skate: a winter celebration at The Emera Oval
 Residents of and visitors to HRM once again have the opportunity to experience The Emera Oval...
In the spirit of celebrating HRM’s unique arts and culture, The Emera Oval will be a destination for special events and cultural activities on weekends and throughout the holiday season. Events this season may include
- a grand opening
- a Family New Year’s Eve
- DJ Events
- Live Musical Performances
- Special Guests,
- On Ice Activities
- Visual Displays
- Movie Nights
- and more...
Temporary public art, artist-inspired warming huts, interpretive heritage displays, Ice sculptures, arts activities, and food and refreshments will add to the overall experience.
The Emera Oval
 Cool Facts
- Largest outdoor, artificially-refrigerated ice surface east of Quebec City
- An ice surface equivalent to 3 NHL hockey rinks
- The ice surface can accommodate up to 1500 skaters at a time
- 6 refrigeration units making it possible to skate in temperatures of up to 10 degrees Celsius
- There is approx 450,000 linear feet (85 miles) of piping used to create the oval
- Refrigeration design will be able to hold ice above 50 F (+10 C) depending on wind and solar exposure
- The Emera Oval will have approx 55,000 sqft of ice area. (This is more than three full size NHL ice rinks)
- Ice will be approx 2" thick above the pipes
- Initial ice making will take about 250,000 litres of waterIce will be resurfaced using an Olympia ice resurfacer with a laser leveller and a laser edger
- It will take approximately 60 minutes to resurface the ice, using approx. 1700 litres per flood, and is usually done after 2 hours of skating.
- (6) packaged air cooled chillers each delivering 80 tons of cooling for a combined total of 480 tons of cooling. The packaged air cooled chillers use environmentally friendly R410a refrigerant and consume no water in the condensing process.
- Environmental: 100% recovery of the glycol solution used for the oval, rink floor piping and rink floor insulation is reuseable post games.
Media Coverage
Metro- August 5, 2010- Short-term oval for long-track skaters
Chronicle Herald - August 15, 2010 - Workers to start
on speed skating oval
Chronicle Herald - September 8, 2010 - Work on skating oval starts this week
Metro - September 9, 2010 - Oval work starts today
Metro - March 29, 2011- Council votes to make skating oval permanent
Chronicle Herald - March 30, 2011 - Oval will be here a long time
Chronicle Herald - August 24, 2011 -
Oval a chance to make Halifax a hotbed of skating
Sport and Community Development
As part of the programming plans for the Oval speed skating clubs will be given dedicated practice times each week. This will be a great opportunity for the local speed skating community to train and develop their athletes on a full-size oval. The free public programming will include learn to skate programs for school groups and participants of all ages and daily open skates. Open seven days a week with a participant capacity of 500 people per session, The Oval will encourage the public to skate for pleasure, fitness, and skill building.
The Halifax Common
Throughout the history of the Halifax Common  it has been used for a wide variety of recreational and cultural pursuits - from horse and car racing to military encampments, native powwow’s, concerts, circuses and fairs. Traditionally, these activities have taken place in the May to October time frame, however hosting the Canada Winter Games in February 2011 facilitated a unique opportunity for winter activities held in this public common area.
Legacy Planning
Tuesday, March 29, 2011: Regional Council decided on the future of the Oval.
The recommendation from the Long Term Arena Strategy Committee and staff was that the oval becomes a permanent facility on the North Common (public access to facility would be free).
The staff report provides background information on costs (capital and operating), all season use, siting considerations, oval vs hockey rink options, public and sport venue considerations, impact on North Common, etc.
Long Term Arena Strategy - Oval Recommendation
(i) Long Term Arena Strategy Committee Report
(218 Kb)
(ii) Staff Report (763 Kb)
January 6, 2011: Memorandum from Director, Community Development re: Outdoor Refrigerated Ice Skating Rinks
(1.2 Mb)
Background information
January 26, 2010 - Report to Council: 10.1.8 Long Term Arena Strategy (179KB)
July 7, 2009 - Report to Council:
11.1.4 Outdoor Refrigerated Ice Skating Rinks (758KB)
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