GAME ON? NOT QUITE ...
As construction continues on the skating rink on the east lawn of Parliament Hill, Canadian Heritage extends the rink’s operation — but with a few catches.
The thought of skating on Parliament Hill may be a winter dream realized for many diehard Canadians but it might not evoke the quintessential winter scene for everyone.
Canadian Heritage unveiled the details of the Canada 150 Ice Rink being built on the east lawn of Parliament Hill.
The rink is part of a $5.6-million project that includes a contest to bring 32 peewee house league hockey teams from across the country to Ottawa for a tournament after Christmas. The rink comes complete with a cooling system, grandstands and boards.
Outside the tournament and a few special events, the public will be allowed to skate on the rink from Dec. 7 to until the end of February, a month longer than previously expected.
However, skating comes with a few clear rules:
There will be no hockey, no figure skating, no food, no cellphones, no roughhousing or high speed, no tag and definitely no carrying children on the ice. Other than that, fill your skates — if you can secure a spot.
On Thursday afternoon, Lynn Pratt, 64, stood on Parliament Hill watching the workers flood the rink. Stands on the south side of the rink were built, with a part of a section of the lawn on the north side torn away to make room for the adjacent stands.
Pratt said he won’t be enjoying the rink because he’s only in town to visit family, but he does have a strong opinion about the almost $6 million price tag he calls a “waste” of taxpayer dollars.
“We are going into debt, millions and millions and millions of dollars, and there is a Rink of Dreams over here at the courthouse, right, so why have this here? We’re going into debt too much and our kids are going to be paying for it for years and years.”
But there are those who are looking forward to the skating experience, including Leigh Ann DH who posted on the event’s Facebook page: “I can’t wait for this ice rink to open. My boyfriend and I will be in town on December 30th.”
Rachel Nadeau, 23, who was waiting for her bus on Wellington Street, has a hard time justifying the rink when the Rideau Canal Skateway is also a few blocks away.
“There’s already the Rideau Canal that is kind of doing that job but better,” she said.
Alex Brownlee, 27, said he feels the money should have been invested in the community.
“Making your city seem interesting is good and all, but I believe that we have so many people that are struggling on a day-to-day basis that the money that is being put into something like that ... should be put back into the community.”
The list of rules also includes no going on the ice without skates on unless you’re in a stroller or a wheelchair. Helmets are strongly recommended but not mandatory except for those in strollers or wheelchairs.
Public skating on the rink will begin at 9 a.m. on Dec. 7. Skating is free but you have to reserve a 45-minute spot in advance.
The rink is one of the final events of Canada’s 150th birthday celebration year, which culminates on New Year’s Eve with fireworks on Parliament Hill.
If you can’t skate on the rink, you can watch it from your couch on a webcam.
On the lawn of Parliament Hill on Thursday, crews were busy erecting a very expensive monument to that most Canadian of pastimes: excessively prudish regulations. Oh, and hockey. Also that. The Canada 150 rink, still in the development stages even though work began on it last month, looks about like you would expect a hockey rink to look. Ice, boards, bleachers and whatnot.
Except it’s a very special rink, due to its iconic location and also because it’s costing an absurd amount of money.
The rink, which was scheduled to be operational for all of 26 days but will now be open until February, the government announced Thursday, is part of a $5.6-million project.
Before you slap your forehead and drop your jaw and steam cartoonishly bursts out of your ears, don’t worry: the cost for the construction and operation of the rink itself is only $4.3 million. (The rest is for a kids’ hockey tournament.)
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly has explained that this is, in fact, great value for the money because the rink will “support important programming for communities and children” from across the country who are apparently unable to access such programming at the approximately 8,300 other such rinks that already exist in Canada.
When the fun eventually ends, the rink will be dismantled and donated to a “vulnerable” local community. It is unclear what the community will do with it, considering it costs millions just to keep the thing operational until the end of December. Who knows what the cost is now that Joly has announced the rink will stay open until the end of February “so that, even more families (can) lace up their skates for this once in a lifetime opportunity.”
But, hey, these Canada 150 things are a bit pricey, and if you aren’t used to that part by now, you haven’t been paying attention.
The particularly hilarious part of the Parliament rink is all the ways in which this programming for the community will be hard for the community to use. Spots will have to be reserved ahead of time online, and there is a long list of expressly forbidden items:
No hockey sticks and/or pucks No headsets No cellphones (!) No carrying of children No figure skating No rough play or “speed” games No racing If you have ever been to a free skate at a local public rink, it’s a safe bet that at least three of the above things are taking place at any given time.
But, this being Ontario, the province that is only now allowing a few grocery stores to sell beer and wine, but not too many lest the whole province turn into Ibiza overnight, perhaps we should be grateful that the regulations are not worse.
They may yet be. From appearances at the construction site on Thursday, the rink will have boards and surrounding glass at normal hockey rink height. But there is no sign of netting that might prevent an errant puck from leaving the rink and endangering passersby.
What of the foreign tourists who, unfamiliar with Canada’s national game, will be strolling along in the shadow of the East Block, blissfully unaware of the possibility that a rubber projectile could cross their path at any moment?
Won’t someone think of them?