The Council heard a presentation from Dave Gillespie of Whitewater Ontario about turning an area of Whitewater region into a public access point for the Ottawa River for use by local and tourist populations, in partnership with the Township of Whitewater Region.
“We’ve operated at the generosity of private landowners.” he said, saying the next public launch point was forty-five minutes away, should the situation ever change.
“You’ve become a worldwide destination for our sport.” He said. “We believe in a world of non-commercial users, which would include kayakers, canoers, and private rafters. We’d estimate our users at about 1500 users.”
He said that they’d partnered with other townships to host events.
Dan Kirvan said that the access would be 20ft. public access that is ungated, and suitable for entry and evacuation, running along Grant Settlement Road.
Shawna Bancock presented that Whitewater Ontario would pay for the access from grants from the National Sport Trust Fund, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Community Economic Development Fund, and the Tourism Economic Development and Recovery Fund, as well as private contributors and donations.
“None of these funds are going to come from the local taxpayer.” she said.
“It’s not about any one of us.” Gillespie said.” This is about many of us that are al passionate, many of us out of 300 stories we’ve collected just over the last six days, almost 150 of them have been local. If it was not for the river, many of our lives would be drastically different and perhaps less enriched.”
The Mayor thanked them, and said there would be no questions at this time “until it come back at a later date.”
The CAO said technical questions would be appropriate, but none were presented.
