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."