Every weekend hundreds of residents lace up their ice skates and head onto High Park's Grenadier Pond, defying city signs that prohibit the popular Canadian pastime.

Now, the new head of Toronto's parks and environment committee wants the city to again monitor the waterway so those postings can come down.

"Everybody is very much in favour of hockey rinks, and pads for hockey, and that's great, but what about pleasure skating?" asks Paula Fletcher. "It's such a terrific winter sport."

The deep freeze that has chilled the city for several weeks has appeared to freeze a large portion of the pond, but city workers don't test the thickness of the ice anymore.

For more than 100 years, crews monitored the pond located west of the downtown by drilling holes in the ice. But the service was cut when the city amalgamated in 1998.

Since then, no-skate signs have warned skaters not to venture out.

"It's a real shame they put those signs up and yet it's obviously safe," said one lady who took to the ice on Sunday.

Others were confused by the warning signs.

"When I see that there are actually people on the ice, and that there are areas where you shouldn't be skating, I avoid them, but I didn't realize that covered the whole lake," said another female skater.

"I know there's entry points for water, and exit points, those are usually where the weak points are."

Councillor Bill Saundercook thinks it would be too costly to have the city monitor the ice.

"We love to see the outdoor facilities used as much as possible, but with this unpredictable weather, I understand that it is quite a complicated process to take the liability away from the city by allowing people and giving them the green light to go on these ponds," he said.

Still, Fletcher wants to look into what the costs are so the public can enjoy the winter tradition.

Despite the extreme cold weather alert issued on Sunday, a number of residents, young and old, brought their skates and sticks to the pond, including Tyler Poole, an eight-year-old from England.

With a report from CTV's Austin Delaney