Don’t expect sledding ban in Halifax
Posted Jan 13, 2015 08:51:51 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Some cities in Canada are banning or restricting tobogganing due to growing safety and legal concerns.
One Dalhousie professor thinks there are negative consequences of preventing kids from sledding, including contribution to sedentary lifestyles.
Dr. Michael Ungar told News 95.7 we need to give kids the risk-takers’ advantage.
“The opportunities to make decisions, to problem-solve, those are all the things we learned when going down a toboggan hill and making a jump at the bottom,” he said.
Ungar said there are simple sledding safety solutions, including putting a helmet on your child, but that’s not the only option.
“We can properly address the risks in our municipalities, and do things like put hay bales at the bottom of a hill,” said Ungar.
Calgary and Hamilton are a couple of cities that have placed restrictions or have banned tobogganing.
Legal concerns also prompted the town of Orangeville, Ontario to post a ‘no tobogganing’ sign on at least one hill, which provoked residents to hold a sled-in.
Orangeville officials said the hill in question is not insured as a toboggan hill.
As for whether we can expect a similar move in Halifax, councillors Waye Mason and Darren Fisher both said they’d never vote for a sledding ban.
Mason added kids will always find a way to push boundaries.
“They’re going to find a way to take risks, so trying to legislate against that is silly,” he said.
