If there is a river worthy of heritage designation in Canada, it is the mighty Ottawa – “the original trans-Canada highway” as some call it.
Maybe it is fitting, then, that the attempt to give the river that was travelled by Samuel de Champlain and is overlooked by the Parliament Buildings a national heritage designation, has run into such typically Canadian hurdles.
First, there is the Quebec question – namely that Quebec wants no part of the effort to declare the Ottawa, or any river, a national heritage river, leaving it a partial campaign at best. That wouldn’t prevent a heritage designation, but it raises questions about how meaningful a label is that makes some water in a river heritage but other water not.
Then there is the political question. Supporters are wondering whether partisan politics is getting in the way of the heritage designation. Both of those logjams reflect how things often go in this country.
The push to get a heritage designation for the river began in 2002, spearheaded by Len Hopkins, former long-time Liberal MP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke. Mr. Hopkins died last year before he could see his work bear fruit.
Six years after the campaign began, supporters of the heritage designation, many of them from Mr. Hopkins’ home turf in the upper Ottawa Valley, are beginning to despair of the project ever moving forward. It has been in Environment Minister John Baird’s office (and former environment minister Rona Ambrose’s office, before that) since 2006, awaiting sign-off. Last August, Mr. Baird assured the committee behind the project that he would sign the documents nominating the river for heritage status within 60 days.
Last week, nearly eight months later, Renfrew County Reeve Janice Visneskie sent Mr. Baird a letter warning that the project is running out of time. If the river isn’t nominated within a few weeks, committee members say, there will not be time to have the official designation made next year when the Canadian Heritage Rivers National Conference is held in Ottawa.
“I am writing to express my serious concern that the prospect of the designation of the Ottawa River as a Canadian Heritage River is about to expire on your desk,” she wrote.
Eight months does seem like a long time to procure a signature, although Mr. Baird’s office insist he is “excited” about the project. Still, supporters wonder whether the fact that Mr. Hopkins, the driving force behind the campaign, was a Liberal is a factor in the gridlock.
Or, perhaps, there is something else afoot, such as the federal government’s hypersensitivity to anything involving Quebec.
Quebec, never a fan of national institutions, opted out of the heritage river project almost from the beginning. Quebec doesn’t want any of its rivers designated national heritage waterways. In fact the province even asked the Canadian Heritage Rivers System program to take the Jacques Cartier River, north of Quebec City, off the list of rivers nominated for heritage designation.
Still, supporters say Quebec’s opting out shouldn’t affect their bid. They want to declare the Ontario portion of the river from Lake Temiskaming to Voyageur Provincial Park, east of Hawksbury – through Matawa, Deep River, Petawawa, Arnprior, Ottawa and Hawksbury – a heritage river. The rest? Well without Quebec’s involvement, it would remain undesignated.
But is a heritage designation for half a river – one-third, actually in the Ottawa River’s case – worth anything? Particularly when the headwaters of the river are in Quebec and not part of the bid?
Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown, who supports the project, thinks Quebec’s involvement does matter.
“We are supportive of having it named a heritage river – it’s a no-brainer,” she says. But Ms. Brown adds that she can’t support a management plan if only the provincial government from one side of the river is involved.
Her concerns should be heard.
Although a heritage designation celebrates the history of a river – and few would argue that the Ottawa River’s history isn’t worth recognizing – which confers some tourism benefits to nearby communities, it is about more than the past. It is also meant to help secure a river’s future.
And that requires the development of a management strategy that looks at how to improve or preserve the river’s quality. A management strategy that does not include Quebec would make the designation meaningless.
And that is a shame. There is plenty of work to be done – from upgrading infrastructure in Ottawa so sewage doesn’t run into the river closing beaches and threatening health, to preserving wetlands that serve as filters for the river.
Only then can we be sure the Ottawa River’s future lives up to its past.
Elizabeth Payne is a member of the Citizen’s editorial board. E-mail: at lpayne@thecitizen.canwest.com