Skating on the Trent Canal at the Peterborough Lift Lock has been a hot topic of conversation over the last few weeks, especially on social media, which prompted the city to release the following statement:
The City of Peterborough is currently not maintaining a skating rink at the Peterborough Lift Lock. As part of its 2025 Budget deliberations, City Council is considering removing that service as a cost cutting measure.
The canal is a Parks Canada property. While the City of Peterborough does not decide on public access to the property, Parks Canada has in the past installed steps for public access to the ice surface of the canal at the City’s request.
Maintaining the skating rink at the Lift Lock has an estimated annual cost of $100,000, which includes activities such as regularly flooding the ice surface to create a smooth rink, snow clearing with snow clearing machines, and testing ice thickness.
The green flag was posted for safe skating on the canal beneath the Lift Lock for the following number of days for each of the past few seasons based on weather and ice conditions: 2021-2022 season, 12 days; 2022-2023 season, four days; 2023-2024 season, one day.
The City also operates an outdoor skating rink at Quaker Foods City Square at Charlotte and Aylmer streets and administers a neighbourhood park rink program that is provided by volunteers who maintain rinks at neighbourhood parks.
City Council will continue its 2025 Budget deliberations on Monday, January 20, 2025 with final approval of the 2025 Budget anticipated on Monday, February 3, 2025.
The Draft 2025 Budget currently reflects an 8% all-inclusive property tax increase for 2025. City Council has indicated it would like options to reduce the all-inclusive property tax increase to 7%.
