Ottawa has gained a nightlife boat cruise series this summer, partly thanks to an Ottawa Tourism funding initiative to support after-dark activities in the capital.
Th Ottawa Boat Cruise’s “Sunset Party Cruise” series brings Ottawa in line with other Canadian locales, such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, that offer evening party events on the water. Nightlife cruises are being hosted weekly aboard the Ottawa River Queen, an electric vessel, Thursday evenings from 8 to 11 p.m.
In May, Ottawa Tourism announced funding for 10 projects through its Nightlife Tourism Development fund, a pilot program that aims to support Ottawa as a destination city by cultivating tourism that relies on overnight hotel stays. It’s investing a total of $215,000 towards proposed activities — including the evening boat cruises — which must occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Mathieu Grondin, the city’s nightlife commissioner, later highlighted the initiative at a press conference hosted by the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition.
“I was really happy to see this year, (from) Ottawa Tourism, a new dedicated funding stream for nightlife. We have a project about activating culture on boats at night in Ottawa,” Grondin said at the time.
Other nighttime events funded through the program include:
- The LOL Ottawa Comedy Festival (July 23-25), a new multi‑venue comedy festival in the ByWard Market;
- After Taste: Wellington West (September), a nighttime expansion of the Taste of Wellington festival, including live music, illuminated street elements and chef‑led culinary experiences;
- AfroFestival Ottawa: AfroFest Nights (Sept. 11-13), a new late‑night program featuring internationally recognized Black artists;
- Ottawa Christmas Market New Year’s Eve Bash (Dec. 31), an enhanced New Year’s Eve celebration at Lansdowne Park, with extended nighttime programming, including live performances, midnight fireworks and a new synchronized drone light show to anchor Ottawa’s year‑end nightlife offering.
Ottawa Boat Cruise, which operates on the Rideau Canal and the Ottawa River, secured funding from the tourism pilot program by proposing a series of nighttime cruises from June and September.
“(Ottawa Boat Cruise) had a great idea, we decided to fund it because it fit our criteria,” said Jérôme Miousse, director of public affairs at Ottawa Tourism. “If other operators have great ideas, they’re always welcome to reach out, because that’s what we want. (We) promote market and develop a destination.”
“We’re trying to get some new clients and new ways of making the business more profitable,” said Robert Taillefer, president of Ottawa Boat Cruise. He said the company previously limited its cruises to sightseeing tours and private charters. “This grant money really helps.”
Taillefer said that this venture is allowing the business to take smaller groups of people within view of landmarks such as Parliament Hill from the water, a perspective they hadn’t offered to tourists before.
“The scene behind Parliament Hill, it’s just gorgeous,” he said. “We weren’t taking advantage of that.”
Ottawa Boat Cruise launched in 1984 as a ferry service between Rockland, Ontario, and Thurso, Quebec. In 2015, it won a 42-year lease from Parks Canada to operate sightseeing tours on the Ottawa section of the Rideau Canal after boat operator Paul’s Boat Lines failed to reach a lease agreement with the federal agency. Parks Canada wanted to pursue a more “vibrant and varied” sightseeing experience on the canal.
Ottawa Boat Cruise purchased Paul’s Boat Lines from the Duhamel family that year, which had established the business in 1936 and commenced the first canal boat tours in 1949. Taillefer’s company also purchased the Paula D from Paul’s Boat Lines and, in 2016, launched the first electric EKEAU boat (a play on the word ‘ecological’) on the canal, following with a second boat in 2023.
Taillefer, president of the company since 1997, said he and his team built the electric canal boats themselves, as well as the Ottawa River Queen.
He credited his team for helping to develop the nightlife cruise idea.
“I’m getting close to 60 right now, so for me to have all these new ideas, it’s a team effort,” Taillefer said. “The team and I came together with these ideas, and then this grant money really helps (make) it come to light.”
The funding from Ottawa Tourism lowered the financial risk of launching the after-dark venture, Taillefer said, allowing Ottawa Boat Cruise to withstand the loss if it fails.
While Ottawa Boat Parties, run by event management company Oceanic Entertainment, regularly charters both the Paula D and Ottawa River Queen from Ottawa Boat Cruise for evening events, according to Taillefer, these charters cater to large groups for private events and holiday celebrations, as advertised on its website.
Oceanic Entertainment, which also hosts boat events in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Seattle, did not respond to requests for comment.
“I think this will be a nice added venue for the people that are online, looking up what to see, and at that point, everybody benefits,” Taillefer said. “It could be the canteen on the side of the water, it could be the hotels, the restaurants, anything, it makes Ottawa a more interesting venue to have more things to do.”
At the same time, a water-based entertainment venue such as this could boost local tourism by being the next stop after a concert, Taillefer added.
“Everybody does their part.”
Regarding possible issues such as noise, littering or rowdiness on the water, both parties said they were confident for a respectful, ecological operation.
“(We’ve) been doing this for a long time,” Taillefer said. “We do private charters, so if it’s a private charter or an event like this, it’s still the same people on the boat having the same actions. We’ve been used to having people drink on the boat and music, and there’s different sectors on the Ottawa River where we can play music a bit louder.”
As an example, Taillefer cited the waters around Kettle Island, several kilometres east of downtown Ottawa.
“They’re good at enforcing their own rules,” said said Miousse. “Their boats are electric, so they’re quite quiet. They’re greener than, say, a diesel boat. And then, for the noise, since they’re going on the Ottawa River, it’s surrounded by downtown areas, so the noise should not be much of a problem.”
The National Capital Commission is also adding to Ottawa-Gatineau’s waterfront amenities with two new swimming docks this summer.
“The NCC is great. They’ve showed us their plan, they’ve talked with us to make sure that everything fit. It’s even good for the business because it’s another destination. It’s part of the (tourism) ecosystem,” Taillefer said.
Taillefer and Miousse extolled the harmony of working together to benefit a healthy tourism industry in Ottawa, with additional support from partners such as Parks Canada and the NCC.
“We’re trying to help the Nightlife Office implement their strategy, so this is part of that whole collaboration between multi-parties in the city,” Miousse said. “We are trying to be good partners with them to develop the nightlife in a way that, yes, is interesting for residents and students, but also that will be diversified and attractive enough to also get visitors to want to take part in our nightlife.”
Taillefer described the party boat venture as a win-win for local tourism and said Ottawa Boat Cruise expects this to become a standard summer feature of its business.
“Hopefully, it’s going to be something that’s going to be reoccurring every season.”
Miousse said enriching the city’s nightlife fosters a sense of public security.
“Just in terms of having foot traffic around the city, in some areas, it makes (people) feel safer to have people around,” he said. “That’s another implication of developing a thriving nightlife. People walking around at different hours of the night just makes for a more lively and safer city.”
