Legal skating is set to return to Grenadier Pond for the first time since 2001.

On Thursday, city council approved Councillor Sarah Doucette’s plan for an ice testing program, with flags to say skate at your own risk when it’s thick enough, in a designated area of the pond in High Park.

But the 28-9 vote came only after lengthy debate and Doucette dropping the funding request to $25,000 from $50,000, with a stated goal of getting it back up to the original amount in future years.

City staff will be trained to do daily tests. If the ice is unsafe, a red flag will go up warning people to stay off. If the ice is deemed safe, a yellow “skate at your own risk” flag would fly.

Staff estimated there will be safe ice only five to 10 safe days per winter. Councillors made it clear that confidential advice from the city solicitor states the city has increased legal liability if anybody goes through the ice.

But Doucette noted people routinely ignore the city signs telling them it’s illegal to skate, and get out on the natural ice as they have been doing for a century or more.

“I am asking for the bare, bare minimum,” Doucette said. “Right now we could have over 200 people on the ice skating — they are ignoring your signs. I’m sorry, they are.”

Some other councillors said they might want pond skating in their wards, too.

Naysayers included Councillor Jon Burnside, who said he initially supported the idea but “for 10 to 15 days of skating, paying $25,000 to $50,000 makes absolutely no sense to me.”

A previous ice-testing program was axed in 2001 over budget restraints.