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You are in the Wallace Emerson Rink folder
For city-wide information, see Current Rink Conditions in Latest News on the home page.
You can also go to wallaceemerson.ca for more information about the community centre.
Wallace Emerson (Double Pad) Rink Profile
Compressors: 200 hp plus one 40 hp brine pump and one 10 hp slow duty pump
updated November 09, 2008
Rink change area: Very bright and comfortable, snack bar, board games and storybooks for little kids, skate rentals.
Staff: Very friendly,and happy to hear what skaters have to say. They lend skates: suggested donation skates $2, sticks and gloves $1, helmets no charge. Staff enforce rules of behaviour Phone: 416-392-0911
Maintenance: Zamboni (there's a new shed to house it) and a part-time on-site zamboni driver. Rink users often work with staff to shovel snow off the ice surface.
Free shinny-hockey and pleasure-skating hours:
2011-2012
Free Pleasure-skating: Available a total of 51 hours a week (supervised), 11 hours (unsupervised), during prime time.
Free Shinny hockey: Available a total of 47 hours a week (supervised), 12:30 hours (unsupervised), during prime time.
Rink pleasure skating pad is open overnight -- no fence. After 9:00pm (except on Friday and Saturday) you're welcome to play shinny on the pleasure-skating side (before that the pleasure skating ONLY rule is strictly enforced). Extended skate-lending hours on Friday and Saturday, until 10 p.m.
There are no additional permits available at Wallace Rink. To inquire about permits in other rinks, contact Carol Mendes at 416-392-0361.
*prime time means after 4pm weekdays and all day on weekends
Comments about this rink: e-mail us at rinkissues@cityrinks.ca.
Opening and closing dates:
Opens: Dec 1, 2012
Closes: Feb 24, 2013
Diary 2012 - 2013
See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog
Monday December 17, 2012 - New shelter for Garage Entrance
the Wallace rink guard (red boots) brought her family!
Wednesday Dec.26, Boxing Day
The rink house is crammed with people -- everyone seemingly in a happy mood -- maybe a bit excited about the coming snowstorm.
Wednesday January 2, 2013
The rink is hugely crowded but only one staff has been scheduled to work. Not nearly enough. Skates are getting dull but not enough staff to take care of them.
Wednesday January 23, 2013
There was no morning ice maintenance. Recreation staff called to find out when the Zamboni driver would be coming. The crew arrived at 1pm
Wednesday January 30, 2013
It was a warm winter day, 14 degrees Celsius. There was a lot of water on the rink, but because it was cloudy the ice underneath was solid. In the morning a group of French students skated in the rain, one of the students carrying an umbrella. In the afternoon another group from the same school came. At 3pm the ice had still not received any maintenance meaning both student groups had to skate on a rink covered in water. Read More >>
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 2012-13
For the skating schedule, go to Wallace Emerson Rink page on the City website, then click on Skating.
Local Rink Schedule - which may differ from the city schedule.
As a pdf
For up to date listings of open rinks (not the same as scheduled openings), see Current Conditions on the cityrinks.ca Home Page
If you notice a different schedule at your rink, please let us know mail@cityrinks.ca
See also the City of Toronto Outdoor Rinks web pages.
Diary 2012-2013
See also: Editor's and Rink Users' blog
Monday December 17, 2012 - New shelter for Garage Entrance
the Wallace rink guard (red boots) brought her family!
Wednesday Dec.26, Boxing Day
The rink house is crammed with people -- everyone seemingly in a happy mood -- maybe a bit excited about the coming snowstorm.
Wednesday January 2, 2013
The rink is hugely crowded but only one staff has been scheduled to work. Not nearly enough. Skates are getting dull but not enough staff to take care of them.
Wednesday January 23, 2013
There was no morning ice maintenance. Recreation staff called to find out when the Zamboni driver would be coming. The crew arrived at 1pm
Wednesday January 30, 2013
It was a warm winter day, 14 degrees Celsius. There was a lot of water on the rink, but because it was cloudy the ice underneath was solid. In the morning a group of French students skated in the rain, one of the students carrying an umbrella. In the afternoon another group from the same school came. At 3pm the ice had still not received any maintenance meaning both student groups had to skate on a rink covered in water. Read More >>
Diary January 2012
January 27, 2012
no zamboni --ice too snowy
There are some long-term ice maintenance problems at Wallace Rink. City Councillor Ana Bailao wanted to find out details. Excerpts:
1. Missing zamboni: Wallace zamboni was used as the flying squad vehicle from Dec.3 until January 12, supposedly because flying squad zamboni took that long to fix (parts had to be ordered from across the world, etc.). That meant that Wallace had irregular ice maintenance (not corresponding to the schedule, sometimes missed altogether) until Jan.12
2. Repairs too slow: Between Dec.4 and 12 there was no reliable hot water for the zamboni to flood Wallace Rink, so the ice was bad. (Water tank was finally replaced). When the Wallace zamboni driver hit an electrical line, program staff were not given the key to let in the electrician – he had to come back on a different day (three times?)
3. Communication: Definitely improved from other years. But at all three rinks, concerns and routines still need to be communicated better between the inside and the outside staff. Some flying-squad drivers or substitute drivers went on the ice without notifying rink staff – they didn’t want to come inside the change room to say they were on site. Communication and connection take a bit more time, but save time and money in the end.
4. Keys: Problems in communication between caretaker zamboni drivers and regular zamboni drivers at Wallace Rink – unwillingness to pass keys through rink program staff, unwillingness to give enough keys to caretaker-drivers. Sometimes it took hours until zamboni driver got a key, hours before trades could get access to compressor room or garage when they came to do a repair.
5. Vacation scheduling: Main on-site caretaker- zamboni-driver at Wallace was scheduled for his annual vacation on January 12 until the end of the season. He was replaced by off-site caretaker from Trinity-Bellwoods, who was not available at need (snow, rain).
February 2012
Friday Feb.3 2012
Late this afternoon staff found out that a permit had been booked into the 9 pm youth program time. This was despite attempts by the rink staff to explain to management that Wallace needs its program time to be honoured.
shut out of the rink
unexpected permit from Mississauga
The permit group was a league from Mississauga, playing full-equipment hockey. They at first went to Dufferin Rink because they don't know the neighbourhood. When they got to Wallace, the staff had to direct them to the swimming pool change rooms far down the hall, because Wallace Rink doesn't have segregated change rooms.
Meantime the youth were very unhappy, but most of them just left. One of the older shinny regulars stayed behind. He said he lives just at the edge of Etobicoke but he comes all the way into town because the rinks in the west are mainly taken up by permits. So it's hard to find any place for drop-in shinny hockey.
February 12 2012
the new skate aid collection
There seems to be no way to settle the skate aid/chairs question before the end of the rink season (or maybe never!). There's only one plastic skate aid left. The supervisor let some of the chairs be brought back down for now, but there aren't enough. So the cookie money was taken to IKEA and staff bought ten more chairs. They put them together without the seats, which may cut down on the kids pushing each other. Kind of ingenious.
Today there were lots of little incidents. One of the "rink rat" girls called rink staff Yo Utano, who is Japanese, a "chink." She said it loudly and repeatedly and the parents within earshot got quite upset. The girl herself is Jamaican. When the afternoon rink shift came in, one of them made the girl sit down and write lines: "I will not make racist remarks." When Yo left, the girl was still writing -- she had been told to write it 500 times, but the staff probably didn't make her do them all.
Yesterday, one of the other troublemaker kids took somebody's toboggan home. The staff saw him take it but didn't realize it was stolen until a woman reported it gone. So today when the kid came to skate, he was told he couldn't get on the rink until he brought back the toboggan. Long negotiations, with him at first insisting he hadn't taken it and then saying he hadn't realized it belonged to somebody, and then saying that he lived too far away to go and get it. Finally one of the staff drove him over, and they picked up the toboggan. He was required to call the women and apologize. Then he was finally allowed on the ice. The whole negotiation lasted two hours, but it was probably two hours well spent. Many of the rink rats have a loose relationship with telling the truth -- consequences are the best response.
Rink Conservancy
Excerpt from e-mail from Jutta Mason to permit holders:
There are long-running problems with ice maintenance at Wallace Rink. This is partly because of the zamboni being taken for the "flying squad" so often. Here is an alternative proposal.
The proposal says that it's time to set up the (pilot) "rink conservancy" in Ward 18 (Campbell, Dufferin, Wallace). That can SAVE the city money and also bring Campbell and Wallace Rinks up closer to the ice maintenance standard of Dufferin Rink.
Diary 2011 - 2012
Diary January 2011
Diary 2010 - 2011
Diary 2009 - 2010
Diary 2007 - 2008
Diary 2006 - 2007
Diary 2005 - 2006
Diary 2004 - 2005
To read previous diaries click on the Diaries tab
To see the (2007-2008) report card, click here
Content last modified on December 13, 2012, at 12:22 PM EST