Ottawa Tourism says this is the first year that the skateway did not open for Winterlude
This year, the weather changed a lot during the Winterlude festival in the capital, and its main attraction, the Rideau Canal Skateway, didn’t open until after the festival was over.
Some canal events, like the dragon boat race, had to be canceled, and others had to be changed or moved to places with colder temperatures.
The co-founder of BeaverTails, Inc., was very upset.
Grant Hooker said that business on the Rideau Canal Skateway has been terrible. “There’s nothing to do.” Zero.”
Hooker said that the company is going to tear down three of the four kiosks on the canal. These kiosks had been empty for months at the National Arts Centre, Dows Lake, and Concord Street.
Just in case, it is leaving by Fifth Avenue.
‘A losing proposition
Hooker says that it cost about $50,000 to set up the four kiosks, get the equipment ready, hire and train staff, and get everything ready for the season.
Now, he said, it will cost him an extra $10,000 to $15,000 to get rid of three of these kiosks.
“That’s a terrible mistake. “And then there are all the sales we would have made if the skateway had been open,” he said.
“You don’t have to be an accountant to know that this year is a bad year to fish in the canal.”
Hooker also said that other BeaverTail kiosks have made more money than usual, in part because of other Winterlude events, but that this is only a small part of what the company would make on the ice.
Still, he said, the company needs that money to “keep us alive and make sure we’re ready to come back next year.”
This year comes after 2021 and 2022, when kiosks had to be closed because of a pandemic.
Extreme cold to record warmt
Winterlude’s ice carving competition was also postponed because of how cold it was the first weekend. However, the sculptures melted in record heat a few days later.
A spokesperson for Canadian Heritage, the group that puts on Winterlude, said that there were plenty of other activities people could do on land.
Melanie Brault said, “Sparks Street has been a great, big party for the last three weekends.”
Still, she said, “We can’t deny that the Rideau Canal Skateway is one of Winterlude’s most recognizable parts.”
Family Day was the last day of the annual winter festival. People could skate at Rideau Hall, Lansdowne Park, and City Hall, and there was a free concert at the Rainbow Bistro in the ByWard Market.
Ottawa Tourism said that this year’s second weekend hotel bookings were better than the last time the festival was held in 2020, but it was sad that the “huge draw” of the canal wasn’t open for the first time in the festival’s history.
Skateway ‘missed’ at festiva
Anuj Bhargava and his family went to City Hall’s Rink of Dreams on Monday. He said he was looking forward to getting a BeaverTail there.
Still, he said that this year his daughter missed being able to go out on the canal.
He said, “It’s a little sad.”
Patrick Kavanaugh said he just moved to Ottawa and had been waiting for months to go ice skating on the canal.
“Before we moved here, I really bragged about it,” he said. “I was like, ‘We got the canal, the longest skating rink in the world,’ but we haven’t been able to do that, so it’s a little disappointing.”
“I hope this is just a one-time thing,” he said.
For the time being, the Rideau Canal Skateway is still closed.
The NCC said last week that it would give an update this week around the middle of the week.