The puck stops here
The federal government is spending $5.6 million on a Parliament Hill ice rink that will be open for only 26 days. To use it, you’ll have to reserve 48 hours in advance. Public skating sessions will be limited to 40 minutes . . . and no hockey sticks allow
OTTAWA— The celebratory Canada 150 ice rink on Parliament Hill comes with a $5.6-million price tag, a 26-day lifespan (weather permitting) and a list of rules that prohibit hockey pucks, sticks and “multi-player games” like tag and skating races.
Cabinet ministers Mélanie Joly and Kent Hehr celebrated the release Wednesday of more details about the rink, which they pitched as the centrepiece of an end-of-year extravaganza to close out Canada’s 150th birthday bash.
The rink, which will be available for free public skating from Dec. 7 to Jan. 1, is budgeted to cost about $215,385 for each day it’s open.
Joly, Canada’s heritage minister, said the multimillion-dollar price tag will cover the costs of building the rink — a job that began in October — as well as public skating and a children’s hockey tournament that will bring 16 boys’ and 16 girls’ teams to Ottawa from across the country.
“We believe that it is really good news because this will be here for a month, and this will support, of course, important programming and children that will be coming from across the country,” Joly said of the rink, which is scheduled to be open to the public until 10 p.m. on New Year’s Day.
After that, the rink will be dismantled and the boards and glass will be donated to a “vulnerable” community in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, Joly said.
After hosting public skates and a kids’ hockey tournament, the rink will be dismantled and parts of it donated to a “vulnerable” community, minister says
While Joly said the rink, light shows and other events on the Hill in December are meant to celebrate Canada’s “winter spirit” in the 150th year since Confederation, the rink will be taken down less than two weeks into the cold season.
“Well, Canada 150 ends, actually, in 2017 and afterwards we think some young people in really difficult communities could really, really benefit from it. So that’s what we will be doing,” Joly said, when asked why the government won’t keep the rink on the Hill for the entire winter.
“We believe that it’s a great way to finish the year,” she added.
Conservative MP Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent) shook his head at the short lifespan of the rink, saying it will be closed “just as the fun begins.”
“I welcome that kind of initiative. But so much money and so little time. It’s a disappointment for me,” Deltell told the Star. “How can we spend so much money just for such a short period of time? It’s there. Why do we have to shut it down after 26 days? I don’t understand,” he said.
“I’m not opposed to this project . . . It’s a lot of money. But can we at least play until the end of March.”
The government has also produced a website — Canada150Rink.com — that includes a list of rules of the rink. These include a warning that the rink may be “snowy or icy” and that, “despite best efforts to maintain the site, it may be slippery.”
People who want to skate on the rink will need to reserve tickets online two days in advance, and public skating sessions will last 40 minutes. No hockey sticks, pucks, food, figure skating or games like tag and races will be allowed during these sessions, the website says.
Officials speaking to the media on background Wednesday said the rink will accommodate about 200 people per public session. The rink also includes a cooling system to maintain the ice, which should keep the surface frozen if the temperature remains “within reason,” one of the officials said. The government expects about 40,000 people to use the rink while it’s open.
According to a budget breakdown provided to the Star by Canadian Heritage on Wednesday, $2.375 million of the total cost will go to the construction, design and relocation of the rink.
Another $1.3 million is for the travel and accommodation of the boys and girls teams participating in the tournament, as well as “promotion and communication,” general administration and other expenses.
The remaining $2 million is for labour costs, site support, technical services and rink operational costs.
The rink is a partnership between Canadian Heritage and the Ottawa International Hockey Festival, which hosts an annual tournament in the capital.
The criticism of the rink comes after Joly was lambasted for her department’s new National Holocaust Memorial, after it was revealed it would have to close-down during the winter months because of concerns about snow. Last week, Joly announced on Twitter that the memorial will be open this winter after all, but did not explain what changed.
The memorial was also criticized after its original commemorative plaque did not mention that Jews were overwhelmingly the victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War. With files Bruce Campion-Smith