Rink in Carmacks, Yukon, closed for season for safety reasons

The outdoor skating rink in Carmacks, Yukon, has been closed because of safety concerns, bringing the skating season to an early end.

The community has an outdoor rink with a roof over the ice surface.    

Lee Bodie, the acting mayor, says the troubles with the rink started a couple of years ago when melting permafrost caused the roof supports to shift. 

The pillars were reinforced, but they've moved again and that's prompted action from the village, Bodie says.

"We've closed it for safety reasons. It would probably be safe, but if that roof were ever to collapse on one person, we wouldn't be doing our job," Bodie says.
    
He says the village is waiting for the results of an engineering assessment to know if the rink can be fixed or if it will have to be torn down. 

Alice Boland says the skating rink was popular with both kids and adults and before it closed at the end of December, she was taking her seven-year old granddaughter skating every day after school. 

"She's really disappointed too, because she just learned to skate and she really likes it. And you know, the kids need activity around here," Boland says.

She says there's nowhere else for people to skate in Carmacks. 

George Skookum is both a hockey player and a coach in Carmacks. He agrees that kids are impacted the most by the rink's closure because there is nowhere else in the community to skate.

"Kids every year look forward to it," Skookum says. "Outdoors is good for them and I think maybe that loss of time outdoors is pretty tough." 

He says some people have been travelling more than an hour to Pelly Crossing to use its rink.