Standing on the banks of Patterson Creek on March 7, Candice Fleurance was mourning the loss of the Rideau Canal Skateway.
Normally at that time of year, skating season on the canal would be in full swing. The sound of skate blades slicing into the ice would accompany the sights of rosy cheeks as lifelong memories were made in the double-digit negative temperatures. But this year, for the first time since its opening season in 1971, the historic skateway remained closed for the entire 2022-23 season.
At Patterson Creek Park, Fleurance was not alone in her mourning. She stood among dozens of Ottawa residents who also attended a community vigil hosted by Ecology Ottawa, a volunteer-run environmental advocacy organization.
Fleurance, an international student from Normandy, France currently studying environmental studies at Carleton University, said she chose to study in Ottawa partly because of the skateway.
“I was really looking forward to living this unique experience of skating on the biggest skateway in the world,” Fleurance said. “That people wanted to create a space to mourn the canal shows it was a huge part of their traditions.”
The skateway’s closure has unfolded in the shadow of climate change, which groups such as Ecology Ottawa are becoming increasingly vocal about.
According to a Feb. 24 announcement from the National Capital Commission’s (NCC), the city will have to wait until at least next winter to re-open Ottawa’s premier winter attraction. In the past, the Rideau Canal Skateway has drawn nearly one million visitors to the city each year.
In a written statement, the NCC said it shares the public’s disappointment about the outcome of this year’s skating season.
“The Rideau Canal Skateway is an iconic and beloved attraction that we proudly maintain and operate. We already look forward to welcoming visitors to the world’s largest skating rink next winter,” it wrote.
Rebranding Ottawa winters
Jantine Van Kretgen, the director of communications for Ottawa Tourism, said the cancellation of this year’s skating season was a shock.
“It has definitely been a very disappointing season,” Van Kretgen said. “If you had asked me before Christmas, ‘Is it possible that we could go through a winter without seeing the skateway open?’ I would’ve guaranteed that it would open.”
Ottawa Tourism is still grappling with the effects of the pandemic and the loss of many incoming international flights, Van Kretgen said.
This winter is yet another setback in terms of marketing Ottawa as a world-class destination, according to Van Kretgen.
“Going forward, when we talk about coming to Ottawa in the winter, we can talk about the Rideau Canal Skateway as an option, but that sense of certainty is gone,” Van Kretgen said. “What we have to do is diversify how we talk about visiting Ottawa in the winter.”
The closure of the canal as a symptom of climate change is something Van Kretgen said is troubling for Ottawa’s reputation. Now, she’s focusing on diversifying how Ottawa Tourism markets wintertime in Ottawa.
“One of our icons is now at risk,” she said.
Kate Rutledge, the regional manager of Zak’s Diner’s five Ottawa locations, noted business remained steady despite the skateway’s absence. In particular, she pointed towards its location in Ottawa’s ByWard Market as a symbol of success.
“The great thing about the ByWard Market is we have so many things that are just never going to leave,” Rutledge said. “I think that a lot of people had made plans to come to Ottawa for Winterlude, and regardless of the state of the canal, they still came.”
Van Kretgen said although the skateway never fully froze, the warmer temperatures actually benefited Winterlude in terms of visitors’ comfort. Snowflake Kingdom, a popular annual event in Gatineau’s Jacques-Cartier Park, set attendance records thanks to milder weather.
“Mother Nature gives with one hand and takes away with the other,” Van Kretgen said.
Rideau Canal Skateway season lengths since opening in 1971. Source: National Capital Commission. [Graph by Janson Duench]
Opportunities for local businesses wither under warmth
The NCC has received plenty of criticism from the public on its failure to freeze the skateway, an effort costing an average of $1 million annually, according to the NCC.
Chris Rouse, a second-year environmental engineering student at Carleton University, said the criticism is unwarranted. Rouse was part of a research team from Carleton hired by the NCC last summer to conduct preliminary research on the impacts of climate change on the skateway.
“This year was just too warm,” Rouse said. “I don’t know if there was any method that they could’ve used to make it freeze.”
By working with universities such as Carleton to understand the science behind the canal freezing, Rouse said the NCC has shown it cares about finding solutions to help the local economy continue to thrive during Ottawa winters.
“There are a lot of people that benefit from Winterlude and a lot of small companies that depend on that revenue,” Rouse said. “That was a major focus for [the NCC].”
Perhaps the most recognizable among those beneficiaries is BeaverTails, a company synonymous with the skateway.
“[BeaverTails] invested all that money putting their huts on the skateway … so I can only imagine that was a huge ‘wasted investment’ and disappointment for them,” Rutledge said.
CBC Ottawa reported BeaverTails spent $50,000 to install its four kiosks on the skateway in preparation for the season, and as much as $15,000 to take three of those kiosks down. BeaverTails did not respond to requests for comment.
ZUPS ByWard, a poutinerie that opened in the summer of 2022 in the ByWard Market, was another business that lost money by betting on the canal this winter. In December 2022, the NCC approached John Hennessy, the restaurant’s president, to be a vendor on the skateway.
Although Hennessy had no plans to expand operations until next fall, ZUPS seized the opportunity. The company moved quickly to purchase a trailer and incurred additional expenses re-outfitting it to comply with health, safety and fire codes.
Aside from the unexpected expenses, Hennessy said it was the time he put into thinking and preparation that was a major loss.
Dunrobin Distilleries, first invited last season by the NCC to sell its spirits on the skateway, also missed out on the opportunity to grow its brand on the canal this season.
“We were really looking forward to this year to see what the canal had for us and the opportunities that would be sustained with it,” Adam Malmberg, Dunrobin’s director of business development, said.
“We’ve been invited to 10 different events that would’ve been harder for us to get into…” Hennessy said. “Now, they know who we are.”
Having developed close relationships with the NCC, Hennessy and Malmberg are confident the skateway will return and their businesses will have the opportunity to thrive alongside it.
“It’s too big of a tourist draw for them not to figure something out if this becomes a consistent pattern,” Malmberg said. “As long as the NCC wants to be a partner with us, we want to be a partner with them.”
Adaptation is not the same as compensation
For Fleurance and many others, no number of innovations in ice-making can compensate for the damages of climate change.
“I do not believe in using technologies to solve climate change,” Fleurance said.
Instead of focusing on how to accommodate climate change, Fleurance said she believes the focus should be on changing the behaviours that are driving the climate change to begin with. In addition to attending the community vigil for the Skateway, Fleurance has participated several times over the past year in climate strikes with Fridays for Future Ottawa.
The volunteer-driven team’s aim is to end government fossil fuel subsidies, which Ecology Ottawa believes is the underlying cause of the skateway’s failure to open.
Enbridge, North America’s largest natural gas utility by volume, is one of Winterlude’s title sponsors. Ecology Ottawa has been outspoken about its belief that this sponsorship does not align with the Government of Canada’s commitment to phasing out fossil fuels.
Ecology Ottawa is calling on Heritage Canada, the organizers of Winterlude, to drop Enbridge as a sponsor to protect public health, the planet and the future of winter sports.
The future of the skateway
While the canal’s closure is a very real sign of climate change, Rouse said this year’s historically warm winter is likely an outlier.
“It’s probably indicative of future years,” he said. “I expect the skating season to continue to decrease … but there should still be a skating season.”
With abnormally high temperatures predicted to continue in the future, locals from all over the city worry about whether they’ll skate and spend time together once again… or if the canal will be nothing but snow for years to come.
Ultimately, Van Kretgen said, we’re all at the mercy of the planet.
“The problem with Mother Nature is she’s very capricious,” Van Kretgen said. “There’s no guarantees with what she’s going to do.”
Featured image by Janson Duench.
