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| Newsletter of the Friends of the Rideau | Winter/Spring 2006 |
The Rideau Canal Heritage Network is a new initiative to nurture, celebrate and promote the conservation of the Rideau Canal Corridor’s diverse and distinctive cultural heritage. This network brings together heritage professionals and volunteers with the common goal of promoting the cultural conservation of the heritage resources of the Rideau Canal Corridor. Many of the volunteers are already active in the Municipal Heritage Committees of their local communities (an article all about Municipal Heritage Committees appeared in the Winter/Spring 2004 edition of this newsletter). The professionals include representatives from Parks Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Culture and municipalities within the Rideau Corridor from Kingston to Ottawa inclusive. The Network, as it matures, has the potential to bring a coordinated single vision approach to heritage promotion and conservation in the Rideau Corridor. The Rideau Heritage Route is an initiative that came out of tourism recovery efforts following the ice storm of 1998. At that time it brought together representatives from the various chambers of commerce and tourism organizations from Kingston to Ottawa. Friends of the Rideau participated from the very start. Parks Canada provided much of the leadership and logistical support. The main initiative of this ad-hoc group was the vision of the Rideau Corridor as a single tourist destination (rather than the existing fragmented marketing that takes place promoting individual communities). It’s been a bit of a slog, but this group has achieved four tangible results. The first was the definition of the actual Rideau Heritage Route. The second was the “soon to be done” physical signage of part of the Rideau Heritage Route (in this case, the portion from Kingston to Kemptville). That initiative has been delayed due to the need to put the financing in place and obtain all the various jurisdiction signage permits (with the exception of Ottawa). The third was the Burnett-Thorne Cultural Tourism initiative for the “Rideau Cultural Heritage Corridor”. Burnett and Thorne’s first presentation of their concept was to the Rideau Heritage Route Committee in the spring of 2003. The start of the marketing plan for this initiative is expected to be rolled out in 2006. The final tangible Rideau Heritage Route initiative was the formation of the Rideau Heritage Route Tourism Association in 2005 as a DMO (Destination Marketing Organization). The plan is for this organization to work with Kingston (KEDCO) and Ottawa (Ottawa Tourism) to co-operatively market the Rideau Corridor as a tourist destination. These tourism initiatives will strengthen the enhancement and preservation of our heritage since this is what the tourists come to see (it’s how we’re being marketed). There is an economic incentive to maintain the values that our tourism is based on. The World Heritage nomination of the Rideau Canal has the potential to have a significant positive impact on the Rideau. It will provide international recognition of what we already know, the heritage and charm of the Rideau Canal. Due to a requirement for more detailed maps and new UNESCO submission criteria, the original submission of January 2005 had to be completely re-worked. This revised submission has just been made to UNESCO. This means that the earliest we can expect to see designation is June of 2007 since designations are only made once a year and the review process will take at least a year. Rideau 175, the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Rideau Canal, taking place in 2007, will be a celebration of the rich heritage that the building of the Rideau Canal has provided to us. Lots of work is going on right now to help make these celebration memorable (see article below). |
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Mr. Gavin Liddy is the new Superintendent of the Rideau Canal. He assumed the position on January 16, 2006. Mr. Liddy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Commerce from the Royal Military College and a MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Ottawa. Mr. Liddy joined the federal government in 1981, holding various positions with the Department of National Defence (DND) both in Canada and Germany. Following his work at DND, Mr. Liddy spent two years at Treasury Board as a Senior Program Analyst for the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. Mr. Liddy then worked at the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, first as Director of Corporate Planning and Strategy and then as Director of Horizontal Reviews. Mr. Liddy joined the Parks Canada Agency in June 2003 as Director, Strategic Planning. We welcome Mr. Liddy to his new job and look forward to working with him to enhance and conserve the heritage and charm of the Rideau Canal. |
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As noted in the lead article, the Rideau Canal Heritage Network is a new initiative whose mission is to nurture, celebrate and promote the conservation of the Rideau Canal Corridor’s diverse and distinctive cultural heritage. At the invitation of Parks Canada, Friends of the Rideau has agreed to participate in this exciting new undertaking. Sheilagh Dubois, Josephine McFadden and Nancy Lake represented Friends at the founding conference held on October 20, 2005 in Kingston. Ed Bebee, chair of the Board of the Friends of the Rideau and Ken Watson, FoR director, attended a follow-up meeting with Parks Canada in December to discuss a possible partnership between the Network and Friends to assist with funding opportunities. Manuel Stevens from Parks Canada attended the January meeting of the FoR Board to present this idea to the Board for decision. In a unanimous vote, the Board agreed to participate. Sheilagh Dubois will be the primary FoR rep at Network meetings, with Ken Watson as the alternate. We will keep you updated on developments in future issues of this newsletter. |
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Friends of the Rideau is continuing to work closely with Parks Canada to prepare for Rideau 175, a year-long celebration of the Rideau Canal that will take place in 2007. FoR director Sheilagh Dubois and FoR office manager Nancy Lake have been attending monthly meetings of the Parks Canada Rideau 175 coordinating committee to identify projects where Friends will be able to assist and encourage people to become involved in the planning process.  One activity saw Sheilagh and Nancy help Rideau Canal Parks Canada staff choose a logo to be used in conjunction with all Rideau 175 communications. Parks Canada ran a contest that was open to graphic arts students from the three community colleges along the Rideau Corridor: St. Lawrence College in Kingston as well as Algonquin College and La Cité collegiale in Ottawa. Once all the entries were in, the judges met to determine the first, second, and third place winners. Visit the Rideau 175 website ( www.rideau175.org ) for all the details.And speaking of the website, Friends is continuing to update and maintain www.rideau175.org, the site that it developed and manages in partnership with Parks Canada. This website features the latest information from Parks Canada and Friends on everything related to Rideau 175. FoR is now considering other opportunities to help promote Rideau 175. For example, we are investigating having staff at the Depot in Merrickville wear period costume during the 2007 season. To do so will entail either finding existing costumes or having them made. If you know of a source for 1832 period costumes, please contact Nancy Lake (see below). Thanks to a grant from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, FoR has been able to bring aboard Joanne Purkin to assist Nancy with all Rideau 175 related activities. Joanne has been keeping the Friends’ phone buzzing with her calls to find possible suppliers of costumes and to cost other potential projects such as a commemorative park bench. She will also be following up with municipalities and organizations all along the Corridor to encourage them to bring their existing annual festivals, events and programs under the Rideau 175 umbrella of events and encourage community joint ventures. So far the many people Joanne and Nancy have contacted are excited about next year’s festivities. Thanks to Nancy, Friends heard about a singing group in Smiths Falls that has written a song to celebrate Rideau 175. Nancy arranged for the group to perform the song for Parks Canada staff and at the November meeting of the FoR board. Board members found themselves tapping their toes and singing along with the rousing refrain. The extent of Friends’ ability to undertake these projects depends in large measure on memberships. While we have a core group of members, we need to increase the number, not only for Rideau 175 but to help Friends carry out its mandate of enhancing and preserving the natural and cultural heritage of the Rideau. Friends is looking into developing a bookmark to promote Rideau 175 as well as the Friends of the Rideau organization. The bookmark would be available at the Depot and at lock stations up and down the Canal. Please email or telephone us with any suggestions you have about possible activities Friends could undertake and let us know if you would like to give us a hand. You can reach us as follows: Nancy and Joanne at info@rideaufriends.com or 613-283-5810 Sheilagh at sheilagh.dubois@sympatico.ca or 613-387-2975 |
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The words “skating on the Rideau Canal” immediately bring to mind the skateway in Ottawa, the section of the Rideau Canal maintained for skating, recently awarded the Guinness World Record as the world’s largest naturally frozen ice rink. But the Ottawa skateway now has to share some fame with a new annual event that takes place in Portland, on the frozen surface of Big Rideau Lake.
Last year, Barry Publow of Gatineau, Quebec won the 50K race in a time of 1 hr, 39 min, 23 sec. The youngest competitor, four year old Eddie Olmstead completed the 5K in only 26 min 09 sec. There were a record number of skaters in 2005, 80 people took part in the 5K, 60 in the 10K and 80 in the 50K event. It’s popular and will only grow larger with time. This year’s event was just about to take place as this newsletter went to press. But you can mark the fourth annual International Big Rideau Lake Speed Skating Marathon on your calendar, it will take place on January 27 and 28, 2007. For more information about this event visit: www.portlandoutdoors.com |
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The Internet is a good place to keep up to date about all things Rideau. The largest website about the Rideau Canal; www.rideau-info.com (your editor’s “hobby” website), is celebrating 10 years of presenting the Rideau to the world. A new addition in January is a “Walking Tour of Burritts Rapids”. FoR’s website, www.rideaufriends.com continues to be a good spot for Rideau information, including many of the brochures that we and Parks Canada produce (several available for direct viewing on-line and all available in downloadable PDF format). We also offer for sale all the books that we can find still in print about the Rideau. So for information and good reading, please visit us. The Merrickville Historical Society has a newly updated website at: www.merrickvillehistory.ca and of course don’t forget www.rideau175.org For a lot more Rideau information, check out the links pages on the www.rideau-info.com and www.rideaufriends.com websites. |
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The final numbers are in. In 2005 there were 73,368 recorded vessel passages compared to 78,562 in 2003 a decrease of 6.6%. Note that the 2003 was the last full season of navigation, the 2004 season was cut short by the strike. Mooring was up 7% when compared to 2003. As usual, most of the boats using the locks originated from Ontario (64.4%), with 24.7% from Quebec and 10.6% from the U.S. (and 0.4% “Other”). |
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 #6In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a game warden’s lot was not a happy one. They had huge districts, but no easy way to patrol them. By many accounts, illegal fishing was rampant. It seems quaint, even fusty, now, but it was illegal to fish or hunt on Sunday. Preachers fulminated against it; right-thinking citizens wrote indignant letters to the editor. Here is a brief excerpt from an 1892 letter: “ — some well-to-do and well-known citizens of the Town of Perth spent last Lord’s Day fishing in and around the Ferry. We do not wish to publish the names of these gentlemen nor enter action against them, but they are hereby notified that if they visit our Ferry again on the Sabbath for the purpose of fishing and shooting that their names will be made known to the public, and they will be prosecuted according to law.” One of the Fishery Inspectors was the indefatigable J.C. Judd of Morton. What was he up against, and what was done about it? First, catch the culprits, then charge and fine them. For example, in the spring of 1900, a Mr. John McEwen was charged with using gillnets on Mud Lake to take fish “in large quantities”. He was fined $40 and $7.40 costs. Some individuals, with more enterprise than skill, used dynamite. The unfortunate Robert James Smith was literally “blown to smithereens” while “fishing” around Smiths Falls in 1899. The insurance companies refused to pay, claiming that there was no body to be identified as Smith. What was the government’s reaction? Well, there was a general recognition that for years the fisheries laws had been systematically violated along the Rideau. It was said darkly, “Americans have been taking bass from the waters under conditions that are illegal.” In response to local pressure, the government offered to furnish two men and supply the fuel to run a steam yacht if private citizens would band together and buy the yacht in the first place. After all, the government was only receiving about $8,000 in annual hunting and fishing licence fees (millions in tourist-related money, though). A subscription list was started and Judd spoke at community meetings in Westport, Perth and Smiths Falls, where Game Protection Clubs were being formed. By mid-1901, enough citizens had responded that two yachts were bought. Judd bought a steam yacht, the “Eva Belle” for $700 from Mr. H. W. Lockwood of Westport. This craft was able to run in very shallow water, the better to detect nightlines, nets, etc. The other one was bought for $1,200 and was to be operated by Capt. E. A. Stevens of Westport. The results were gratifying. There were more charges and convictions over a wider area – Chaffey’s, Portland, and Rideau Ferry, up to Mill’s Locks and Merrickville. Part of the credit was given to the newfound mobility of the Fish and Game Inspectors and part to the role played by the Protective Associations. In an address to the Perth Anglers’ Association “under the umbrageous canopy” of McLean’s Grove by the Tay Locks, Inspector Judd said that the existence of such groups: “ — was a wholesome terror of the piratical fish catcher, who was wont to work out of season and was heedless of the regulations laid down by the Department for the care of edible fish.” Sadly, the lure of illegal fishing is always strong. Bedford Mills saw two local residents sentenced to Kingston Penitentiary for arson and theft. One of the convicted men said that the cottages and campers interfered with their custom of illegal fishing. Delta didn’t escape the watchful eye of Fish and Game Inspector Herb Phillips. “Add” Halladay was fined $10 and costs for fishing in Delta Lake with a seine net. Manford Case was fined $5 and costs for guiding on Delta Lake without a licence. In another instance, a man was convicted of illegal netting and his boat and nets were seized. Some weeks later, the Ministry office received a letter from this individual’s wife, asking plaintively when they were going to return her living room curtains. We come full circle to Smiths Falls. Two brothers were charged and convicted of using explosives to kill fish, contrary to Section 72 of the Fisheries Act of 1914, which prohibited the killing of all fish, other than whales, porpoises and walruses, by means of explosives. It was noted that no “whales, porpoises and walruses” were in the Rideau at the time (Yes, I know they aren’t “fish”). Spearing fish in the spring was also a proud tradition for some. We close with a look back to “the good old days” – spearing fish by torchlight. - Ed Bebee
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From Water Flows to Revenue Flows by Professor Brian Osborne Even the military-minded John By recognized the potential of the Rideau’s water-power resources. Apart from the revenue to be generated by leasing water privileges, he also argued that the ensuing developments would enhance the security of the strategic lock sites. But it was not until 1845 that the Department of Ordnance surveyed the hydraulic potential at each of the lock stations and not until the transfer to the civil powers of the Province that steps were taken to harness the local water power. Thus, in 1858, the Superintendent of the Ottawa works concluded that “all the water powers on the line of the Canal” should be leased so far as they do not interfere with the navigation.” According to this worthy, the multiplier effects were many: increasing the population; attracting capital investment; encouraging manufacturing; creating traffic for the canal. In 1860, a comprehensive survey of potential water power conducted by the Commissioner of Public Works recommended that “the waste water might be used for propelling Machinery” at several sites: Hogs Back; Black Rapids; Clowes; Edmonds; Chaffey’s Mills; Davis’ Mills; Lower Brewer’s Mills. Jones Falls was also considered a superior site but, until communications were improved, too isolated for development. In that same year, none other than the eminent Samuel Keefer assessed the “Surplus Water Power” along the line of the canal and recommended advertising in Canadian and United States’ newspapers that “leases might be disposed of at Auction, and the remainder sold.” In 1861, the Commissioner of Public Works, J. Rose, influenced by these assessments, called for auctions of water privileges at several station on 15 April and was moved to predict that soon the Rideau “may be made self-sustaining.” There was also an eye to rational regional planning: the mills sites were to be served by “free roads”; the site at Lower Brewer’s could only be developed as a “grist mill”; and at Kingston Mills, “the people in the Neighbourhood are very anxious to have a grist mill erected as there are none near there.” And, of course, there were some constraints: “It is distinctly to be understood that should any saw dust, slabs, edgings or any other refuse or rubbish be allowed to be thrown into the River or Canal ... it shall be the power of Government to cancel the lease and stop the mill in addition to the fines proscribed by the rules and regulations...” By the close of 1863, a survey of Rideau milling establishments is quite revealing:
Clearly, the Province of the United Canada’s Department of Public Works had moved expeditiously along the road away from the Department of Ordnance’s policies of reserving the facilities at the lock stations for navigation and defence. In so doing, they embarked on a policy that now had to accommodate the increasingly diverse interests along the Rideau corridor. |
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A topic that often pops up for those living or traveling along the Rideau Canal is the prevalence of aquatic vegetation (aka weeds to some). Friends of the Rideau is working with Parks Canada to produce a new brochure on this very topic. This information brochure will be distributed throughout the Rideau Canal area this summer. It answers the questions: what is this vegetation, what is Parks Canada doing about it, and what can I do about it? What is this Vegetation? Aquatic plants are a natural part of the Rideau’s ecosystem. There are many types of plants including tape grass, coontail, bulrushes, milfoil, pondweed, bladderwort, frogbit, duckweed, and water lily. Many are native to the waters of the Rideau but some, such as Eurasian Watermilfoil, are invasive plants, introduced several decades ago to the Rideau Canal. Many species of animals such as fish (i.e. bass and pike), birds (i.e. loons, herons, blackbirds, ducks, marsh wrens, least bitterns), frogs, turtles and muskrats need these plants to survive. Some of these are “species at risk” (i.e. least bitterns and stink pot turtles). These plants play an important role in maintaining and improving water quality by stabilizing sediments and absorbing many harmful pollutants. Excessive aquatic plant growth is due to a number of factors both natural and human induced. These include:
What is Parks Canada Doing About It? Parks Canada has been cutting and removing excessive aquatic vegetation from the navigation channel for many years. It owns mechanical harvesting equipment and operates a program of aquatic plant removal at 20 different locations on the Rideau Canal. The River Styx and downtown Ottawa are the two main problem areas on the Rideau Canal. Parks Canada continues to contribute to aquatic plant research and monitoring along the Rideau Canal. Scientific knowledge of plant growth trends is a great help in developing more efficient vegetation management programs. Parks Canada advises waterfront residents on best practices that will help to manage aquatic plant growth. Parks Canada issues permits for aquatic plant removal. A permit is required prior to any removal of aquatic vegetation. What Can I Do? Everyone living within the Rideau Canal watersheds can play a large role in controlling the growth of aquatic plants. The run-off of nutrients into Rideau waters is the single greatest contributing factor to excessive plant growth. You can help to control this:
The Permit Process Should a waterfront owner wish to remove aquatic vegetation from in front of their property, a permit from Parks Canada is required. This permit is valid for five (5) years and may be obtained by contacting the Rideau Canal Office of Parks Canada. Listed below are some conditions of the permit:
Parks Canada - Rideau Canal 34a Beckwith St. South, Smiths Falls, ON K7A 2A8 Tel: (613) 283-5170 Toll Free: 1-888-773-8888 email: RideauCanal-info@pc.gc.ca |
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Friends of the Rideau is a volunteer, non-profit organization, working in co-operation with Parks Canada to enhance and conserve the heritage and charm of the Rideau Corridor. For more information contact: Friends of the Rideau, 1 Jasper Avenue, Smith Falls, Ontario K7A 4B5 – Tel: (613) 283-5810 Fax: (613) 283-2884 – Email: info@rideaufriends.com – Website: www.rideaufriends.com. Comments about the newsletter can be directed to the editor, Ken Watson, c/o Friends of the Rideau or by email at: kwatson@kos.net |
