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OTTAWA — When Samuel de Champlain reached the banks of the Ottawa River in the 1600s, he probably took a sip of the fresh, clean water.
“Today, I don’t think people would think about drinking from the Ottawa River,” said Chief Kirby Whiteduck of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation.
Some say the river is in crisis, others say it is at risk, but the bottom line at the first Ottawa River Summit was that the waterway is in need of protection. The summit was a collaboration between the Ottawa Riverkeeper and the National Capital Commission.
“Water basically keeps everything alive, a lot of people aren’t acting on it and don’t know we need to do it (protect water),” Whiteduck said.
Close to 130 municipal, community and First Nations leaders from Ontario and Quebec gathered in Gatineau on Friday to discuss the importance of preserving the Ottawa River watershed.
The watershed spans more than 148,000 square kilometres, from the rocky lands of the Canadian Shield in Quebec, through the Ottawa Valley and into the St. Lawrence River.
Meredith Brown of Ottawa Riverkeeper said there are numerous threats to the river, including pollution from sewage, landfills and nuclear reactors, dams that affect river flow and climate change resulting in record-low water levels.
An increase in chemicals has also resulted in fish feminization, where male fish develop female parts, she said. “If you are pregnant or are a young child, there are fish you cannot eat safely,” Brown said. “As you travel up the food chain, you find more contamination.”
NCC chief executive officer Marie Lemay said she hoped the summit would prompt the sharing of knowledge and expertise throughout the whole watershed, something that has not happened yet.
She said bringing together all groups, including First Nations communities, would help to develop a collective vision.
First Nations groups, she added, have much experience with the land and have information dating back thousands of years.
Chief Gilbert Whiteduck said he would like municipal leaders to sit in a circle with elders and listen to their ideas about preservation.
Larry McDermott of Plenty Canada agreed with that idea. “Part of bringing traditional knowledge and Western science together is to look holistically at something,” he said.
While environmental and health reasons were cited as good reasons for protecting the river, Mary Trudeau of Marbek, an environmental consulting firm, said it is important to consider the economic benefit of the waterway.