Good news for skaters: Rideau Canal Skateway ‘definitely’ opening this month, NCC says.

Canal expected to open this month The National Capital Commission says the Rideau Canal Skateway will 'definitely' open by the end of the month. CTV's Tyler Fleming reports.

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is confident there will be skaters on the Rideau Canal Skateway by the end of the month – and probably sooner.

While Ottawa has seen consistently frigid temperatures in the evenings, NCC senior manager for facilities and programs spokesperson Bruce Devine says there is still some work to do.

"We're getting closer but we're not there yet," Devine told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work on Tuesday.

"The top layers are sort of soft, its not quite hard yet so it’s not as thick as it appears to be. So, its still unsafe to venture on the skateway."

Devine says crews have been on the ice flooding the entirety of the world-famous skateway since Saturday night.

The canal needs consistent temperatures under -10 C over an extended period to allow it to reach the 30 centimetres of “good” ice the NCC requires to allow skating.

Temperatures have been consistently between -10 C and -20 C since last weekend. The weather forecast shows overnight temperatures staying in that range through this weekend and into early next week.

As for an exact opening date, Devine said skaters are in luck.

"Definitely sometime this month, I guarantee," he said. "More likely sooner. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we'll have a much better idea of where we're at."

The 2023-2024 skating season had just 10 skating days between Jan. 21 and Feb. 25 and was never open for more than four days at a time. It was the second-shortest season on record, behind the 2022-23 season when the skateway did not open at all.

An access to information request from CTV News in November revealed the NCC lowered its usual ice thickness standards to allow for a short amount of skating time.

Devine said that won't be the case this year.

"Because of the nice cold weather that we have, our procedure is 30 centimetres of good hard ice," he said.

"We're making great progress with that cold so that's why we're going to remain with this standard. As I said, the crews are out there every night and it's moving quite well."