A beloved winter pastime could become the latest victim of a lengthy dry spell in the Ottawa area as the city urges residents on private wells to refrain from using their water to flood backyard rinks.
Residents urged to conserve water as dry conditions persist
CBC News · Posted: Dec 17, 2025 12:22 PM EST | Last Updated: 9 hours ago
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The City of Ottawa is asking residents with wells to refrain from flooding backyard rinks in order to conserve water. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
A beloved winter pastime could become the latest victim of a lengthy dry spell in the Ottawa area.
The city is asking residents on private wells to refrain from using their water to flood backyard rinks, to avoid further draining the precarious groundwater supply.
The city still plans to open community rinks in rural areas, so residents with wells will still have somewhere nearby to play shinny and practise their skating.
In the same news release, the city reminds people to stay off frozen creeks, rivers and stormwater ponds where ice is often thin and unstable, especially at this time of year.
Though there has been some recent improvement, conditions in the Ottawa area have been extremely arid this year, causing some waterways and wells in the region to run dry.
Ottawa has seen about 25 per cent less precipitation this year than average.
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