Neighbourhood rinks in two city parks close over liability concerns

Over the last 20 years, Ken Craig has devoted countless hours to tending his neighbourhood skating rink in Hastings Park, on Hastings Ave. in Peterborough’s west end.

It’s one of 12 skating rinks in city parks across Peterborough that are built and maintained by volunteers, according to the city’s website.

But in January, Craig made the difficult decision to stop volunteering on the rink, after discovering that he could be held liable if a skater gets injured on the ice. The rink is now closed, leaving Craig “crestfallen.”

“My family can’t assume that kind of risk,” he said. 

It’s always been the case that both volunteers and the city could potentially be held liable in the event of an injury on a neighbourhood rink, according to Brendan Wedley, the city’s communications director. But the issue came to the fore this winter after the city made a change to the waiver volunteers must sign.

“This winter the city decided it would be prudent to stress the liability situation to volunteers so that they were aware of the risks and could make informed decisions on their comfort level with their participation,” Wedley wrote in an email. Volunteers hold partial liability because they’re the ones that maintain the rinks and decide on maintenance levels, he stated.

Craig said he was “dumbfounded” when he inquired about the new waiver with the city and discovered that volunteers could be exposed to a potential lawsuit if an injury happens.

“I was never told that all these years until this year,” he said.

Marina Crough, another long-time volunteer at the Hasting Park rink, said she was “disappointed” that the city didn’t do more to alert volunteers of the risk they were taking on. 

She said new legal wording around liability was “thrown in” the waiver this year and it was difficult for volunteers to decipher it on their own. She initially signed the waiver this winter and began work on the rink, before realizing that liability fell on volunteers. “You need to make that clear to a volunteer,” she said. 

According to Crough, some cities provide prominent warnings on their websites that volunteers should get liability insurance before signing up to help maintain neighbourhood rinks. Asked why the city didn’t take that step, Wedley said the city outlined “the assumption of risk” in the volunteer waiver.

The Hastings Park rink was a “fabulous” way for people to stay active in winter while getting to know their neighbours, according to Crough. “It was a way for the community around here to connect,” she said. It’s also where her three children all learned to skate. She said she wants to bring the rink back next winter, even if that means buying her own insurance or asking local businesses to help cover the cost, though she would prefer to see the city provide coverage.

But Craig said it shouldn’t be up to volunteers to secure insurance.

According to him, the best time to flood the ice is at 2 a.m., so he often works into the early morning hours trying to get the surface nice and smooth. He said he shouldn’t be handed an insurance bill after donating his time to build something for the community to enjoy. “That’s enough. I’m not going to buy insurance on top of that,” he said.

Jessica Dunlop, another rink volunteer, said she had her lawyer look at the city’s waiver this winter. He warned her not to sign it.

For the past three years, Dunlop and some of her neighbours have built multiple rinks in Wedgewood Park, on Fairmount Blvd. But they decided against it this winter after discovering they were not insured.

“We were shocked as our small group of volunteers work tireless[ly] for these rinks… sometimes pulling all-nighters to ensure quality ice,” Dunlop wrote in an email. 

“It’s really unfortunate that we are becoming such a [litigious] society,” she wrote. “The people that really lose out are the local neighbourhood communities.”

Wedley wrote that the city “continues to appreciate the efforts” of rink volunteers and that city staff are looking into the possibility of providing liability coverage for volunteers so the neighbourhood rinks program “can be successful moving forward.”

“The city is currently reviewing its volunteer policy and procedures to consider providing standards of operation, which would potentially provide a mechanism for the city to assume full liability,” he wrote.

City council has requested that a new volunteer policy be in place for next winter, according to Wedley.