Despite years of promises (and 16 years after an initial deadline) the NCC still allows motorboats in Gatineau Park.
Jean-Paul Murray says he has spent years waiting for motorboats to disappear from Gatineau Park.
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The National Capital Commission promised in its 2005 master plan to gradually eliminate motorized boats from park lakes by 2010, said Murray, a local activist.
More than 15 years later, Murray said he still sees gas-powered boats on Meech Lake and La Pêche Lake.
“The NCC has made repeated commitments to ban motorboats,” Murray said. “The boats are still there despite all the NCC commitments.”
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But there is currently no federal restriction prohibiting motorboats on Gatineau Park lakes, Transport Canada wrote in a statement to the Ottawa Citizen.
That clashes with how the NCC has described the rules on its own website, describing motorboats as prohibited in the park: “For conservation reasons, the use of motorboats … is prohibited in Gatineau Park.”
