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HOW YOU CAN HELPIf you haven’t done so already, please fill out the survey on our website and let us know how you can help. The cost of building the road could come down substantially if people volunteer/donate their time to this project. Here are the big ticket items that would help us bring our costs down with the help of volunteering: - Rock/tree stump removal
- Tree cutting
- Gravel and Heavy Equipment Use
Please indicate on the survey how you are able to help, or reach out to us directly by emailing info@ottawariveracces.ca.
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Whitewater Ontario is a volunteer-driven organization uniting, supporting, and sustaining the inclusive development of the whitewater paddling community and resources.
If you haven't already, please consider joining Whitewater Ontario, the backer of this project, where you and family can join a club, support the whitewater community in multiple ways AND a portion of your membership goes directly to river advocacy projects like this one. |
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SHARE YOUR STORY#MyOttawaRiverStoryWe’ve been collecting your stories about why public access to the Ottawa River is important to you and we’re proud to continue sharing these stories on our Facebook and Instagram feeds.
Tag us (@ottawariveraccess) in your posts on Instagram about what free, public access on the Ottawa River means to you and use #MyOttawaRiverStory to be featured!
If you have already submitted your story via our website, please feel free to follow up by email and let us know you're happy to have your story shared publicly. Please remember to include at least 1 photo to accompany your story! |
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REACH OUTIf you are a local landowner/taxpayer in Whitewater Region, please be sure to reach out to your local councillors and let them know why free, public access is important to you. A full list of Council members is below: Mayor Michael Moore Reeve Cathy Regier Councillor Charlene Jackson Councillor Dave Mackay Councillor Darryl McLaughlin Councillor Neil Nicholson Councillor Chris Olmstead |
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We continue to be blown away by the support everyone has shown us throughout this process.
The emails, messages and phone calls have been overwhelming, and we will continue to advocate for a legacy of free, public access on the Ottawa River.
With gratitude,
Ottawa River Access Committee
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Dan Kirvan
Dave Gillespie
Shawna Babcock
Graham Kent
Chris Goodall
John Mason
Sierra Stinson |
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The Rocher Fendu section of the Ottawa River has been paddled since time immemorial. These waters run through the unceded homelands and unsurrendered traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg and Algonquin Nations.
We recognize the Algonquin people as the customary keepers of the Ottawa River watershed and its tributaries. Today, many of us have the privilege to paddle the river's waters and walk the land that surrounds it. We are grateful for the opportunities to learn and connect to the land that this river provides us.* |
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Follow Us@OttawaRiverAccess |
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#OttawaRiverAccess #MyOttawaRiverStory |
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*This acknowledgement is an important Indigenous protocol. Respect the water and please take the time to honour the river and land where we paddle. It gives us rich experiences and access to beautiful natural spaces. Our commitment is to gain a deeper understanding about the history of this land, the original inhabitants, be responsible users of the river, and show respect. |
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Whitewater Ontario - Mission Statement
It is Whitewater Ontario’s mission to support the whitewater paddling community through the promotion, development and growth of the sport in its various disciplines.
We accomplish this through the development of events, resources, clubs, and programs for personal and athletic development, regardless of skill level or focus, to ensure a high standard of safety and competency;
We advocate safe and environmentally responsible access and use of Ontario’s rivers.
Whitewater Ontario is the sport governing body in the province, and represents provincial interests within the national body
Whitewater Canada and the
Canadian Canoe Association
http://www.whitewaterontario.ca/page/mission.asp
Tabaret is a Bad Idea
About the Kipawa
The best thing paddlers can do to help the cause of the Kipawa:
1. attend the rally and bring others including non paddlers to attend and buy beer and have fun
2. write your MP /MNA and raise the issue and post your objections -1 letter = 200 who didn't write
3. Write Thierry Vandal the CEO of Hydro Quebec strongly opposing the 132 MW standard decrying the use of "diversion" as the most environmentally inappropriate method of power production
4. Write Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec protesting that either the algonquin or the tabaret project will eliminate all other values on the Kipawa River by turning it into a dry gulch.
5. See if you can get other allied groups interested by showing your own interest, ie the Sierra Defense Fund, Earthwild, MEC, and so on.
6. Demand further consultation
7. Currently we are at the point where we need to sway public opinion and raise awareness.
However, if all else fails, don't get mad, simply disrupt, foment, and protest . The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Have you read Edward Abbey?
Important Addresses
CEO,Hydro Québec, 75 boul René Levesque, Montreal, P.Q., H2Z 1A4
Caille.andre@hydro.qc.ca
Tabaret is a Bad Idea (Part Two)
Les Amis de la Riviere Kipawa is poised to use an application to the Federal Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus to ensure the Minster does what he is supposed to do, protect the public's right to navigate the water control structure at Laniel, Quebec using the Navigable Waters Protection Act. (see
http://www.kipawariver.ca/)
In the now gutted Navigable Waters Protection Act lay the means by which the Minister of Transport could keep the public right of passage down our great Canadian Heritage, our rivers and streams which are threatened especially by resource corporations and power brokers such as Hydro Quebec.
These powerful entities continue to petition that 'this' river or 'that' stream is not navigable and therefore not protectable.
I don't say that dams and bridges should not be built, only that if they are, historical navigation rights should be considered and preserved by making reasonable accommodations for recreational boaters.
It is the Minister of Transport, in exercising the right to allow or disallow work on or over a navigable waterway is what keeps boats and recreational boaters plying our waterways.
To many recent cases launched in the Federal Court concerning the Navigable Waters Protection Act, most recently the case of the Humber Environment Group of Cornerbrook Newfoundland versus the Cornerbrook Pulp and Paper Company indicates that the important oversight is not being faithfully performed. Have we really come to the point now where we must say "such and such a stream is one foot deep, possessing so many cubic feet per second flow and so on?" The answer to this is... YES!
The honourable Mr. Justice John A. O'Keefe, ruled that it had not been shown that the river was navigable. How convenient was that to the Minister? But either the Minister of Transport acts to protect our rivers and streams as a public right or he does not and that means rivers and streams currently enjoyed by kayakers and canoists.
Enough of the cheating, and double-talk. Canadians! our rivers and streams are our own, lets urge the Minister of Transport and the our government to protect them.
Peter Karwacki
Tabaret is a Bad Idea (Part Three)
10 Reasons WhyTabaret is a Bad Idea1) Tabaret is too big. The station is designed to useevery drop of water available in the Kipawawatershed, but will run at only 44 percent capacity.We believe the Tabaret station is designed to usewater diverted from the Dumoine River into theKipawa watershed in the future.
2) The Tabaret project will eliminate the aquaticecosystem of the Kipawa River.The Tabaret project plan involves the diversion of a16-km section of the Kipawa River from its naturalstreambed into a new man-made outflow from LakeKipawa.
3) Tabaret will leave a large industrial footprint on thelandscape that will impact existing tourismoperations and eliminate future tourism potential.
4) The Tabaret project is an aggressive single-purposedevelopment, designed to maximize powergeneration at the expense of all other uses.
5) River-diversion, such as the Tabaret project, takinglarge amounts of water out of a river’s naturalstreambed and moving it to another place, is verydestructive to the natural environment.
6) The Kipawa River has been designated a protectedgreenspace in the region with severe limitations ondevelopment. This designation recognizes theecological, historical and natural heritage value ofthe river and the importance of protecting it.Tabaret will eliminate that value.
7) If necessary, there are other, smarter and morereasonable options for producing hydro power onthe Kipawa watershed. It is possible to build a lowimpactgenerating station on the Kipawa river, andmanage it as a “run-of-the-river” station, makinguse of natural flows while maintaining other values,with minimal impact on the environment.
8) The Kipawa watershed is a rich natural resource forthe Temiscaming Region, resonably close to largeurban areas, with huge untapped potential fortourism and recreation development in the future.Tabaret will severely reduce this potential.
9) Tabaret provides zero long-term economic benefitfor the region through employment. The plan is forthe station to be completely automated andremotely operated.
10) The Kipawa River is 12,000 years old. The riverwas here thousands of years before any peoplecame to the region. The Tabaret project will change all that.
Problems on a local River?
- There is more to do as well but you have to do your research and above all, don't give up.
- IN the meantime prepared a document itemizing the history of navigation of this spot and its recreational value. Use the Kipawa river history of navigation as a guide: see www.kipawariver.ca
- Under the Ministry of Environment guidelines you have a set period of time to petition the change under the environmental bill of rights, you may have limited time to take this action. But it involves going to court for a judicial review of the decision.
- 4. contact the ministry of natural resources officials and do the same thing.
- 3. contact the ministry of the environment and determine if they approved the project
- 2. determine if the dam was a legal dam, approved under the navigable waters protection act.
- 1. research the decision and timing of it to determine if an environmental assessment was done.
A History of Navigation on the Kipawa River
Prior to the environmental assessment there was no signage at the Laniel Dam
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