Ottawa River finally gets heritage river designation — but just the Ontario part
Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: July 28, 2016 | Last Updated: August 19, 2016 9:46 AM EDT
Parks Canada is ending a decade-long campaign to win recognition for Canada’s “original trans-Canada highway” with the announcement Thursday morning that the federal and Ontario governments have designated the Ontario portion of the Ottawa River as a Canadian Heritage River.
“It’s important because it recognizes the historical, cultural and recreational significance of the Ottawa River,” Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada, told Postmedia.
The 590-kilometre designated section extends from the head of Lake Timiskaming to East Hawkesbury. The boundary between Ontario and Quebec runs down the middle of that stretch of the river, but only the Ontario side falls under the designation. Nor does it apply to the 681 kilometres of the river that flow entirely within Quebec.
However, the federal government is working with the Government of Quebec to establish heritage recognition of the Quebec stretch of the river, said McKenna, the minister of the environment and climate change. “We have a good relationship with Quebec and I think we’ll be able to get it done soon.”
In 2006, Quebec opted out of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System, a federal-provincial-territorial program that gives national recognition to Canada’s outstanding rivers.
The province is still unwilling to participate in the program but plans to designate the river as a historical site next year under its own Cultural Heritage Act, said Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown.
Brown, who called the designation “fantastic,” said she wasn’t bothered by the fact that it covers only the Ontario section of the river “because I know that Quebec is also on board. If that wasn’t the case, it wouldn’t be as happy of a day for me.”
No new laws or regulations are created when rivers get heritage designations. But Brown said she hopes the designation “creates a sense of pride for our river system. I really hope that it brings people together.”
After a river is designated, annual reports must be prepared describing changes, improvements and threats to the values for which the river was recognized. In addition, an in-depth review of the river’s values must be done every 10 years.
While those reports have some value, Brown said, what’s more important is how communities and different levels of government come together to protect and promote the river. Brown is working to bring those players together, ideally as members of a watershed council.
The long-overdue recognition means the Ottawa River joins 38 other Canadian rivers that have received the heritage designations, including two of its own tributaries: the Rideau Waterway and the Mattawa River. Three other rivers have been nominated but not yet designated.
The Ottawa River, with a watershed twice the size of New Brunswick, has been a key transportation route for 6,000 years — first for indigenous peoples and later for the European explorers and fur traders who helped open up the new land. It also served as a thoroughfare for the lumber industry that built Ottawa.
It represents one of North America’s most important flyways, providing habitat to more than 300 species of birds, and sustains more than 80 species at risk.
Originally a series of mighty cataracts that connected lakes, the river has been mostly tamed by hydroelectric dams that capitalized on its 400-metre vertical drop en route to the St. Lawrence River. But the rapids still run free in some areas, offering superb whitewater rafting.
Efforts to recognize the Ottawa River began in 2003. A committee chaired by the late Len Hopkins, a former Liberal MP, formally nominated the river for heritage designation in 2006.
The Canadian Heritage Rivers Board endorsed the nomination in 2009, but the matter languished at the desks of successive federal ministers of the environment during the tenure of the Conservative government.
More recently, a renewed effort — spearheaded by the Ottawa Riverkeeper — helped to put the project onto the new Liberal government’s radar.
At an Ottawa River summit in 2015, there was near-unanimous agreement that the river was undervalued and that recognizing its cultural and historic values “was really high up on everybody’s to-do list,” Brown said. “We thought one great step forward would be to have the designation successful and get recognized.”
Brown received a positive response from McKenna, an Ottawa River enthusiast who canoes and paddles its waters and participates in the Riverkeeper’s annual four-kilometre swim between Ontario and Quebec.
“It was a priority to get this done,” McKenna said. “As we head into our 150th (anniversary), we should be doing more to recognize our history.”
Designated heritage rivers
- Alsek River, Yukon
- Arctic Red River, Northwest Territories
- Athabasca River, Alberta
- Bay du Nord River, Newfoundland
- Bloodvein River, Manitoba/Ontario
- Bonnet Plume River, Yukon
- Boundary Waters/Voyageur Waterway, Ontario
- Clearwater River, Saskatchewan/Alberta
- Cowichan River, British Columbia
- Detroit River, Ontario/Michigan
- Fraser River, British Columbia
- French River, Ontario
- Grand River, Ontario
- Hayes River, Manitoba
- Hillsborough River, Prince Edward Island
- Humber River, Ontario
- Kazan River, Nunavut
- Kicking Horse River, Alberta/British Columbia
- Main River, Newfoundland
- Margaree River, Nova Scotia
- Mattawa River, Ontario
- Missinaibi River, Ontario
- North Saskatchewan River, Alberta/British Columbia
- Ottawa River, Ontario
- Red River, Manitoba
- Rideau Waterway, Ontario
- Saint John River, New Brunswick
- Seal River, Manitoba
- Shelburne River, Nova Scotia
- Soper River, Nunavut
- South Nahanni River, Northwest Territories
- St. Croix River, New Brunswick
- St. Mary’s River, Ontario
- Tatshenshini River, Yukon
- Thames River, Ontario
- Thelon River, Nunavut
- The Three Rivers, Prince Edward Island
- Upper Restigouche River, New Brunswick
- Yukon River (the Thirty Mile section), Yukon
dbutler@postmedia.com
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