Red flag flying on Rideau Canal Skateway forces festival to cancel event
Red flag flying on Rideau Canal Skateway forces festival to cancel event
It's a new sign you won't be skating on the Rideau Canal Skateway anytime soon.
With the world's largest skating rink still closed, the Ice Dragon Boat Festival scheduled for next weekend has been cancelled.
"Unfortunately, we had to shut it down," organizer John Brooman said on Sunday.
The highly anticipated event during the opening weekend of Winterlude was supposed to mark its return after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, drawing spectators and participants from near and far to race on decorated dragon boats on the Rideau Canal Skateway.
While Winterlude is still going ahead, the cancellation is a setback for those who worked hard to bring the event back to life.
"We’re fully sold out at 110 teams," Brooman said. "There’s 70 per cent of the teams that are from out of town, that’s a huge tourism draw. That’s about a $4 million impact for the city of Ottawa lost."
Members of Ottawa's Chinatown Showboat team also disappointed to learn there would be no race.
"We were really excited to get back on the ice," team captain Richard Martin said.
Each year, the group raises funds for charity, picking a theme to dress up in for the big day.
"We looked at Frozen (characters), becoming penguins," he said. "We’re going to miss not showing these costumes on display and having fun with friends and family on ice this year.”
This comes as locals and tourists alike continue to wait for the Rideau Canal Skateway to open for its 53rd season. But the red flags along the skateway indicate the ice is not yet ready.
The winter has been mild and hasn’t reached the temperatures and number of consecutive cold days needed for the world's largest skating rink to open to the public.
The National Capital Commission says the surface must be at least 30 centimetres thick with good quality ice and for that to happen, we need 10 to 14 consecutive days of temperatures between minus 10 C and minus 20 C.
The amount of snow isn’t helping either. This month alone, Ottawa has seen more than 85 cm of snow, making it hard for crews to work on the ice.
In an email, the NCC tells CTV News Ottawa, "Our teams will resume their work early next week to build the thickness of the ice, following the snowfall of the last few days. In the meantime, for safety reasons, the NCC asks the public not to venture on the ice."
Cape Breton University has more than doubled in size by enrolling thousands of international students, and critics say the campus and community weren't ready. Watch the documentary 'Cash Cow' on CTV W5, Saturday at 7 p.m.
In a choice forced upon them by the Canadian government, four mothers have made the agonizing decision to forfeit an opportunity to repatriate their children from open air prisons in northeast Syria.
Statistics Canada has released its new report about the Canadians level of confidence in Canada’s institutions, finding that recent immigrants are more likely to express confidence in the media and parliament.
A new Canadian study of 4.8 million people says a daily alcoholic drink isn't likely to send anyone to an early grave, nor will it offer any of the health benefits touted by previous studies, even if it is organic red wine.
Lawyers representing Toronto MP Han Dong served Global News with a libel notice on Friday over reports that alleged he spoke to a Chinese diplomat in February 2021 about delaying the release of the two Michaels, and that he was a 'witting affiliate' of Chinese interference networks – allegations that Dong denies.
A recent report from Royal LePage is predicting a drop in prices for Canadian cabins and cottages this year as demand softens from economic uncertainty and low housing stock.
Interim RCMP commissioner Michael Duheme says he would support the Criminal Code changes recommended in the Mass Casualty Commission report to implement stricter gun laws.
After the RCMP commissioner admitted he didn't read the Mass Casualty Commission’s final recommendations, family members of those killed in the April 2020 tragedy say they have doubts the force will change.
A doctor named in a lawsuit after a Nova Scotia woman died in hospital following a long wait to see a physician has denied allegations from the family that he failed in his duties.
In one day, Ontario midwife Manavi Handa saw three patients who will have to pay thousands of dollars to be able to schedule a C-section beginning on Sunday.
Akwesasne Mohawk Police say they are working with Immigration Canada and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to confirm the identities of the eight migrants whose bodies were pulled from the St. Lawrence River this week.
April Fools' Day -- better known as poisson d'Avril in Quebec -- is upon us. Some of the province's familiar faces got into the spirit Saturday with a few light-hearted social media pranks.
A northern Ontario man has been banned from licenced hunting and fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to having more than six times the legal limit of grouse and obstructing conservation officers.
Cape Breton University has more than doubled in size by enrolling thousands of international students, and critics say the campus and community weren't ready. Watch the documentary 'Cash Cow' on CTV W5, Saturday at 7 p.m.
Ontario's guns and gangs team says with the help of police in Sudbury and Durham, it has disrupted a large drug trafficking operation, seizing 2.7 kilograms of cocaine and arresting six.
Saturday morning has been filled with mainly sunny skies. However, clouds will be drifting in across the region beginning Saturday afternoon, bringing with them a chance of showers.
London police responded to Dundas Street, just west of William Street around 6:30 p.m. Friday evening for a reported shooting. According to police, one person is in custody.
A U.S. citizen charged with threatening death or bodily harm to Justin Trudeau made a virtual court appearance from a London jail Friday. Jeremy Joseph, 40 — who is living in Sarnia, Ont. — was arrested on Feb. 4, 2023 after Sarnia police were notified of emails containing threats.
In an attempt to take pressure off hospital emergency rooms, the Saskatchewan government will offer a bump in pay for family doctors who work later hours.
Kevin Garinger says it feels like the passage of time is inexplicable. The five years since a deadly bus crash changed his city, his hockey team and his life sometimes feel like a lifetime. Other times it feels like yesterday.
Officials in Vancouver said they plan to meet with the artist and volunteers who are keeping vigil on a children's shoe memorial on the steps of the city's art gallery in an effort to end the tribute to children who didn't return from residential schools.
The sale has started of former Saskatchewan government liquor store buildings. The province got out of liquor retailing earlier this month and is disposing of all assets.
In an attempt to take pressure off hospital emergency rooms, the Saskatchewan government will offer a bump in pay for family doctors who work later hours.
