to include a kit in their cars when they visit rinks -- a small snow shovel and a broom.

[[#end]

Dec.1 2013

Even though the city's website has listed this rink as closed all day, by 9.40 a.m. there was one hockey player on the ice, and by 10.30 there was a whole group of parent-and-child shinny players. They said the ice was thin but definitely skateable. The front door leading to the change hallway was unlocked and so were the side gate and the back door. But at 2 pm, 311 was still reporting the rink as closed, and at 10 pm, the "closed" message was still up on the city's website.

Saturday Nov.30, 2013

10 a.m.: The rink was empty and the doors locked. Both rinks looked like they did indeed have ice. There was a loud hum from the compressor room, suggesting that it was in fact on. The city website lists it as closed, even though it might have been possible to skate on it.

There were patches in the middle that looked crunchy, but the pedestrian gate to the rink was also closed so we couldn't take a closer look. No sighting of staff although there might have been one person leaving the hockey pad on skates as we arrived.

Friday Nov.29, 2013

A rink user reports seeing ice-making at the rink at 7 pm, even though the city website still lists it as out of order.

Thursday Nov.28 2013

The rink is not making ice. The compressor room door was open and that means somebody must have been working in there, but there was no Cimco truck or any other sign of intensive work being done. The answer is usually the same: compressor trouble. But what kind of trouble, or why it was only discovered a few days before the rink season began, is not revealed.

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Diary 2012-2013, Diary 2011 - 2012, Diary 2010 - 2011, Diary 2009 - 2010, Diary 2008-2009, Diary 2007-2008, Diary 2006-2007, Diary 2004 - 2005