Boating will be allowed on the water in Kitchener’s Victoria Park again after the city banned the activity for about a month.
Matt Morris regularly uses his canoe on the water in the park, but noticed in early June signs had been posted around the water telling people boating was no longer permitted on the water.
But he plans to dip the canoe back in the water on Friday if the weather co-operates.
“I was excited, certainly personally, I’ve loved canoeing there and boating there for the last five years,” Morris said after learning boating would be permitted again in the park.
The City of Kitchener told CBC News in a statement Thursday that boating will be allowed once again.
“Victoria Park Lake is an important and much-loved part of our community, with a long history of recreational boating use. In recognition of this long-standing practice, city staff will update signage at this location to remove the ‘no boating’ reference,” an email from city spokesperson Kayla Snyder said.
Long history of boats on water in park
Morris is a Waterloo resident who regularly bikes his homemade, lightweight canoe to the park for a paddle.
He first raised concerns about the ban on boating in the park in early June. In an interview on June 8, he said a friend had messaged him that new signs prohibited recreational use of the water.
There’s a long history of boating on the water in Victoria Park.
The park was created between 1894 and 1896 with a serpentine lake and three islands with one accessible by footbridges.
The Boathouse restaurant is formerly an actual boathouse, built in 1929 to store boats and it had changerooms.
The city had previously permitted boat rentals on the water in Victoria Park but not for several years.
A sign installed in June beside the water in Victoria Park says going in the water for any reason, including fishing, boating, swimming or skating, is prohibited. The city now says boating will be permitted again. (Kate Bueckert/CBC)
A statement from the city on June 8 said the water in the park is part of the municipal stormwater system “with specific regulatory requirements” and all signage at stormwater facilities had been recently updated.
But, staff said they would review the issue in Victoria Park specifically because of the “historic and unique nature” of the park.
‘Flood of people’ support boating in park: Morris
After raising the issue, Morris said he heard from people all over the community who were upset by the move.
“The flood of people responding in a way of, ‘Hey, we always used to have a boating. This is ridiculous,’ you know, the normal gut reaction because so many in our community have seen the rentals, have seen the gondola 30 years ago that used to be there and even the historic pictures of people rowing in the park,” he said.
“It’s just been a kind of a groundswell of reflecting on the past use of that waterway and the potential future use.”
Over the past few weeks, Morris also spoke to city staff about possible next steps to include more boating options on the water. The city just completed a master plan for the park and Morris is hopeful there could be an opportunity to do more recreational boating in the lake.
“This boating decision meshed in with that future plan, I think it’s all coming together and the city staff has been wonderful,” he said.
“To get that reversed so quickly is, in my view, a real positive sign that we can, at times, change decisions that get made for whatever reason. And here we are with the new rule that’s coming out that allows boating.”