Although officially closed to sledding since 2017, the slope continued to be used by tobogganers, and an 11-year-old girl died from injuries in a crash there on Dec. 27, 2021.
The hill at Mooney’s Bay Park will stay off-limits to sleds, at least for this winter, after a slim majority on council voted down the area councillor’s attempt at a compromise solution to reopen part of the hill for the winter activity.
River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington told his colleagues that “the public is looking for an option here,” but city staff made it clear that the proposal to allow shortened sledding runs down one section of the hill still wasn’t one they were comfortable endorsing, given the remaining risk of injury.
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Although the hill was officially closed to sledding since 2017, its continued use by tobogganers took a tragic turn on Dec. 27, 2021. The death of 11-year-old Josée Abi Assal, whose sled collided with a signpost, led the city to increase safety measures and efforts to try to dissuade people from sledding there.
An external consultant, hired to support a review of the site, concluded in January that “due to the size and steep slope of the hill, along with the multitude of hazards found at the bottom of every area of the hill, there is no area of the hill that offers an acceptable level of risk for sledding use,” as staff summarized in a recent memo.
What Brockington proposed at Wednesday’s council meeting was a direction to staff to re-open a section of the hill’s north side, allowing sledding to start roughly 25 metres up the slope, while blocking off the remainder, including the west side where the fatal collision occurred.
“The feedback from the public has been very strong, that they would like to to retain the site for tobogganing. It’s very tragic, obviously the death last year, and injuries that happen across the city at various toboggan hills,” Brockington told council colleagues. “Really, the goal is to try and help mitigate those risks and still allow people to get outside and enjoy winter activities, including tobogganing.”
Dan Chenier, general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services, told council Brockington’s proposed solution was one he had worked with the councillor on, seeing his intent to push for a re-opening on the hill, and reflected a recommendation by the city’s consultant to reduce the length of the run, if they were to allow sledding to return — which the consultant had recommended they not do.
Chenier pointed to remaining concerns: the potential for sledders to collide with cross-country skiers using a trail that crosses the area and to hit a fence facing the Terry Fox Athletic Facility. They could try to deal with this through a separation of some kind and by using wood chips and sand on the ground, but “we’re not convinced that we can do that on a such a regular basis that we’re fully mitigating the risks.
“Because of that, we’ve had a concern, and fundamentally believe that the hill, unless it is significantly modified, should not be reopened,” said Chenier, who noted that it was not something staff saw a way to do this season.
City solicitor David White also shared a legal consideration with council.
“Whenever a public authority is confronted with a scenario where, quite frankly, the safety consultants, the experts have recommended a course — which in this instance is to not allow the hill to be reopened to tobogganing — there is obviously a risk in the event that the municipality proceeds irrespective of the recommendations.”
College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson, who grew up in River Ward, said she understood the desire for sledding at the site.
“Mooney’s Bay is a glorious park. The hill is iconic, so I can appreciate that we want to use the recreational amenities that are most precious to Ottawa.”
But she registered her hesitation, as a mother of young children, about the safety consequences of proceeding with a course of action that didn’t align with what study of the hill had recommended.
Following a suggestion from Johnson, council voted separately on Brockington’s proposed temporary solution to allow sledding this season, defeating it 12-11. They then unanimously endorsed the remainder of his motion, which called for staff to report back with council in late 2023 with options to physically modify the north side of the hill to allow it to become a sanctioned sledding site again.
Chenier said this was something staff had no issue working on and there was potential to change the landscape of a portion of the hill, which is owned by the National Capital Commission.
Created in the 1970s out of construction debris, it was originally designed to be a junior ski hill, staff said. Fencing currently surrounds the hill at two points to block would-be sledders.