When Yvan Cournoyer was a young boy, he suspects he spent more time clearing the snow from the outdoor rinks than skating on them.
Standing on a newly built refrigerated and covered ice rink in Quebec City — courtesy of the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation — the former Canadiens winger and 10-time Stanley Cup champion says nowadays, kids playing outdoor ice hockey have a different struggle.
Even Quebec City, one of the capitals of winter, known for its ice hotel, ice slide and winter carnival, is not immune to climate change and has been forced to adapt to warmer weather.
In December, Quebec City mayor Bruno Marchand announced that the city would invest $45 million into its climate change reserve, with part of the sum being used to refrigerate outdoor rinks to safeguard one of Canada’s favourite outdoor winter sports.
“We are a winter town,” said Marchand. “We are skaters. We are people enjoying winters. We need to adapt ourselves.”
Last season, he said the public, unrefrigerated rinks were only open 50 out of 150 days — a third of the season.
“Because of climate change, because of rain, because of warming weather …our winters are changing,” said Marchand, skating on the newly constructed rink in Victoria Park.
Quebec City now has another refrigerated rink, thanks to the Bleu Blanc Bouge initiative. The mayor says it’s a worthwhile investment since last season, unrefrigerated public rinks were only open for 50 out of 150 days of operation.
“It’s a problem because our kids, our elders, our people are unable to skate anymore.”
Marchand says he hopes to see Quebec City become one of the most active cities in Canada. He says it 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, to meet friends,” said Marchand.
‘A lot of warming’ in past 20 years, says professor
To successfully flood a skating rink without the use of refrigeration, temperatures have to stay below -5 C for at least three days, says Lawrence Mysak, professor emeritus of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill University.
Over a decade ago, Mysak co-authored a paper on how climate change has the potential to negatively impact outdoor ice skating. The study found that the number of viable rink-flooding days could reach zero by mid-century.
“At the end of our paper, we said that in over a 30-year period, probably the outdoor [skating] 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,” said Mysak.
He says outdoor rinks were a big part of his upbringing, as they’re an opportunity for kids, teenagers and adults to participate informally and in the community.
Although he thinks it’s a good idea to build refrigeration systems, Mysak says cost might be a factor.
For the first time, he says his Westmount neighbourhood in Montreal didn’t set up its refrigerated ice rink this season.
“Kids love to go out there and play and it was well used when it was made, but apparently it is A: expensive, and B: it does quite a bit of damage to the ground underneath,” said Mysak.
“I think a lot of people were upset about it, I think they would like to see that continued.”
A place to skate, rain or snow
Quebec City gained its newest refrigerated rink on Tuesday thanks to the Montreal Canadiens’ Bleu Blanc Bouge initiative.
Cournoyer, an ambassador for the Canadiens, says the kids are “very lucky.”
“It’s so nice to have a place… you can skate no matter if it’s raining or if it’s snowing,” said Cournoyer.
The initiative has led to the creation of 15 refrigerated rinks across the province, including in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay and most recently, Quebec City. Each one comes with an investment of around $2 million from the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation.
“With climate change, we have less days than we used to have when I was 20 or 15 years old,” said Guy Cormier, Desjardins CEO, who was present at the rink’s inauguration on Tuesday.
“Giving opportunities like that to [people] to skate, to be outside, even though it will be warmer with the climate change, it makes me just feel special and happy for them.”