JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
The City of Vaudreuil-Dorion is moving forward with a plan to construct a $14.67-million covered refrigerated ice rink in a park just north of Cité des Jeunes Blvd., near the junction with De la Gare Blvd.
City council adopted a loan bylaw for the project at the July 7 city council meeting, which then put it to a register process last Friday to allow anyone against the plan to oppose it. It failed to collect enough signatures to block the project.
The new refrigerated rink will be built in Quatre-Saisons school park, located next to École des Légendes and Hymne-au-Printemps elementary schools. It will have an NHL-size surface (60 metres by 26 metres) and will be included among the many playing surfaces already offered at the park, including a soccer pitch, a basketball court, a playground and a splash pad.
The rink will be built on the eastern side of the park, bordering Toe Blake and Maurice Richard Streets – a fitting location given that both were Montreal Canadiens legends who are in the NHL Hall of Fame. “Rocket” Richard and Hector “Toe” Blake, who also coached the team for 13 years, helped Montreal secure the Stanley Cup a combined 12 times in the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.
The rink project is part of the city’s five-year capital expenditure plan, which includes adding two pickleball courts and a utility building at the site.
The $14.67-million loan bylaw will be financed over a 20-year period, city clerk Zoë Lafrance explained at the July 7 council meeting.
As winter weather conditions become increasingly uncertain, more municipalities in Quebec are turning to refrigeration technology for outdoor rinks. These types of rinks use generators to keep the ice at an acceptable temperature for skating of around -5° C, even in fluctuating outdoor temperatures that reach as high as 18° C.
The towns of St. Zotique and Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot are currently the only municipalities in the 1019 region that have rinks that use this technology.
There is no set start date for construction of the rink, said city communications adviser Jessica Genest, but the city aims to have it operating for the winter of 2026-2027, and welcome skaters from November to April each year.