City’s lone ski hill faces climate reality

Warmer winters could put Earl Bales site in jeopardy

Maintaining a ski facility in Toronto is proving to be more and more of a slippery slope as our winters see increasing temperatures.

This year saw the closure and conversion of the long-standing ski facility at Etobicoke’s Centennial Park into a tobogganing hill. According to a 20-year master plan for the park, the change was proposed and subsequently executed because of “deteriorating infrastructure” and the “uncertainty of a changing climate.”

Earl Bales Ski and Snowboard Centre is now the only ski hill in the city, and things haven’t been exactly smooth sailing — or skiing — at its home in North York. Earl Bales was open for winter sports for a total of 48 days in 2023, from Jan. 28 to March 19, according to city data provided to the Star. This is down 12 days from the 2022 season, and further still from previous years, when the ski season averaged 69 days and began in early December.

While the hill saw almost 5,000 fewer visitors in 2023 as compared to 2022, the net budget, which includes preparation, maintenance and closing costs for the calendar year — including the summer — remained unchanged: $700,000.

As Toronto sees more of the mild temperatures and heavy rain that spurred the temporary closures this season at Earl Bales, skiing in the city looks to become an expensive and uncertain activity to maintain in the years to come.

Winter temperatures are getting progressively warmer across Canada, which means less snow, said Xuebin Zhang, a senior research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“In terms of skiing, it’s not just about how much snow we get,” he said, adding that the snow that falls might not stick around for as long. “It’s also about how quickly the snow melts.”

This concern is top of mind for Paul Rogers, president and board chair of Ontario Track3, an adaptive sports association for young athletes with disabilities.

Track3 used to rely on both Centennial Park and Earl Bales to conduct accessible programming at their beginner-friendly slopes. This year, its instruction was not only limited to North York, but partly cancelled. Cross-country students went on a forest hike during unfavourable conditions, but its alpine program struggled with a lack of snowpack in the beginner area.

“I’ve been doing this volunteer work for over 20 years and I’ve never seen a January that was this challenging,” Rogers said.

Rogers is hopeful that Toronto is committed to maintaining its winter sports facilities. But he worries about its financial ability to do so, considering the huge gap between city expenses and revenues — a $1.3-billion budget hole.

“I worry about climate change, but I also worry about resources,” Rogers said. “I know what the pressures are on the budget, and the number of demands on the city.”

James Pasternak, councillor for Ward 6 York Centre, where Earl Bales is located, was sad to see the facility at Centennial Park close, though he agrees it was getting too difficult to service and maintain. “We’re left with one (hill) now, and it’s my position that it’s a vital recreational asset that should be kept,” he said.

While Pasternak said closing Centennial might have saved the city money, he emphasized that municipal recreation doesn’t have a profit motive. “We expect to lose money on our pools, our parks, our recreation centres, because they make for a healthy, strong city.”

He said investing in such technology would be in line with the city’s resilience strategy, which sets out goals to address climate change.

“Resiliency includes infrastructure work to make sure we’re ready for extreme climate events like road flooding,” he said. “So why wouldn’t we also apply that thinking to protect our recreational assets?”

‘‘ I worry about climate change, but I also worry about resources. I know what the pressures are on the budget, and the number of demands on the city.

PAUL ROGERS PRESIDENT AND BOARD CHAIR OF ONTARIO TRACK3