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Ottawa River boat ramps built with $1.4 million in public money have been used by about 20 boats during their first full season, despite a private partner’s predictions that they would draw hundreds.
The two ramps were built to accommodate a boat bypass business run by the not-for-profit Ottawa River Project Inc.
The service pulls tourists’ boats out of the water near Fitzroy Harbour, a community in Ottawa’s rural western outskirts, and drives them around Chats Falls Hydro Dam so they can continue east to Ottawa or west toward five other boat bypasses and Lake Temiskaming.
The $2.2-million public-private partnership project received $1.4 million in funding from all levels of government, including $350,000 from the City of Ottawa, as well as money from Ontario Power Generation, which owns the dam, and the Outaouais Economic Development group.
Those contributions came after the company argued 500 to 800 boats would use the bypass annually and boost tourism in the region.
Local residents such as Mike Ryan said they heard even grander predictions.
Ottawa River boat ramps built with $1.4 million in public money have been used by about 20 boats during their first full season, despite a private partner’s predictions that they would draw hundreds.
The two ramps were built to accommodate a boat bypass business run by the not-for-profit Ottawa River Project Inc.
The service pulls tourists’ boats out of the water near Fitzroy Harbour, a community in Ottawa’s rural western outskirts, and drives them around Chats Falls Hydro Dam so they can continue east to Ottawa or west toward five other boat bypasses and Lake Temiskaming.
The $2.2-million public-private partnership project received $1.4 million in funding from all levels of government, including $350,000 from the City of Ottawa, as well as money from Ontario Power Generation, which owns the dam, and the Outaouais Economic Development group.
Those contributions came after the company argued 500 to 800 boats would use the bypass annually and boost tourism in the region.
Local residents such as Mike Ryan said they heard even grander predictions.
“We were under the impression that there was an armada of boats down in Ottawa that were just waiting to come up in here — we were led to believe there were thousands,” he said. “I don’t know if they were canoes or battleships.”
Ryan, who lives next door to the bypass, braced for lots of traffic.
In the end, the company confirmed it performed 44 lifts, equivalent to return trips for 22 boats this summer.
Ryan said local businesses aren’t even benefiting from the little traffic there is as the trips don’t include any stops and use backroads.
Dwight Eastman, who was city councillor for the area when the bypass was first proposed to council and is now chair of the Ottawa River Project, said he’s happy with the company’s first full season and people need to be patient.
“It’s like any other tourism challenge,” he said. “It doesn’t happen in year one.”
He added that he wasn’t with the company when it predicted hundreds of boats would use the bypass, but he was expecting about 65 this summer.
The company said it faced challenges this year such as the high price of gas, poor marketing and low water levels, and next year will likely be better.
Meanwhile, another Fitzroy Harbour resident, Joanne Cunningham, said she wants to know what the return on taxpayers’ public investment in the project is expected to be.
“If it’s going to be privately owned and operated, the funding, in my opinion, should have come from the private sector … not from the taxpayers,” she said.
Former Ottawa River Project head Gary Wiseman said the company did not have to show any analysis on the economic impact or return on investment for the public because that was the government’s responsibility.
Residents had initially opposed the ramp project because of concerns over noise and a high volume of boats.
CBC News