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Custodians:

Dufferin Rink Refrigeration

email chain, from Jutta Mason

2018: repair log of Dufferin Rink machinery, request # 2018-02165

Request sent on Sept.28, 2018: "an electronic record of all costs and job descriptions associated with maintenance and/or replacement of mechanical cooling equipment in the Dufferin Rink AIR plant, over the past 24 years (since 1994). This list should include the in-house costs as well as those done through outside service contracts (and please specify which are outside service contracts). Previously disclosed Excel document listing all costs incurred by Facilities and Real Estate relating to the Dufferin Rink AIR building, did not include the cooling equipment, even though it's in the same building. Record search from Jan. 1, 1994 to Dec. 31, 2017".

Oct.31, 2018 Spoke to Denise Stuckless 416 338-5636 about my Sept.28 request re the 24 year repair log for Dufferin Rink machinery.

She said they can’t track it down, may have to charge me a lot of $. Also a problem since some is pre-amalgamation. Request submitted Sept.28 but she hasn’t even got time (swamped with requests) to send me a letter saying they need an extension – says she is telling me verbally. I said I need to know the reasons (in writing) and any fee connected with finding the info. She asked if I’d be okay with only 5 years – I said having the info post-amalgamation would be fine, she said that’s still too long. So I said, okay, 5 years.

Dec.7, 2018, email to Peter White, Parks manager

There are some issues that I want to follow up, about the lack of transparency when outdoor rinks get in trouble, and about some remarkable FOI responses I've been getting about Parks expenditures.

I can try and fill in some more blanks through more FOI requests and appeals to the IPC, but I wonder if it makes more sense for me to come and see you (or the other way round, a cup of coffee here if you like), for a conversation. Maybe talking would clarify what's worth following up and what's in the process of being fixed already.

The manager came to Dufferin Rink and met with me for an hour. I asked if I could have a tour of the compressor room with a tech services staff, and learn how it works and what's wrong. Peter said he'd try, suggested mid-January.

Dec 17, 2018 Decision from FOI letter

"Staff of PFR has advised that the records you are seeking are not available in the format you requested...an electronic list. A search to piece together responsive records would be at a significant cost. A search would include hard copy and electronic records of numerous current and retired staff, including reviewing 5 years worth of log books to locate any relevant notations regarding the mechanical equipment. Staff would also have to locate the description of the jobs performed on the equipment, and then the relevant wages for each job to calculate specific in house costs as it pertains to the one location. This would constitute creating a new record, and the City is not obligated to create a new record in response to a freedom of information request."

Jan,7, 2019

FOI Request: Regarding the maintenance of the Dufferin Grove Park skating rink refrigeration equipment over the past five years: please provide all correspondence, all emails and related communications, all memoranda, all relevant sections of minutes of meetings, all individual staff notes including log book entries, also provide all scope of repair work, communications, contracts and purchase orders with CIMCO Refrigeration/Toromont.

Note to Denise Stuckless, Jan.7, 2019

Hi Denise, I got the "access denied" letter for my request 2018 - 02165, and wrote about it in the January newsletter, here.

So I've filed a new request, this time to see the individual documents. That would mean I'm not asking the city to create a record, but just to let me see the different documents that exist. I'm told that a similar but not identical request has just gone to FOI regarding Ramsden Rink.

The Parks department could save themselves -- and your office -- so much trouble by just letting this be open data instead of a state secret. Sadly, they've gone in the opposite direction.

Could you let me know which committee of council oversees the City of Toronto FOI process? It might be time, later this year, for a few of us to depute to council about our experience with PFR.

Response from FOI

The committee is the General Government and Licensing Committee.

Jan.9, 2019, email to Peter White, manager of Parks

I hope the Dufferin Rink compressor room visit is still on. I think you said that mid-January might work. Since you and I met, the operations manager at the Bentway, Jim Roe, showed me their plant, and I had a helpful conversation with David Sinclair from CIMCO, whom I'm sure you know.

So now it would be helpful to get an explanation of how the Dufferin Rink plant works, and why it would be better to replace it. You may have heard that I re-submitted my FOI query about machinery maintenance, in a form that makes it clear I'm not asking your staff to create a new record. Even so, if will take some work for your staff to assemble the reports and go through the channels.

It would be so much better to do a shortcut and just talk frankly about what has been done and what needs doing. I'm hoping that the onsite demonstration would make the FOI unnecessary.

The meeting took place on Wednesday Jan.23. A CIMCO mechanic was there and showed a badly corroded pipe that had been one of the causes of trouble. Tech services general supervisor Paul Brown was there as well. Both he and Peter said they think the TSSA will require new equipment more often because of the fatal ammonia accident at Fernie in October 2017.

There seemed to be general agreement that the refrigeration equipment needs replacing but the slab has shown no sign of problems.

CIMCO said they must have done the original Dufferin Rink rink reconstruction in 1993, including the slab. Paul and Peter were both curious to have me send them any photos I have of the 1993 reconstruction and the 2007 header repair. So I did.


1992

1992

1992

2007 header trench
 
Jan.28, 2019, email to Denise Stuckless

I would like to withdraw my Jan.7 2019 request for information about the refrigeration plant maintenance at Dufferin Rink. The Parks manager met with me on Jan.23, bringing along two tech services experts, and showing me much of what I needed to know. That was very helpful.

Beyond that, it appears that CELOS may have more records of the building and maintenance history of Dufferin Rink than current city staff know.

We have archived the story of this FOI request on the CELOS website...


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Content last modified on January 28, 2019, at 05:50 PM EST