City Rinks (Toronto)
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TORONTO STAR, JANUARY 3 1958: "It is true that the parks department operates 58 natural ice rinks for skating and 23 for hockey - or will do so, if and when there is enough frost. For all the freezing weather we get here most winters, the department might as well spare the trouble and expense, and get on with the job of multiplying the number of artificial ice rinks."
(And they did!)
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You are on the [cover page] of folder [Broadlands Rink]< Table Of Rinks | Go to List of Rinks | Glen Long Rink >
See Rink Diaries for Broadlands Rink
Broadlands Rink Profile
Rink change area: Inside the connected community centre. Very clean, rubber flooring throughout. Change rooms are separated by gender and have no windows. No benches in the hallway and no benches outside. Community centre has two rooms with many windows next to the rink, but both are used as staff offices.
Staff: Polite, often found in their office, focused on making sure the permits get proper service.
Maintenance: There are 14 ice maintenance shifts a week. There's an onsite zamboni but no plow -- when it snows, the zamboni has to take off ALL the snow, which can take many hours.
Public Skating and open shinny hockey:
Free Pleasure-skating: Programmed for a total of 8 and a half hours a week (see note).
Free Shinny hockey: Programmed for a total of 4 hours a week. (See note)
Note: Broadlands also allows pleasure skating when there are no permits or program times, but they DO NOT allow shinny hockey outside of the 4 hours a week (two for little kids, 2 for adults). No drop-in shinny is allowed even if the ice is empty. No, really.
For February 2009 skating schedule: click here
City's estimated full operating cost for this rink, per season: $120,983.55
Permit revenue in 2008: $16,526.56
Public funds spent to run this rink, per season: $104,456.99
Amount of public skating during prime time,* per week: 12 hours
*prime time means after 4pm weekdays and all day on weekends
To inquire about permits for this rink, call Elvie at 416 395-6004.
Comments about this rink: e-mail us at rinkissues@cityrinks.ca.
Views of the rink
 Excellent ice maintenance but the rink is often empty |
 When the rink is opened for public skating, people will come |
Rink Diary 2009 - 2010
Friday November 20th, 2009
no attempt to make ice
Overcast. This rink will not be opening on schedule. The rink had only a few puddles of water. The compressors were turned off. The staff in the building asked if I was looking for a permit. He said that they had decided to keep the compressors off since they only had 100 Hp which would not be enough to keep ice in this weather. He said that maybe they would try again next week depending on the supervisors there.
Sunday Nov.22 2009
Sunny. The rink operator/caretaker was in the office and another staff person also. The operator said that it would be impossible to make ice and they were not going to attempt it until it gets cold. He also said that the plexiglass barriers around the rink result in less air circulation, which makes it even harder to keep ice in.
Dec.5 2009
High 1, low -5.
According to both the voice message on the phone, and a rink operator reached later, Broadlands is open and the ice is in good condition.
Dec.22 2009
At 11.30 there are 18 shinny hockey players on the ice, all of them wearing helmets. The friendly zamboni driver invites me into his office and we chat about when we came to Canada (he by plane, I on a boat). He tells me that he's good at extracting pucks that get stuck in the zamboni agur -- and I can well believe it. He's been doing this work for several decades, and he takes pride in the rink.
January 2 2010, e-mail to cityrinks.ca from K.C.:
Hi, I was just wondering what the schedule is for adult shinny hockey. Thanks.
Reply from cityrinks, January 3 2010, cc'd to Kim Hussey and Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
I'm sorry to tell you that according to the City's skating brochure http://cityrinks.ca/wiki/uploads/ListOfRinks/Skate2010-NorthYorkWeb_NorthDistrict.pdf, if you work normal hours, there is no drop-in shinny hockey available at Broadlands at all.
The hours for all-ages shinny hockey at Broadlands are only in the daytime, and only on weekdays: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 1p.m. to 3.30p.m., and Tuesday, Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1p.m.
The cityrinks.ca website is not a municipal website and we have no say in scheduling. However, I can tell you that there are many outdoor compressor-cooled ice rinks in the city that do have drop-in shinny hockey on evenings and weekends, some as many as 35 hours a week.
I have cc'd Kim Hussey, the North York community recreation programmer, and Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, your city councillor, in case they have some clarifications to offer for this unfortunate state of affairs at Broadlands.
To see the (2007-2008) report card, click here
Content last modified on January 04, 2010, at 01:20 PM EST