A series of freedom of information (FOI) requests conducted by Willowdale Lawn Bowling Club has indicated that the City of Toronto has decreased its lawn bowling support by more than 30 per cent between 2021 and 2022.

During the fall of 2021, Willowdale’s board of directors made a freedom of information request that sought “Budget submissions by Golf Course operations for lawn bowling. Specifically, (we’re) looking for budgets approved by council that show line items to provide services to lawn bowling.”

The search yielded the following information:

The dates were chosen because 2016 was the year in which responsibility for managing natural lawn bowling greens was transferred to golf course operations. It was also the year after the national lawn bowling championships, co-hosted with Agincourt, were held on Willowdale’s greens.

“The city was responsible for managing our greens to championship status in 2015,” says Gordon Jones, president of Willowdale Lawn Bowling Club. “A lot has changed since 2016.”

Last. fall, another FOI request was made to update the information for 2022.

The request was initially denied, with the city writing:

“Staff of the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division have advised that despite a thorough search, they were unable to locate any records responsive to your request. Access therefore cannot be granted to those records as they do not exist.

“Staff have further advised that the City does not have any lawn bowling greens located on golf courses.”

This was an interesting response, to say the least. However, after a quick e-mail exchange with the city clerk’s office, and the lawyer responsible for Willowdale’s FOI requests, Willowdale received the following:

From 2021 to 2022, staffing support decreased by 30 per cent. Materials and supplies decreased by three per cent (during year in which fertilizer costs rose more than 30 per cent). Pickup truck costs rose by 25 per cent during a year in which staff support decreased by 30 per cent.

The 2.4 greenskeeper positions
The 2.4 greenskeeper positions identified in the 2021 freedom of information request were not mentioned in the 2022 follow-up.

In theory, based on the number of operational lawn bowling greens in Toronto, and with 2.4 full-time positions shared by all clubs, each lawn bowling club with two greens should have more than one full-time person-day per week at its facility. That bears repeating: One full-time person-day per week at each club with two greens. Four to five full-time person-days per month. Twenty-five to thirty person-days per club per year.

In a follow-up request to the city clerk’s office, Willowdale asked:

“Since 2016, when responsibility for care and maintenance of lawn bowling greens was transferred to golf course operations, along with resources in the form of budget and greenskeeper positions, how many times have those 2.4 positions been filled with greenskeepers specifically dedicated to the care, maintenance and upkeep of lawn bowling greens in Toronto?”

The city replied:

“The 2.4 Greenskeeper positions dedicated to the care, maintenance and upkeep of lawn bowling greens in Toronto have been filled in full once in 2018.”

Canary in the coal mine
Is lawn bowling the canary in the coal mine of the city’s recreation portfolio? Possibly. Based on what’s occurring with lawn bowling, should other recreational groups be concerned? Absolutely.

Regardless of whether or not the lawn bowling canary is singing, however, two things are very clear when it comes to natural greens at lawn bowling clubs.

First, if you’re going to have natural greens, you need a dedicated core of volunteers to maintain them. Treat those volunteers like gold. Never complain about the work they do. Ever. And never forget that they’re always looking for help.

And that brings us to the second point. They can’t do it alone. They need your help. And they need the city’s help.

The trick will be to find ways to bring number one and number two together.

How can the city use volunteers to stretch its resources and its budget? And how can volunteers take advantage of the city’s knowledge, equipment and people to meet the challenge of maintaining recreational infrastructure of reasonable quality?

Those, folks, are the 233,296-dollar questions assuming, of course, that Toronto’s lawn bowling community regains the heady budget heights it enjoyed in 2021.

And they’re the same questions that every other recreational group in Toronto should be asking.