Ottawa - After Bizarrely Warm Winter, Petition Moving To End Winter Fair Sponsorship By Enbridge Gas
It’s been an atypical winter in the nation’s capital, where lingering balminess has replaced sub-zero temperatures and signature cold snaps. And it’s a winter Ottawans will remember: the first year they were robbed of skating on the Rideau Canal since the tradition began five decades ago. In late February, the National Capital Commission, the Crown corporation charged with managing the ice, deemed it too thin and porous for skating due to higher than average temperatures, as well as snow and rain. Having launched Winterlude, the capital’s annual flagship winter festival, by redirecting crowds to other outdoor excursions, the Department of Canadian Heritage was forced to tell revelers that its usual focal point would stay behind locked gates.
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A more recent analysis in 2021 found the average season length is now around 46 days, and by 2080, the most drastic global warming scenario projects that, on average, Ottawans will only have one week of skating. Environmental groups have called the skateway’s closure a sure sign that climate change has come to Ottawa. And last week, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment began highlighting what it considers inappropriate sponsorship of Winterlude — the group is circulating a petition asking the federal Heritage department to drop longtime sponsor Enbridge Gas and refuse all fossil fuel funding.
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Enbridge produces natural gas, which is largely made up of methane — about 95 per cent, according to the company’s figures — the second biggest contributor to global warming. Much of it goes to heat buildings, which is the third highest source of emissions in Ontario, where Enbridge has 1.5 million customers. Impacts from natural gas extraction and processing carry significant environmental concerns, including methane leaks, and the controversial process of fracking. Last fall, The Narwhal reported that 32 Ontario municipalities have called for a natural gas phase-out.
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The concept of carbon heavy companies using winter sports to prop up their reputations is getting global attention. The European think tank New Weather Institute recently put out “The Snow Thieves,” a study documenting 107 instances of fossil fuel companies, carmakers or airlines sponsoring winter sporting events, organizations or athletes. The report states that the world’s biggest cross-country ski race, the Vasaloppet in Sweden, is sponsored by energy company Preem and Volvo Cars, two companies that “combined are estimated to be responsible for the loss of 1,260 million tonnes of glacier ice each year, or 210 square kilometres of snow cover … this amounts to melting the equivalent of 233 Vasaloppet ski races.” The paper notes the largest governing body in winter sports, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, is sponsored by Audi — and that 90 per cent of the auto company’s vehicles produced in 2021 were petrol or diesel driven.
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https://thenarwhal.ca/rideau-canal-skating-winterlude-enbridge/