Toronto to replace registration system for recreation programs

Mayor says the current system is held together with "chewing gum and chicken wire"

Thestar.com
March 8, 2016
By David Rider

A project director has been hired to lead the replacement of Toronto’s online registration system for day camps and recreation programs, Mayor John Tory announced Tuesday.

“We have not kept up with the times at all,” Tory told a news conference at the Regent Park Aquatic Centre.

Tory said he has heard the frustration of Toronto residents, who try to register for swimming lessons and other programs using a 20-year-old system that he described as being held together with “chewing gum and chicken wire.”

The current system processes 600,000 registrations each year for 80,000 programs and classes at the city’s 135 community centres, 40 indoor arenas and 122 pools.

The city says it took three hours to complete 20,000 registrations in 2009, but the same number can be completed today in just over 15 minutes.