The one thing common to the Canadian cities of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia is the canals. This northern country is unique with almost 8,00,000 sq km of freshwater within its geographical expanse.
Canada is interconnected by inland waterways and this makes it possible for anyone travelling from Quebec to get to the Arctic coast in the extreme right by canoe.
Looking back
The Lachine Canal that passes through the south-western part of the island of Montréal, Quebec was built between 1821 and 1825. It bypasses the rapids on the St. Lawrence. The other canals of this period are the three Ottawa River canals (1819-34) and the Rideau Canal (1826-32). These were planned and built to provide an alternative military waterway between Montréal and Kingston following the war of 1812 (a military conflict between the U.S. and Great Britain). Canada was a colony of Britain at that time.
The Rideau Canal stretches from Kingston in the south, at the foot of Lake Ontario, to Ottawa in the north, a distance of 202 km. Today, they are maintained by Parks Canada and make for the most scenic and historic waterways in North America.
The Ottawa River canals were in use up until 1961 when they were submerged by the Carillon hydroelectric dam of Hydro-Québec. The Rideau Canal, on the other hand, is still in regular use. It was built 200 years ago.
The canal is named from the French word for China ( La Chine ). The early European explorers wanted to find a route from New France to the Western Sea and from there on to China. So, the region where the canal was built was named Lachine.
The Lachine Canal was the first to be built. Forty small timber locks were required to raise vessels up to 100m from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, most of them necessary for the steep climb up to the Niagara.
Following Confederation (when the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867), inland transportation in Canada was given high priority by the new government. The 1870s and 1880s were years of active canal rebuilding and improvement. All the locks on the Lachine and the St. Lawrence River canals were rebuilt in this period to standard dimensions, each 84 m long and 14 m wide with a depth of 4.2 m. Apart from being an asset to the military, the canals also played an important role in commercial development. It drove the economic development of the cities, as transporters used this logistically positioned canal to ship goods to the U.S. and Kingston.
Today
The canals continue to use the traditional locking styles from 1832. This is one of the main reasons for the Rideau becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site. The canal has 24 lock stations with 47 lock chambers. Today, the canal serves a dual purpose. In the towns, it is mostly used as a recreational tool. However, as one travels on, you find that it supports villages by supplying drinking water and provides irrigation for farms. In towns, people use the canals for canoeing, fishing and swimming. It also plays a major role in sustaining the flora and fauna around these provinces. In winter, it becomes the world’s longest skating rink. It is very popular with the people.
The Lachine Canal was recognised for its national significance and was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. Today, it is open to the public and people use it for in-line skating, bicycling, walking, canoeing and kayaking. The banks are ideal spots for picnics and camps.
Lock-Unlock
Locks are gates that keep the water level in each chamber at a level. The gates are made of wood and have to be replaced once every 30 years. Most canals have at least five to six locks with a minimum of six to seven chambers. Rideau has the most number of locks and chambers. Each chamber maintains a minimum height difference to reserve water. But each time a boat or a canoe needs to pass through, these gates are opened either manually (at Rideau) or hydraulically (at Lachine) allowing water to flow. The water is levelled on either side of the gate. Water chutes allow water to flow into the other chamber while the boats and canoes are lowered. This process is then followed for each chamber till the boat reaches the river. The entire process takes about an hour as the boats wait in queue to get through. It is amazing to see how sometimes a 10-feet dip is crossed without any fuss. Returning is also interesting as the process is reversed because you have to travel upwards!
Fact FileEvery year, 90,000 boats pass through its locks.
The Ottawa lock station gets the most tourists.
The average time to pass through a lock is 15 minutes.
Did you know?
In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie, a Scottish explorer, reached the mouth of the river becoming the first European to cross the North American continent. The river is now called Mackenzie. It was people like him accompanied by the local residents and Métis guides and translators who pioneered the exploration of the main water routes of the West and the mid-West.
(The writer was in Canada at the invitation of High Commission of Canada)
Word list
Utilitarian : Designed to be useful and practical rather than attractive
Interconnected : Connect with each other
Submerged : To be under water/ To descend below the surface of water
Aspired : Direct one’s ambitions or hopes to achieve something
Logistically : Something done in a logical or practical way
Chambers : An enclosed space or cavity
Flora and fauna : The animal and plant life of a particular region
