For better use and better management. The UNOFFICIAL Website of Toronto's Outdoor Skating Rinks
posted Feburary 11, 2006
February 7 2006 rink meeting report.
posted January 31, 2006
posted January 31, 2006
We've opened a subsite for the Wallace Emerson Centre, mostly its rink. Type "WallaceEmerson.ca" into your browser.
posted November 21, 2005
Harborfront Rink
posted October 14, 2005
posted October 15, 2005
October 10, 2005, group letter from Jutta Mason to the "friends of the rink list":
posted October 14, 2005
posted February 1, 2006
All friends of City of Toronto outdoor rinks:
Public meeting Tuesday Feb.7
Dufferin Rink, 7.p.m.
The City's management of outdoor compressor-run ice rinks isn’t working.
For quite a few years now, friends of Dufferin Rink and other outdoor rinks have advocated for improvements in outdoor rink operations throughout the city. Sometimes it seemed like we were getting somewhere, but lots of times the problems returned.
Now we seem to have hit a wall. Outdoor rinks are still often poorly maintained. At Dufferin Rink, the zamboni drivers say they can’t stand working at any rink run like this one. The city's management, distracted by a problematic departmental reorganization, has let this situation develop with little interference. Read more >>
posted January 24, 2006
For some years now, most of the City’s staff zamboni operators have been reluctant to work at Dufferin Rink. Some have not been shy to say so. They say there’s too much interference with their regular way of running rinks. The zamboni drivers seem particularly unhappy about the idea that they should match their ice maintenance visits to the rink program schedule. One particular zamboni operator recently insisted on clearing the ice before a hockey permit was finished, because, he said, that was his prerogative if he felt like it. When a rink friend argued with him, the zamboni driver and his partner left the rink without grooming the ice at all, and went home early. A few days later some of the City zamboni drivers summoned their supervisor to a health and safety meeting.
posted February 20, 2006
The City of Toronto has 49 outdoor ice rinks that are cooled by compressors. Many northern cities have one or two such rinks, usually in central plazas or major parks. We have them in neighbourhoods as well, the only city in the world to build such a large number. They're worth more than $60 million. They're supposed to be looked after by Toronto's Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division, but the system for maintaining most of those rinks is a shambles.