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Great rivers run through great cities. London has flourished alongside the Thames. The East and Hudson Rivers have helped define New York. Try to imagine Rome without the Tiber, Paris without the Seine, Florence without the Arno or poor benighted Baghdad without the Tigris.
Great rivers bring economic benefit and they provide recreation. They provide inspiration for painters, poets, songwriters, nation-builders and myth-makers.
Ottawa poet Archibald Lampman wrote:
Oh! restlessly whirls the river;/ The rivulets run and the cataract drones;/The spiders are flitting over the stones;/Summer winds float and the cedar moans;/And the eddies gleam and quiver./O Sun, shine hot, shine long and abide/In the glory and power of thy summer tide/On the swift longing face of the river.
—from Spring on the River.
The Ottawa is a great river. It is 1,271 kilometres long. It is also a wild river still in many parts, even though it has been tamed by dams and tainted by pollutants. In 1613, Samuel de Champlain, who was the first European to map the river, marvelled in his diaries at the Chaudiere Falls.
“The water falls … with such impetuosity on a rock that with the passage of time it has hollowed out a wide, deep basin. The water whirls to such an extent, and in the middle boils so vigorously, that Indians call it Asticou, that is to say, a kettle. This waterfall makes such a noise in this basin, one can hear it from more than two leagues away.”
The voyageurs followed and their portage around the Cauldron can still be seen worn smooth into a rocky path.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottawa River was the centre of the community on both banks. Wrightsville evolved into Hull and Bytown into Ottawa on the back of a lumbering trade that helped build this country.
But as the cities have evolved on both sides, the river is no longer the focus of attention. Expansion north, south, east and west has shifted our gaze elsewhere. Competing jurisdictions and business interests have frustrated the development of the river lands.
Now, I know it is difficult to love the National Capital Commission. It has become an agency reputedly so hidebound by secrecy and red tape, that when a true vision emerges that is worthy of support, no one in the larger community that is Ottawa-Gatineau believes it can get done.
And yet the NCC has been pushing a plan for years that is so right for this community—the development of the Ottawa River lands as a place of national significance.
Many people blame the NCC for what they see as a sterile stretch of greenspace that runs from the Portage Bridge, with some interruptions, all the way to Andrew Haydon Park. They see it only as a place to be viewed from a car.
Not true. Hundreds of people enjoy this area every day on their bicycles, their inline skates or their running shoes with their families or just with the family dog. In the spring some even jump into the river at the Champlain Bridge with their kayaks to enjoy the great rapids.
But the critics are partly right. The stretch of greenspace lacks a focal point, and that would be provided by the redevelopment of the area surrounding the Chaudiere Falls.
The Citizen has written so many words in favour of this that it is becoming a cliche in our database. But finally we have a real chance to turn back the focus to the river. Treasury Board President John Baird has suggested ideas that would renew the river lands. He should seize the moment because the Conservative time in power may be all too short.
Mr. Baird wants to see the islands that are currently occupied by factories owned by the paper company Domtar turned into the national treasures that be believes they are. He is rightly concerned that they not turn out like so many bland NCC compromises. But we do have an example of vision nearby in the new War Museum.
It will not be cheap. Domtar wants, at last report, about $67 million for its land. So that will require some form of business partnership to help pay the way. Perhaps Granville Island, Vancouver’s delightful people place, could serve as the model for what we should be doing with these islands.
Lawrence Cannon, Mr. Baird’s colleague from the Outaouais, is also signalling that he is interested in developing the river lands on his side of the river. He is encouraging the relocation of the Science and Technology Museum to Jacques Cartier Park just across the street from the Museum of Civilization. Ideas that focus on the river as a meeting place rather than a barrier are worth consideration because they will help tie our capital community, which includes both Ottawa and Gatineau, together.
The redevelopment of the Chaudiere Falls, in particular, will aid this. This is the choke point of the river. The two sides are almost within spitting distance. Knock down the walls of the factories and we will reopen a passage that connects the solitudes and energizes our community.
Peter Robb is a member of the Citizen’s editorial board.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006