Hotline Monitor

City of Toronto Rink Hotline Monitor

Monitoring the City of Toronto Rink Hotline - 416-338-RINK (7465), the rink pages on the City website, and the City of Toronto information line "311."

October 14 2009

Lots of people are starting to think about ice skating (temperature at 10 pm: -2 celsius). The rink hotline says only that all outdoor rinks are closed for the 08/09 season -- no message about opening dates.

Nov.1 2009

Still no update on the rink hotline. The new 3-1-1 service say they have received no updated information from Parks staff.

Cityrinks.ca sent e-mails to 14 councillors who have earlier-opening rinks, asking them if they planned to publicize the rink openings, and if they would urge Parks staff to do the same. Councillor Grimes' office said they would be publicizing this and Councillor Ford called to say he had been told by general manager Brenda Patterson that it was being taken care of.

Nov.13, 2009

Fourteen rinks are due to open in 8 days, but the rink hotline still has the closing message from last season. 311 staff have only the information that "outdoor rinks will run from December to March." One 311 caller told us that she was told that City Hall rink would be opening in mid-December. A guess?

Nov.16, 2009

The hotline is now updated to the point of telling callers which 14 rinks are opening on Nov.21. The message invites callers to press 1, 2,3, or 4 depending what rinks they want to hear more about, but pressing any of those numbers yields only "not a valid option."

The 311 people have still not received any specific update from PF&R, but they now read off the city web site to tell which rinks open when. They have received no individual rink phone numbers.

Nov.17 2009

At 6.45 a.m. the 24-hour hotline does not allow the caller access to any outdoor information, just the general helmet information. There's no way to skip that message "sorry that's not a valid option," and when you wait to the end and it says press 1 for outdoor rinks, that yields "Sorry you're having trouble, please try again."

8 a.m. big improvement! The line again allows the caller to skip to outdoor rinks and then to select an individual rinks. The voice sounds pleasant, the information is clear and thorough for many of the rinks.

Individual rinks are updated for Toronto/East York and Etobicoke, not for North York yet. The message for Albert Campbell Rink in Scarborough is that they are now open -- a very friendly sounding message, but incorrect. At the end of the message there`s a silence. If you press 1 again, you get a different message, saying the rink opens Dec.1. But there`s still no mention of how to return to the main menu. (Hint: press star.)

At the very end of every updated rink message, there's a phone number. Some give the rink and some give the nearest community centre.

Nov.21 2009

At 1.30 pm, 311 information said that all city outdoor rinks are closed. At 5.50 pm, 311 gave the same information. At 7.20, the 311 operator read off an e-mail sent at 7.48 a.m., saying that Nathan Philips Square rink would most likely be open all day. Confusion!

Nov.26 2009

Although Dufferin Rink has been open and busy since last Sunday, and the same goes for Nathan Philips Square, the hotline message says that they hope to have City Hall open on the 21st and they regret that the other rinks will have to be delayed, opening as the weather allows. The 311 line has the same information, with only the additional piece that Hodgson Rink is closed.

The website rink pages have the same message as the hotline, also out of date. An e-mail to the recreation staff, to let them know their hotline message is out of date, elicits no response.

City of Toronto- Outdoor Skating Rinks (pdf)

Nov.27 2009

A hat trick today: (1) the old (and wrong) message about outdoor rinks is on the hotline, (2) the website, and (3) at 311 the operator said that Nathan Philips Square is open but the ice is soft because of the warm weather (6 degrees), but no other rinks are open. I asked to speak to a 311 supervisor about this but I just got voice mail.

Nov.28 2009

It's Saturday, but the hotline message is still not updated from a week ago. 311 say they have had no updates either, but the pleasant operator tells me she's sure that Nathan Philips is open because she walked by there today. She thinks Hodgson is open, looking at an older message, but no other rinks. She gives me the phone number that she has for Hodgson, but it turns out it's just for the community centre in that area. The person answering the phone says that that she's sure Hodgson Rink is closed because the weather is too warm. I ask for the direct rink phone number, but she says she doesn't have it. Even if she did have it, she says, she would not give it to me because they are not allowed to give it out.

The city website page for rinks has also not been updated since a week ago. Remarkable.

The 311 operator switched me to their supervisor's voice mail and I left another message there, suggesting that she might want to give a nudge to Parks and Rec.

Nov.29 2009

The city website is still from Nov.21. At 2 pm the rink hotline has no answer at all (still better than wrong info). 311 had been updated from the West region, i.e. they knew that both West Mall and Rennie have their hockey sides open. But they had received no information from the other regions, and they were still unaware that Dufferin has been open all week.

At 2.20 the rink hotline was back in answering mode -- but with the same out-of-date information as before.

Nov.30 2009

E-mail to Malcolm Bromley, director of Recreation, with a cc to Brenda Patterson, general manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and to 311 Toronto.

"Hello -- despite my repeated efforts to let your staff know that the hotline and the city website rink info page have had the wrong information about the outdoor rinks for more than a week now, up to this moment no change has been made. The people at 311 also seem to be lacking information.

Who can address this?"

Within a few minutes, an email came back from Brenda Patterson's office: "I have asked for this to be reviewed and resolved"

At 7 pm, the 311 line was updated, and the out-of-date delay information had been replaced by a general message, also referring the viewer to the 311 line. The rink hotline still had the out-of-date message on it. But there's progress.

Dec.1 2009

The 311 number refers callers to the rink hotline, which now gives information up to today and advises calling 311 "for current status of outdoor rinks."

The outdoor rink website page refers callers to 311, which refers callers to the rink hotline. For skaters who want to get an outdoor rink permit, there is no specific permit number but there is a link called "search for available ice time" which gets you to the "Fun Guide," giving another link called "Facility Availability Search." But that link only has indoor arena information.

Dec.3 2009

The rink hotline has been updated to include Sunnydale Rink (open). It doesn't mention that only the hockey sides of West Mall and Rennie Rink are open.

Dec.5 2009

Official opening day for all city rinks, but at 1 pm the rink hotline still has the information from two days ago. 311 have been told that Prince of Wales, Martingrove, Trinity and Rosedale are closed. They have not been told that Otter Creek, Campbell, High Park, Ryerson, College Park, Withrow, Glen Long, Irving Chapley, or Ledbury are closed, or that Ramsden and Harry Gairey are closed on the hockey sides. 311 recommended calling the rink hotline to find out more.

But at 9 pm, the same outdated message from two days ago is still on the rink hotline.

Dec.6 2009

At 1 pm, the rink hotline has been updated. It says that "for current status of rinks, please call 311." However, the 311 line has information that does not entirely match the information from individual rinks. For example, it says that Glen Long and Irving Chapley are open, but those rinks said yesterday they would open on Monday. When I question the information, the operator suggests calling the rink hotline. But the hotline has no opening date information.

The hotline has schedules for Ryerson and College Park rinks, although both are said to be closed indefinitely. The hotline also offers an option for rink information for Robert Street Rink, which has been closed for about 15 years. It's no wonder, then, that when you press "2" you get "this is not a valid option."

Dec.9 2009

In the last few days, as most of the rinks have opened, the information has been improving. But last night was a storm that involved both snow and rain. This morning all the rinks were closed, but during the course of the day, some of the rinks opened. At 7.30 pm the 311 line had what sounded like the right information for Toronto/East York, but there had been no updates for Etobicoke or North York since early in the morning.

Dec.16 2009, e-mail from cityrinks to 311, cc to Brenda Patterson, general manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation

Dec.18 2009, e-mail form Parks director Andy Koropeski:

Dec.24 2009

The city website had contradictory information on it:
Holiday Ice Rink Schedule Etobicock, North York, Scarborough and East York

According to the website, the buildings are closed at every outdoor rink on the three statutory holidays.

Dec.25 2009

The 311 line says that only two city rinks are open, but Wallace, Dufferin and Campbell Rinks are also open (previously scheduled Recreation staff worked with volunteers to shovel the snow off).

Dec.26 2009

311 says that all rinks are open except for some closed for the weather (Albert Campbell Square, Hodgson, and North Toronto). They also say that Christie Rink is closed, and that they received word on Dec.14 that it would be closed for all the stat holidays, despite what the Parks director wrote on Dec.18.

Feb.15 2010: the home page Family Day announcement:

On Family Day (February 15) rinks and building are open 9am - 9pm at Greenwood, Hodgson, Rennie, Dufferin Grove and Wallace rinks. The rest of the rinks have their buildings open only from 9am to 5pm, but all rink surfaces are open until 10 pm.

Family Day - February 15, 2010
Artificial Ice Rinks and Arenas Schedule, the schedules for Dufferin,Wallace and Campbell are incorrect on the city's website. These rinks will operate regular MONDAY weekday schedules.

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Content last modified on December 21, 2008, at 08:02 PM EST