By Stacy McInnis
Ottawa residents may soon have an official piece of Canadian heritage flowing through their backyards. A movement has begun to have the Rideau River declared a National Heritage River, and the river should be up for nomination as early as this January.
A nominating committee is in the middle of preparing documents for the Canadian Rivers Heritage Board’s meeting next year, says committee project manager Charles Billington.
“It started about a year ago with a lot of people calling the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority and calling Parks Canada to see if there was any reason to try to get the river designated,” Billington says. “We finally got together with those people and decided it would be very advantageous for the river to be recognized.”
There are currently 32 rivers across Canada that have been designated heritage rivers. The status decisions are made based on three criteria: cultural heritage or history, recreational opportunities and environmental features.
Billington says he thinks the Rideau River qualifies in every one of those areas, adding the benefits of heritage status will help the Rideau and surrounding municipalities.
“The major thing this gives us is a new marketing tool for tourism opportunities. It would be promoted as a Canadian Heritage River, and that means there would be a lot of business opportunities for people living along the river.”
Not everyone is quite so optimistic. Some landowners along the river watershed say they are worried that a heritage river designation would result in a loss of control over what they could do with their land.
“There is a group of people who are afraid this kind of recognition will bring negative features to private property,” Billington says.
Yet most people involved in the heritage river system insist that isn’t likely.
“Everybody’s afraid that heritage rivers are going to put a stop to all development and things like that,” says Max Finkelstein of the Heritage Ministry. “But if you look at other heritage rivers in the country, I would say it’s not a legitimate concern.
“There’s no legislation attached to the program, and there’s no new laws that it comes under. It’s still managed under the existing management tools.”
One Ontario river that has already had the time to see the effects of a heritage river designation is the Grand River. Located in Southern Ontario, the Grand was designated in 1994 based on heritage and recreation.
“Early on, there were people in the watershed that were concerned there may be restrictions put on development,” says Barb Veale, co-ordinator of strategic planning and partnership of the Grand River Conservation Authority.
“But if you were talk to any of the municipalities today, the remarks would range from being neutral to being very, very positive.”
Veale says the main impact of the designation was an increase of the awareness of the river and an increase in the use of the river for recreational pursuits. The local tourism centres have joined together and are marketing the area as “Grand River Country,” because of the Grand’s heritage status.
“The designation was seen as the beginning of a process,” Veale says. “It was what really got the whole process going, and it has been a really positive contribution.”