It’s about as Canadian as you can get in winter: skating or playing hockey on a frozen pond.
But the City of Burnaby is hoping to discourage the public from doing so.
The city’s parks and recreation department will be installing warning signs discouraging ice skating on Deer Lake, Burnaby Lake, Central Park ponds and Burnaby Mountain Golf Course ponds.
Dave Ellenwood, the city’s director of parks and recreation, explained that every year when the weather gets cold enough, the local lakes will freeze briefly.
But he noted a couple inches of ice is not enough for activity like skating on the ice.
“People think they can skate on it, but it takes sustained freezing,” Ellenwood told the NOW, adding in the past people have needed to be rescued from the lake.
“It never does in our weather get cold enough to start skating activity on it.”
He added the city doesn’t monitor the lakes on a regular basis, so the warning signs are going up so people are aware of the danger.
The city will also be putting up signs at Burnaby Mountain warning people against tobogganing at the popular park.
Ellenwood said the city knows people will take the risk but added the signs are up to protect the city from liability.
He also pointed out city staff won’t be monitoring the lakes or mountain for any rule breakers and won’t be handing out any fines to people not following the rules.
“We leave it up to people’s common sense,” Ellenwood said.
The warning signs will be going up by early November and come down in March.
