Entire length of Rideau Canal Skateway opens Friday morning

·1 min read
A Rideau Canal Skateway user sits on a bench near its northern end last February. (Brian Morris/CBC - image credit)
A Rideau Canal Skateway user sits on a bench near its northern end last February. (Brian Morris/CBC - image credit)

The Rideau Canal will open all 7.8 kilometres of the skateway on Friday morning, the National Capital Commission has announced.

The 52nd skating season will begin at 8 a.m. Friday and there will be some changes from the pandemic-affected 2021 season.

The NCC has explained its general standards for opening a stretch of the canal are an ice thickness of 30 centimetres, which takes about 10 to 14 days of temperatures in the -10 C to -20 C range.

WATCH | What it looks like to get the canal ready:

The neighbouring Queen Elizabeth Driveway on its western side is open for exercise and closed to vehicles between Somerset Street West and Fifth Avenue Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Last year's skating season lasted 29 days from late January to late February, its shortest season yet.

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