Ontario dad removes hockey rink at heart of neighbour dispute

A Markham dad who drew the ire of neighbours and the city after installing a hockey rink in his backyard says the rink has now been taken down.

“I still haven't got over the fact (of its removal),” Martin Ross told CTV Toronto.  

Surrounded by rolled-up materials in his Unionville yard, Ross said he was told that he needed to take down the rink, which he built in 2021 during the pandemic, as part of a remediation agreement he signed with “a proverbial gun being held to my head.”

He said the agreement indicated that if he didn’t remove the rink himself, city crews would come in to do the remediation work and bill him $352,000 for it.

“So I had no choice but to sign it,” he said.

Ross, who runs a hockey school in the GTA, previously told CTV Toronto that he built the boards-enclosed ice pad on a concrete slab for his two kids.

However neighbours took Ross to court and complained that he took down several hundred-year-old trees on his heritage-designated property, effectively transforming the “oasis”-like yard into a “parking lot” and destroying the quiet and privacy the trees afforded surrounding homes.  

A 2022 Superior Court decision ruled the city could step in to remove the rink under a heritage easement agreement that applies to the property.

While city staff sent him an email to indicate they would be by to inspect the property Monday morning at 10 a.m., Ross said he received an email at 9:55 a.m. to say that “due to unforeseen circumstances” the visit had been cancelled.

While he’s acknowledged that he made a mistake in cutting down the trees, he claims that to date, city staff have not articulated exactly why the hockey rink had to come down.

The ordeal has been tough on his kids, he said, and comes as a sharp blow given he’s had to remove the hockey rink just as perfect outdoor hockey weather comes along.

“I mean, you couldn't have better weather than this right now for an outdoor rink,” Ross said. “And it's not even how I feel, it's how my kids feel. They're gonna miss the rink. They love the rink, and many of their friends that would come to use it.”

The court order says Ross must restore his yard to its pre-2021 condition.

He said he’s not yet sure what he’ll do with the rink and a storage shed that he has to remove as well.

Options include looking for another space to put it, renting it out, or even selling it.

“We got to pick up the pieces and, you know, keep moving forward,” he said.

With files from CTV Toronto Reporter Natalie Johnson