Too warm in Canada: World's largest ice rink may not open

OTTAWA - The Canadian capital’s iconic Rideau Canal Skateway – the largest outdoor rink in the world and a Unesco heritage site – may not open this winter for the first time in five decades, due to a lack of ice.

Ottawa is in the grips of its third-warmest winter ever recorded, according to Environment Canada, with temperatures hovering just below freezing through most of December and January.

And they are now forecast to climb.

“Mother Nature has presented us with a big challenge this year,” Mr Bruce Devine, the National Capital Commission senior manager responsible for the skateway, told Agency France-Presse.

“Mild temperatures have made it difficult to make good, solid ice that can support the weight of our equipment and skaters,” he said.

For the canal to freeze up, temperatures must hold steady at -10 to -20 deg C for almost two weeks.

“Currently in several spots the ice is porous and of not very good quality,” he said.

Although Mr Devine remains optimistic for what would be the latest opening on record, others worry the skateway might not open at all in 2023.

A brief cold spell is forecast to be coming.

“The weather will be more conducive (for skating) next week,” said meteorologist Peter Kimbell. “But will it be enough? I don’t know.”

Ms Chantal Dussiaume, 57, was pessimistic as she eyed ice conditions.

“I got skates for Christmas, so it is a big disappointment,” she said.

Ms Lani Simmons, 46, who was visiting from Bermuda, said: “I’ve heard so much about the canal, and it would have been nice to go skating on it.”

The winding 7.8km long skateway though the heart of Ottawa is the size of 90 Olympic rinks, according to Guinness World Records.

In 2005, it confirmed it was the biggest skateway recorded, and in recent years it attracted an average of 22,000 visitors per day.

Visitors would leisurely skate up and down it, taking in views of Parliament and quaint neighbourhoods, stopping at warming huts or food stands along the way offering snacks and hot beverages.

Commuters were also seen skating to work with a briefcase in hand.

Mr Devine said: “It’s part of the DNA of local residents and attracts a lot of visitors from afar.”

The skateway normally opens at the end of December for 30 to 60 days of skating. But its opening has shifted later and later over the years, and for shorter periods.

“It’s really too bad for all the businesses and all the people who find joy” in skating, said student Clara Harman-Denhoed, 22.

But the situation highlights “the impact that climate change has on us here”, she said.

That view was echoed by Canada’s Environment Minister, Mr Steven Guilbeault, who said on Tuesday: “This is yet another example of how our climate is changing in Canada.”

“I don’t think anyone has seen it this bad,” said Mr Davey Wright, who operates shacks on the canal selling flat fried dough dusted with sugar or cinnamon.

Local businesses, after suffering through Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and a disruptive trucker-led protest last year, are taking a big hit.

The city was forced to scale back outdoor activities for its annual Winterlude festival, which runs until Feb 20, while hotel association president Steve Ball said bookings are way down.

“Skating on the canal is our blockbuster (attraction) and what people talk about, why they come back,” he said.

The National Capital Commission has ordered a flurry of climate adaptation studies to try to keep the skateway open earlier in the season and for longer periods.

Carleton University Professor Shawn Kenny, who studies climate impacts on ice, has tried various fixes inspired by ski hills and seasonal ice roads in the Arctic – for example, using snow fans to blow ice crystals onto the canal to kick-start ice formation, and clearing snow that acts as insulation.

He is currently testing thermosyphons, which is used in the far north to prevent permafrost from thawing beneath railways, roads, pipelines and buildings, to regulate canal ice temperatures.

But he warned that adaptation may not be enough in the future.

“Eventually we’ll get to a stage where it might not be possible to open the skateway,” he said. AFP