Councillors prepared fo fight ice hockey prohibition

Two Mountain councillors are preparing to fight a city bylaw that prevents young kids from playing ice hockey on ice made by volunteers in public parks.

“It’s so we don’t get sued,” said Ward 7 (central Mountain) Coun. Scott Duvall, who asked city staff at council’s Feb. 9 meeting to review the bylaw.

“How are you going to charge a five-year-old for playing hockey? I think it’s ridiculous,” he said.

Duvall said parent volunteers have already complained to him about the prohibition after all the work they have gone into building ice surfaces on public parks.
Parents, said Duvall, have created an ice surface at Bruce Park, for example, so local kids can learn how to play hockey.
The city provides the hoses and water so that the ice can be made. Across the city there could be as many as 35 ice surfaces in public parks, from Greensville to Ancaster. Recently city parks staff installed signs prohibiting youths from playing ice hockey on the surfaces.
On the city’s website it states “hockey equipment is not permitted on the ice.”
Ward 8 (west Mountain) Coun. Terry Whitehead said there are some parks with two ice surfaces, one for people to skate, and the other for hockey.