Our MP, Barry Devolin, produced a statement that is calling for a new agency to manage and operate the Trent Severn Waterway. Below is that press release.
“DEVOLIN CALLS FOR NEW AGENCY TO MANAGE AND OPERATE
THE TRENT SEVERN WATERWAY”
HALIBURTON – Local MP Barry Devolin is calling for the creation of a new independent agency to manage the Trent Severn Waterway (TSW), and that public safety and health should be the top priority of this new agency.
“I have come to believe that people and communities in this region would be better served by an independent agency managing the Trent Severn Waterway, rather than Parks Canada,” said Devolin. “As such, my intention is to table a Private Members Bill this fall that would create a crown corporation which would manage and operate the TSW.”
Devolin said he reached this conclusion earlier this summer while listening to public input regarding decisions senior management at Parks Canada was making about the length of the Trent Severn Waterway’s navigational season.
“The Trent Severn is not your typical national park. It’s part nature, and part man-made,” said Devolin. “As such, I think it deserves a management structure better tailored to that reality.”
“During the public consultations over the summer, many of the people I spoke with agreed that the TSW needs to be seen as more of an economic driver and attraction whose management acts in a more proactive manor to keep and lure visitors to this area,” said Devolin. “I think this new structure I am proposing could more easily navigate the TSW in that direction.”
The Trent Severn Waterway is a complex water management system in a central Ontario region that spans more than 18,000 square kilometers, and is home to more than one million residents. Man-made structures owned and operated by the TSW include 150 dams, 45 locks, and 39 swing bridges.
The TSW is best known for its 386 kilometre-long historic canal that connects Lake Ontario at Trenton with Lake Huron at Port Severn. There are more than 125,000 private and commercial properties along this navigational channel, with thousands more on reservoir lakes in Haliburton County and other areas.
For more information contact: Barry Devolin, MP – (705) 324-2400 or (866) 688-9881