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The nomination of the Ottawa river as a heritage river is proceeding despite the official pullout of support by the Province of Quebec.
“We don’t have to reapply,” said Len Hopkins, co-chairman for Ontario of the committee of more than 100 volunteers that made the May 17 bid to the Canadian Heritage rivers board of directors. “We have to take out the references to Quebec and when the technical committee is finished with the adjustments and the board is satisfied that everything is in order, we will be nominated.”
For most of the three years that the Ottawa river committee has been meeting, residents of Quebec were active participants and Benoit Pelletier, minister responsible for Canadian Intergovernmental Affairs, was Quebec co-chairman of the committee.
Numerous meetings were held in communities on both sides of the river during that time.
Early in March, at a meeting just days before the deadline to submit the nomination bid, Mr. Pelletier informed the committee that he had bad news.
“We were told that this was not one of Quebec’s priorities at this time and that Quebec didn’t want to get involved in federal programs that cost a lot of money,” said Mr. Hopkins.
Writing of the proposal was funded by Parks Canada and by donations. There are no ongoing costs for the program.
“There will be a review in 10 years to make sure we’re doing what we said we would and that also will be funded by Parks Canada,” said Mr. Hopkins.
On the eve of the May 17 nomination bid in Alberta, Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MP Cheryl Gallant issued a press release critical of the committee for proceeding with the nomination without the names of municipal and other political leaders in Quebec.
“It was up to the Quebec members of the committee to contact these people on that side of the river,” said Mr. Hopkins. “If I had done it, I would have been interfering in Quebec politics.”
After the government of Quebec withdrew its support, a decision had to be made on how to proceed.
“Ontario Parks decided to go ahead,” said Mr. Hopkins. “We had been ready to go in 2005 as far as Ontario was concerned, but Quebec asked for more time, so we took another year. Then, at the 11th hour, Quebec said it was not a priority. We decided to leave it wide open for Quebec to come in at the last minute. Because they didn’t come in, we went ahead to ask for the designation of the Ontario side.”
He said precedents exist where portions of rivers are designated and others are not.
Mr. Hopkins expressed disappointment at the timing of Ms. Gallant’s press release.
“Even though it had no impact on the quality of our report to the board, it was not in good taste,” he said. “It was not written in a good spirit considering the work done by so many volunteers over three years.”
Referring to Ms. Gallant’s concern that ill will may be created with Quebec people by pushing ahead with the application at this time, Mr. Hopkins said there is no ill feeling among the people who live along both sides of the river.
“The idea of friction with municipalities in West Quebec is absolute nonsense,” he said. “We worked together like a family and we will continue to do so. It’s not the people that live along the river that made this decision.”
When contacted by The Observer, Mr. Pelletier’s press secretary, Sylvain Vincent Lamontagne, reiterated that the reason for Quebec’s pullout was that the government “has other priorities at this time.”
“Mr. Pelletier’s main role on the project was to talk to his colleagues to get them involved,” he said. “It’s important to know that he absolutely tried hard to do that.”
He said he knew of no reasons for Quebec’s pullout other than the stated one: that the government has other priorities.
Once the nomination document is approved, committee members will begin the heritage strategy phase of the work. When the designation board is satisfied with the strategy, a plaque will be unveiled to commemorate the formal inclusion of the river in the system.