With other concerns taking priority in most people's lives at the moment, the question of when and if the city's outdoor rinks would be opening this year was one that flew largely under the radar.

At last night's meeting of city council, however, first-term councillor Ryan Switzer took some time during his closing remarks to ask Jim Jones, the city's general manager of community services, for a quick update.

Jones thanked the freshman councillor for the question and answered that the rinks were in fact ready to be flooded, and were waiting for the cooperation of the temperature in order to do so.

"Traditionally, the city needs 10 days of -10 overnight to get started. Right now our temperature is not that, but if you look into the forecast, the week of December 7 - 12 will 8 straight days of minus 10. So our parks department is getting ready."

Jones added that they have all five rinks snow-blown off and they're ready to start flooding as soon as the overnight temperatures cooperate.