Despite rainy season more boaters visit Rideau Canal locks stations this year

 Despite a rainy boating season in the capital and the temporary closure of a majority of the locks along the Rideau Canal due to high water levels in July, this year traffic was up, according to Parks Canada.

“We had a lot of land based visitors, more than last year, and we had 16 per cent more boats this year than last year,” said Benjamin Gales, Lockmaster at the Ottawa Locks.  

One of the draws was a free lockage permit this year to celebrate Canada’s 150^th anniversary.

While numbers have not yet been released, last year 59,301 vessel passages were recorded using the locks.

The Rideau Canal’s 24 lockstations located between Ottawa and Kingston are now closed for the season.

Water levels are being decreased.