When Yvan Cournoyer was a child, he suspects he spent more time shoveling snow from outdoor rinks than skating on them.
Standing on a newly built indoor and refrigerated ice rink in Quebec City, courtesy of the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation, the former Canadiens winger and ten-time Stanley Cup champion says that today, kids who play Outdoor ice hockey have a different fight.
Even Quebec City, one of the winter capitals, known for its ice hotel, ice slide and winter carnival, is not immune to climate change and has been forced to adapt to a warmer climate.
In December, Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand announced that the city would invest $45 million in its climate change reserve, and that part of the sum would be used to cool outdoor skating rinks to safeguard one of Canada’s favorite outdoor winter sports.
“We’re a winter town,” Marchand said. “We are skaters. We are people who enjoy winters. We need to adapt.”
Last season, he said, the unrefrigerated public rinks were only open 50 of the 150 days, a third of the season.
“Because of climate change, because of rain, because of warming weather… our winters are changing,” Marchand said, skating on the newly built rink in Victoria Park.
Quebec City now has another refrigerated runway, thanks to the Bleu Blanc Bouge initiative. The mayor says it’s a worthwhile investment, since last season the unrefrigerated public rinks were only open for 50 of the 150 days of operation.
“It’s a problem because our children, our elders and our people can’t skate anymore.”
Marchand says he hopes Quebec City will become one of the busiest cities in Canada. He says he needs infrastructure to get there.
“It’s a place where you can learn to skate. It’s a place where you can learn to be yourself and find friends,” Marchand said.
‘There’s been a lot of warming’ in the last 20 years, says professor
To successfully flood a skating rink without the use of refrigeration, temperatures must remain below -5 C for at least three days, says Lawrence Mysak, professor emeritus of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill University.
More than a decade ago, Mysak co-authored a paper about how climate change has the potential to negatively impact outdoor ice skating. The study found that the number of viable runway flooding days could reach zero by mid-century.
“At the end of our article, we said that over a period of more than 30 years, the foreign [skating] The season would be much shorter. And I’m sure that’s the case today because in the last 20 years we’ve had a lot of warming,” Mysak said.
He says outdoor rinks were a big part of his upbringing, as they are an opportunity for children, teens and adults to participate informally and in the community.
Although he thinks it’s a good idea to build cooling systems, Mysak says cost could be a factor.
For the first time, he says his Westmount neighborhood in Montreal did not install its refrigerated ice rink this season.
“Kids love to come out and play and it was used a lot when it was made, but apparently it’s A: expensive and B: it causes quite a bit of damage to the ground underneath,” Mysak said.
“I think a lot of people were upset about this, I think they would like to see that continue.”
A place to skate, rain or snow.
Quebec City got its new refrigerated rink on Tuesday thanks to the Montreal Canadiens’ Bleu Blanc Bouge initiative.
Cournoyer, a Canadiens ambassador, says the kids are “very lucky.”
“It’s so nice to have a place… you can skate whether it’s raining or snowing,” Cournoyer said.
The initiative has led to the creation of 15 refrigerated runways across the province, including Montreal, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay and, most recently, Quebec City. Each one has an investment of around $2 million from the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation.
“With climate change, we have fewer days than when I was 20 or 15 years old,” said Guy Cormier, CEO of Desjardins, who was present at the track’s opening Tuesday.
“Giving opportunities like that to [people] skating, being outside, even though it’s going to be hotter with climate change, it makes me feel special and happy for them.”
