Full 7.8 km of Rideau Canal Skateway to open for skating on Saturday

People skate on the Rideau Canal Skateway on Jan. 17, 2025. (Tyler Fleming/CTV News Ottawa)

The full length of the Rideau Canal Skateway will open to the public on Saturday, the first time in three years skaters can enjoy the full length of the world’s largest skating rink.

The National Capital Commission announced the 400-metre stretch of the Rideau Canal Skateway will open between Laurier Avenue and Rideau Street at 8 a.m. Saturday.

A four-kilometre section of the skateway first opened last Saturday. On Tuesday, the NCC opened the section from Bank Street to the Carleton University Library, which includes Dow’s Lake.

This is the first time since 2022 that the full 7.8 km section of the canal will be open for skating.

The Rideau Canal Skateway opened for 10 days during the 2023-24 season, but the full 7.8 km section did not open for skating during the season. The skateway did not open for skating during the 2022-23 season due to the mild temperatures.

Mother Nature has cooperated with the National Capital Commission’s work to open the Rideau Canal Skateway this winter. Since Jan. 1, Ottawa has only experienced one hour of temperatures at 0 C.

While a high of 0 C is expected on Saturday, frigid temperatures will arrive in Ottawa Saturday night and Sunday. Ottawa will see overnight lows of -18 C on Saturday, -21 C on Sunday and -24 C on Monday.

“What we see over the next three weeks is no melting and no rain,” David Phillips, Environment Canada senior climatologist, said Friday. “It’s just absolutely good ice growing weather, and then some warming maybe in February but, I don’t know, this bout of cold weather is very long-lasting.”