Thin ice: Ottawa's Rideau Canal still isn't open for skating, despite cold weather

Workers with a chainsaw make adjustments to a stairway leading to the Rideau Canal Skateway, as it is yet to open, in Ottawa, on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (Justin Tang/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Ottawa is looking at another weekend without skating on the Rideau Canal, even with below-normal winter temperatures on the horizon for the weekend.

The National Capital Commission, which manages the famous skateway, says it is reassessing the conditions of the ice now that cold enough weather has finally descended on the city over the past week.

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Spokesperson Sofia Benjelloun said Friday the NCC hopes to have an update soon.

"We've been making the most of the cold temperatures, which have given our Skateway preparations a boost, and our crews continue to work hard," she said.

When weather permits its use, the 7.8 km skateway is billed as the largest skating rink in the world.

It hasn't announced an opening date for the canal and only says it is looking at "next steps."

The canal failed to open to skating for the first time in its history last winter, and anxiety in the city is high around its fate this year.

The commission is even turning to social media to try and will the freezing temperatures required to create a safe skating surface.

On Thursday, the NCC's Rideau Canal Skateway account on X, formerly Twitter, posted a Spotify playlist of "songs to manifest cold weather to."

On the list: "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, "Cold As You" by Taylor Swift, "She's So Cold" by the Rolling Stones.

Signalling that more and more people are asking for information about an opening date, the account posted a short update on Friday afternoon.

"We know it's cold," said the post, which included a light-hearted video featuring staff tasked with flooding the canal's surface.

"Stay tuned."

Earlier this week, the NCC said members of its maintenance team had flooded 6.2 km of the skateway. They used pumps to draw water from the canal and onto the surface to turn snow into ice.

The canal needs at least 30 centimetres of ice for the skateway to open, which usually requires 10 to 14 days of weather between -10 C and -20 C.

Trudy Kidd, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada, said Ottawa is looking at below-normal temperatures for the weekend, with highs of between -9 C and -13 C and lows between -10 C and -18 C.

Temperatures are expected to be warmer than usual next week, though they should remain mostly below freezing.

There's still time. In some previous years, those wanting to glide along with hot chocolates and BeaverTails have had to wait until late January or early February to lace up.

Last year, the NCC waited until late February to concede that the skateway would not be able to open.

The ultimately unsuccessful efforts to make it happen had cost nearly $1 million.

"Last season taught us a great deal about the effects of milder winters on the skateway," NCC spokesperson Sofia Benjelloun said in an earlier statement.

She added the NCC also has an ongoing partnership with Carleton University to identify ways to adapt operations to the impacts on climate change.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2024.