Resident questions value of Whyte Ridge ‘no sliding’ signs

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This article was published 10/02/2023 (1022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Whyte Ridge grandfather views city signs warning tobogganing is banned on a hill in the suburban neighbourhood as an overstep.

The two signs, which were put up Jan. 23 on the hill overlooking the retention pond in Scurfield Park, read: “Danger — no sliding, hidden hazards.”

Wesley Wold, a 65-year-old retiree, has lived in the south Winnipeg suburb since 1989. He first noticed the sign when out for a walk this week.

“I went, ‘Wow, there’s usually lots of people,’” said Wold, adding in the past he would often see as many as 50 on the hill with toboggans.

He, too, has fond memories of sliding down the hill with his children. “As my kids got older, I got them on snow racers and we’d spend a couple, three hours, going up and down that hill.”

Wold worries other people could be discouraged from having the same experiences in the neighbourhood he described as a family-oriented community.

“Anything you do has a certain amount of risk. This, in my view, has a low amount of risk. I’ve never seen anybody get hurt (on the hill). I thought it’s a bit of an overreach.”

City of Winnipeg spokesman Kalen Qually said the parks department’s focus is on safety. However, civic employees won’t be out enforcing any ban.

“The area where people were sliding crosses over a nearby active transportation path used by cyclists and pedestrians, and ends up on a nearby frozen retention pond,” Qually said Friday in an email.

He said the city encourages people to use designated hills and slides in city parks, adding any tobogganing is done at one’s own risk.

There are four hills the city has officially sanctioned for sledding: at Westview Park (nicknamed Garbage Hill), Victoria Jason and Civic parks, as well as at the Harbourview Recreation Complex.

The city also has toboggan slides in seven local parks.

Wold said some area snowboarders had been using part of the hill as a run and built up jumps and other obstacles.

Regardless of the ban, Wold and his daughter took out his toddler grandson for a few runs down the hill Wednesday. They had a “hoot of a time,” he said.

“I make of it that there’s going to be some people who say, ‘That’s dangerous, let’s not do it’ — that wouldn’t be me. On our way back out, we passed half-a-dozen people with inner tubes in hand going up the hill. I said, ‘By the way, I ignored the sign, but it says we aren’t supposed to do this.’ The guy goes, ‘Whatever,’” said Wold.

“I suspect there’s other people who will go, ‘I can’t break the law, I would never slide down the hill.’”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera