Skating seasons melt like snow in the sun

They will be refrigerated, covered, but they will no longer be as we know them: the ice rinks evolve with climate change. More degrees on the thermometer are already disrupting the habits of skaters.

It's a few degrees above freezing, but in Varennes, the surface of the Polydôme ice rink is impeccable.

At the end of the morning, the hockey players left the ice and Léo St-Michel remained, he had the large surface to himself. The 20-year-old is not new to skating: he plays for the Ottawa Junior Senators, a junior A team, and discovered the joys of hockey before even going to school .

He remembers the outdoor skating rink he frequented near his home, in Verchères. “It still exists, but it's not ready,” says the young man, who observes that “times have changed a little” and that we don't skate as early as before in winter.

The covered and refrigerated ice rink inaugurated a few years ago is, in his opinion, “perfect”: “No bumps, a roof and a Zamboni. It’s fun,” says Léo St-Michel.

Over the past few years, roofs have mushroomed over many outdoor rinks in the province, which have been equipped with a refrigeration system.

Dorval will inaugurate its own shortly, built at a cost of 9.5 million. The three natural ice rinks in this municipality have been difficult to maintain recently. “The weather wasn't great last year, we didn't open them much,” says Annick Charest, director of communications for the City of Dorval.

In Sherbrooke, last year, the ice rinks were open for an average of 20 days, out of a possible season of 84 days.

“It's a lot of costs for few hours of service, compared to the refrigerated skating rink which was open 98 days out of 101,” said Nancy Robichaud, president of the Commission on Culture, Recreation, Sports and Development. outdoors of the City of Sherbrooke.

The city's 71 natural ice rinks will be open again this year, but starting next year, “a reflection” will begin to determine how many must remain open due to the changing climate.

“It’s not our imagination”

For 13 years now, Robert McLeman and colleagues at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, have managed the “Rink Watch” project. With volunteers, they monitor the condition of the ice in thousands of rinks in Canada, but also in the United States.

“We can see that since the 1990s, winters have become shorter. They start later than before and there is more variability: freeze-thaw periods,” explains the professor from the department of geography and environmental studies.

Based on data collected over the years, he says that the ideal temperature for an ice rink is -5°C. However, “the number of days that are colder is decreasing more and more,” says Mr. McLeman.

For decades, the L'Assomption River in Lanaudière was transformed every winter into an ice rink lasting several kilometers. The Festi-Glace was also held there, but after successive cancellations, the organization had to face the facts for its 2025 edition: the ice rink is over.

The mayor of Joliette and prefect of the MRC of Joliette, Pierre-Luc Bellerose, says that approximately $120,000 per year in maintenance contracts were, “without a bad pun, thrown down the drain” when the ice rink could not be made.

“People were disappointed, but they also expected it,” says Mr. Bellerose.

It does not close the door to a possible return of the winter festival on the river, but the city is looking for a “plan B” to hold the festival when the river does not freeze.

Founder of the Hydro Météo company, Pierre Corbin was responsible for carrying out ice tests on the L'Assomption River to find out if the equipment necessary for maintaining the rink could be deployed there in complete safety.

“It was two years in a row that it was unheard of: two debacles in a row in the middle of December. From the moment there is no more ice in December, you have to start from scratch,” says Mr. Corbin.

The changes that were observed on the south shore of the St. Lawrence 15 years ago, such as the successive breakups in winter, are now occurring in the north, he observes.

“At some point, the situation crossed the river. There started to be ice movements in Quebec, in Lanaudière, in the Laurentians,” says Mr. Corbin, who has known the skating rink on the L’Assomption River “for as long as he [se] remember.”

20 days less in Montreal

According to data provided to us by the City of Montreal, this winter there will be more than 220 outdoor skating rinks in Montreal, around forty fewer than a decade ago. Only 10 ice rinks are refrigerated, 2 more than in 2016.

Natural ice rinks have disappeared from neighborhoods. After years of bringing happiness to families, that of the Jarry park pond is no more.

“The freezes and thaws that characterize our winters make the ice […] unstable and unsafe,” we read last year on a poster installed very close to the pond.

Since the 1950s, Montreal has had an average of 70 days of skating per year. Now that average is around 50 days, says Professor Robert McLeman.

Will we see fewer and fewer natural ice rinks? “Unfortunately, yes, particularly for large rinks in parks managed by cities,” says Mr. McLeman.

“In the United States, I see people buying freezing systems to create ice rinks in their backyards. It’s too difficult to have natural ice rinks,” he says.

The Wilfrid Laurier University professor has been interested in climate change for more than 25 years. He hopes, through his work on the ice rinks, to arouse the interest of people “who are waiting in line at Tim Hortons, going to take their children to school or to hockey.”

“When we talk about the impacts of climate change, we talk about polar bears, glaciers, mountains, etc. Most Canadians don't go to the north of the country, but they can see the rink in their backyard,” says Mr. McLeman.

In Varennes, Marie Riendeau and Claude Langevin remember a time that those under 20 cannot know.

“In the 1950s, there was snow much earlier. Now we play golf until November. It’s a different story,” says Claude Langevin, before setting off onto the perfectly smooth ice.