Skating rinks threatened by labor shortage

Finding contractors and seasonal employees to maintain and monitor outdoor rinks has become a headache in many regions. As winter approaches, municipalities and volunteers have to go out of their way to maintain this very popular equipment.

In Sept-Îles, on the North Shore, two large outdoor skating rinks are still orphaned. The first call for tenders for the outlying areas of Des Plages and Moisie remained unanswered. And the municipality is still looking for four seasonal employees to maintain its ice rinks and frozen ponds downtown.

“The skating rinks on the outskirts are the most stressful part because if we have to do them ourselves, it’s sure to affect our service offer downtown,” says the director of the Recreation Department. of Sept-Iles, Noémie Gauthier.

Believing that the large skating rinks “meet a greater need” than the frozen ponds set up in parks and schoolyards, the City is considering arrangements in the event that it does not find subcontractors.

As for the four missing employees, Ms.^me Gauthier still hopes to find them, especially by targeting retirees, but “every year, it’s still a problem,” she says. “We are looking for solutions because we realize that with the labor shortage, it will no longer be possible to hire seasonal employees like that. »

In Coaticook, in the Eastern Townships, it is the Kennedy Park ice rink that risks remaining closed, for lack of a bidder for maintenance. “The information is not final, insofar as it is not said that there will not be people” who will feel challenged, specifies the spokesperson for the City, Shirley Lavertu. The mandate, however, is compelling. “You have to have the necessary availability to do it correctly, be available super early in the morning and late at night, underlines M^me Virtue. We hope it will work out. »

In La Durantaye, a village of just over 800 inhabitants in Bellechasse, the problem is recurrent. For the third winter in a row, the recreation committee has not found a subcontractor to open and maintain the skating rink installed on the baseball field. “Last year, we had a bid, $12,500, which is unimaginable for a small village like ours! “, specifies one of the two volunteers of the committee, Fanny Breton.

The first winter, it was the partner of the other volunteer who saved the day. And this winter, like the previous one, it was a retiree, Réjean Montminy, who agreed to help them out, with the help of another retiree, Jacques Saint-Pierre. But “M. Réjean”, who was already in charge of the ice cream when M^me Breton was a teenager, told them that it was her last lap.

Reorganize work

For the past twenty years, Trois-Rivières has closed many outdoor rinks that are less busy or close to a larger facility. Despite this, “in recent years, recruitment has always been a last-minute issue”. “The number of windows that were going to be opened depended on the number of attendants that we were going to succeed in recruiting”, testifies the spokesperson for the City, Mikaël Morrissette.

To staff the 25 outdoor rinks and other ice surfaces (ponds, trails, etc.) it plans to open this winter, the City is trying a new strategy. “We have reviewed the way of proposing the tasks and service categories of the rinks”, summarizes Mr. Morrissette.

Having noticed that some attendants preferred to maintain the ice and others to monitor it, Trois-Rivières posted these tasks separately. It also created three categories of surveillance: random, busy days (weekends, holidays and educational holidays, etc.) and at all times.

The rinks will thus be able to be open at the scheduled time, even if they are cleared of snow half an hour later. “In a context of labor shortage, this is an opening towards which we wanted to go” to be able to “open as many ice rinks as possible”.

Don’t touch my ice rink

In La Malbaie, in Charlevoix, it is the disuse of the old municipal hall in the Cap-à-l’Aigle sector, where skaters put on their equipment, which almost got the better of the adjoining ice. But its closure, announced as an “optimization of supply” by the City at the end of October, sparked an outcry. An online petition collected more than 400 names.

“It caused quite a stir, the phone calls were pouring in,” testifies the adviser responsible for the sector, Gilles Savard. Less than a week later, La Malbaie backtracked. The building will remain accessible this winter and the City is looking for solutions for next year. “If we don’t occupy young people of that age, we won’t help them for their future lives,” underlines Mr. Savard.