Ottawa city council narrowly passed a plan Wednesday to spend up to $150,000 to study ways to safely reopen a popular sledding hill at Mooney’s Bay, but the mayor and some other council members remain convinced no feasible option exists.
The hill has been deemed too dangerous for tobogganing since 2017, and in 2021 an 11-year-old girl died in a sledding mishap there.
Winter weather enthusiasts from near and far have nevertheless lobbied to have the hill reopened.
While three other sledding hills remain within what city staff deem a reasonable nine-kilometre radius, the city’s general manager of recreation Dan Chenier said none match the one at Mooney’s Bay.
“It’s the thrill of the steepness of the hill, the fact that it’s very high and that you can go really fast,” he told CBC. “Kids love it, and we understand that the issue is that they’re hurting themselves and that isn’t a good thing on city lands or anywhere.”
City staff have explored ways to mitigate the danger, but have been unable to find solutions. Now they’ll hire outside experts to figure out what could work, and how much the fix would cost.
Chenier said the final price tag is unclear, but he expects it to reach the millions — a reality that caused considerable consternation around the council table Wednesday.
CBC Ottawa’s Arthur White-Crummey shows us around the hill that’s known to be dangerous for sledders, but is still in demand every winter by the community. Now, the city hopes to find a way to make it safe.
Balancing seasonal uses
There have been a number of injuries at Mooney’s Bay over the years, including collisions between sledders and cross-country skiers.
Then in 2021, 11-year-old Josée Abi Assal died at Mooney’s Bay during her first time sledding.
“Josée died because three posts were left at the base of the toboggan hill. Those posts were not removed as part of the pre-winter inspection of the park,” the area’s councillor Riley Brockington said at the last meeting of the community services committee.
“I think we publicly need to acknowledge this in memory of Josée, whose family has said to me more than once that they want to see this hill remain open.”
Brockington has lobbied for a physical modification that Chenier doesn’t believe would work, and that may affect the hill’s other uses such as cross-country running.
“This is a situation where a hill was built and then a whole bunch of things grew up around it, and all of those things are now entrenched as a community expectation,” Chenier said after the council vote.
“Finding a balance between eight weeks of sledding and the rest of the year on this hill is going to be a real challenge.”
The city currently spends $19,000 per year to keep people away from the hill during the sledding season. Chenier said those costs will decrease if council decides to make the closure permanent, because the city can then purchase the heavy fencing it uses rather than rent it.
No way to make it work, argues mayor
Some councillors have expressed concerns about how remedial work on the hill will affect the rest of Mooney’s Bay Park, which hosts the annual Dragonboat festival and other popular events.
Others questioned whether any amount of mitigation can make the hill safe for sledders. But it was the financial issue that caused the most concern.
The study will be paid for using cash-in-lieu of parkland money, which is sourced from developers. Staff had proposed using the citywide fund.
As more of his council colleagues balked, Brockington offered to foot half the bill using money that belongs to his ward.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe joined 11 councillors who voted against the study, arguing it’s not fiscally responsible. Thirteen others were persuaded to move ahead with the study.
“It’s going ahead now, which is fine. But I expect that the study is going to show us that that there isn’t an affordable solution,” Sutcliffe said after the council meeting. “We have limited resources and we want to spend them the best way possible, and then that’ll be the end of it — and it could have been the end of it today.”
Brockington said if the cost estimate comes close to $10 million, the project will likely fail. However, he said the community deserves to know if an affordable solution is possible.
“I’m looking for a reasonable option here. I believe that’s available and that’s possible,” he told CBC. “We’ll see what the professional assessment yields in a few months time.”