A trip to the local rink is popular activity for many Manitoba families, but it can also be dangerous; especially since not all rinks in the province require helmets for public skates.
Helmets are mandatory for all hockey players, coaches and on-ice officials and for many other activities.
Glen Bergeron, director of the Heads Up Concussion Institute at the University of Winnipeg, said even experts can’t easily distinguish between concussions and something more serious, like bleeding in the brain.
"There's no shortage of examples of people who have fallen, a seemingly minor fall, who had a brain bleed and have consequently died,” said Bergeron.
According to Bergeron, CSA-approved hockey helmets greatly reduce the risk of head injuries.
City of Winnipeg Recreational Services Manager Peter Degraf feels strongly that people should be wearing helmets on city rinks.
Helmets are mandatory for most activities in city rinks, but not for drop-in public skating when people of different skill levels share the ice.
"For public skating, we strongly recommend that a CSA-approved hockey helmet is used,” said Degraf. “For our Learn to Skate program, we require a CSA-approved hockey helmet."
The Manitoba government said it will leave the decision on mandatory helmet usage to local skating rinks.
"Our government takes reducing concussions amongst young people seriously," a provincial spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. "We know that many community centres and rinks already require helmets for public skating. If particularly community centres need more support from the province, we are prepared to address these on a case by case basis."
The city does have skate patrols at arenas to monitor for reckless and dangerous behaviour.
Some rural rinks in Manitoba don’t have staff monitoring public skates who would be able to monitor mandatory helmet rules if they were in place.
Health authorities in Manitoba do not have trackable statistics for head injuries from falls on ice, nor whether or not injured people were wearing helmets.
