Park of Gatineau

The Parc of Gatineau is a park in the surroundings of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Of a surface of 363 km ², the park is site in the west of the Rivière Gatineau in the town of Gatineau and the municipalities of Chelsea and of Fishing. Founded in 1938 and managed by the Commission of the national capital of Canada, the Park of Gatineau is the only protected federal park which is not managed by Parcs Canada.

The Park of Gatineau is classified in category II (national park) of the protected areas according to the International union for the nature conservation (UICN). It preserves part of the territory (mixed forest) where one finds one of largest the variety, as well animal as vegetable, in Quebec as well as exceptional natural phenomena. Wood-cutting, the hunting and the activities of the industrial type are prohibited there.

History

The southernmost part of the park was colonized by immigrants who were quickly discouraged by his poor grounds. The park of Gatineau was the first federal park proposed in Quebec, the first outside the area of the Rocky Mountains and also the first suggested by Division of the parks of the federal government of Canada. December 3rd, 1912, the police chief with the parks of the Dominion, Mr. James Harkin, wrote to the deputy minister Intérieur William Cory in favor of creation of a domestic network of parks, of which the first was to be the park of Gatineau. In its note, Harkin déclare :

“ As Is does not have federal parks like those of the Rock ones, it is proposed that the country obtains the network of parks more extended to the world creation of the park of Gatineau would be, I believe, the way easiest to start this réseau. ” (free translation)

A few months later, with the suggestion of Cory, Harkin written to the Minister for the Mines and the Forests of Quebec Charles Devlin to ask to him whether it would help to establish a national park in the area of Gatineau. The provincial civils servant answer that the question will be immediately carried for submission to the minister. However, Devlin dies before being able to give following the request for Harkin and the business in remainder there.

April 7th, 1927, the project of federal park returns on the carpet to the House of Commons when the deputies consider a bill aiming at the creation of a Commission of the federal district charged to arrange parks and walks of two banks of the Rivière of Outaouais. During the debate, however, the preserving deputy John Edwards shows the first federal minister Mackenzie King to want to create a park around his personal field of Kingsmere and to facilitate of them the access by the construction of a walk.

Eight years later, at the request of Percy Sparks of the League against the deforestation of the federal grounds, the Minister of Interior Department T.G. Murphy makes carry out a survey into the effects of the fires and forest overexploitation in the hills of Gatineau. The authors of the investigation recommend, inter alia, to create a federal park there. Two years later, however, King chooses to regulate the problem by the gradual acquisition of grounds, thus creating in embryonic form the park of Gatineau on July 1st, 1938.

Evolution of the limits of the Park

The southernmost part of the park was parcelled out by road construction and the withdrawal of certain grounds. Thus, following a exercise of rationalization of the borders carried out during the Nineties, the Commission of the national capital of Canada withdrew 48 properties of the park, including/understanding 610 hectares. With the 135 abandoned additional hectares with road construction during the same period, the full number of withdrawn acres of the park rises with 746 hectares, that is to say approximately 7,5 km ².

Legal statute of the park

Several federal senior officials and journalists recently charged to the government of Quebec the responsibility owing to the fact that the park of Gatineau never became a national park of Canada because he always refused to yield to the federal government the 17 p. 100 of the surface of the park which belongs to him.

For example, in 2005, before the Standing Committee of the environment and the sustainable development of the House of Commons, the managing director of Parks Canada, Mr. Alan Latourelle, said that the creation of a national park requires in particular a federal-provincial agreement and the transfer to federal by the province of the superficiary and mining rights on the grounds prévus :

“ In the case of the Park of Gatineau, a part does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to the province - approximately 11 p. 100 of the surface of the park - and the rights of the subsoil belong to the Province of Quebec. In this precise case, if one planned to make a national park of it, it would be essential to obtain the agreement of the government of Quebec whereas the antecedents show that the government of Quebec does not tend to give its agreement for the creation of national parks. It is thus not an option which we examine actuellement ”.

Under the terms of an agreement concluded in 1973, the government of Quebec transferred to the federal government control and management from the 5 060 hectares of provincial grounds located inside the park of Gatineau - and this, with “ perpétuité ” according to the two decrees in council accompanying the agreement. In addition, the province transferred control and the management of the funds of lake being inside the park, began not to deliver a license of mining exploration for these grounds, indicated that those were to belong to the park of Gatineau and guaranteed that the transferred rights were free of any defect of title.

The subparagraph 5 (1) a) of the Federal law on the national parks provides that the federal government has “ a property right not burdened with charge ” on all the grounds located inside a possible national park. However, in addition to the grounds of provincial property, there exist also several grounds deprived in the enclosure of the park of Gatineau.

In 2005, reacting to the public pressures claiming a better protection for the park of Gatineau, the honourable ED Broadbent, deputy of Ottawa-Center, deposited a bill deprived with the House of Commons to establish the legal limits of the Park and to create a mechanism of management of the grounds, similar to the protection offered by the Law on the national parks of Canada.

In a similar gesture, the sénatrice Mira Spivak of the Manitoba filed in a bill with the Senate on April 25th, 2006 also aiming at creating a legal status for the Park, while Paul Dewar, who replaced ED Broadbent as deputy of Ottawa-Center in 2006, in made in the same way with the House of Commons on May 19th, 2006.

The bill of the sénatrice Spivak, S-210, reached the stage of the second reading on December 13rd, 2006, being returned at the Committee of the environment of the Upper House. The Committee began its study of this measurement on March 22nd, 2007.

Sites of interest

Of a surface of 363 km ², the Park of Gatineau includes a great number of picnic and campsites. There is 165 km of paths of pedestrian Excursion and 90 km of paths of Bicycle of mountain whereas the Sentier transcanadien crosses the park. The park is also popular at the cyclists on road; the majority of the walks are very undulating and include/understand several impressive coasts which will put the capacities of the cyclists to the test. There are Plages with the Lac Meech, the Lac Philippe and the Lac the Fishing, which offers each installation of camp-site. These lakes offer also activities of Canotage; the boats been driven by petrol engines are prohibited on the majority of the lakes of the park (except for the lake LaPêche (maximum power: 10:00 .p.)). Although the practice is prohibited in the park, certain more moved back corners are popular near the nudists.

The Living room of The Moorside is established in the old residence of summer (Moorside) of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the tenth Prime Minister of Canada, in Kingsmere. The field of Kingsmere includes/understands also gardens and the “ ruines ” collected by King, the whole in a wooded environment. A small fall runs escarpment close to Moorside.

The Belvédère Champlain gives right a spectacular sight of the Valley of Outaouais of the top of the Escarpment of Eardley. When the sheets change color into autumn, the tourists as much as the inhabitants of the area are attracted towards the various view-points, walks and paths of the park to appreciate its beauty.

All and the radio television broadcast stations of the metropolitan region of Ottawa-Gatineau are retransmises starting from a site of transmission located at Camp Fortune, just in the north of Kingsmere.

The site of the park in the Hills of Gatineau in fact a popular destination for the Ski touring. One finds there close to 200 km of paths and the park is host of the annual competition of Keskinada Loppet. There is also a station of Alpine skiing and Planche to snow with the Camp Fortune.

The Park of Gatineau is used as habitat with several birds like the Grand peak and the Plongeon huard. The Urubu with red head and of the migrating falcons draws advantage from the ascending Courants on the escarpment of Eardley. There is several beavers and stags of Virginia in the park, as well as a growing number of black bears and some packs of wolves in more moved back places of the park.

The Lac Pink is a lake Méromictique which is in the park. The state of the lake, which is a rather rare geological demonstration in the world, is protected to keep the characteristics of them. Small Algue S which is in the lake gives him a very marked green color. The name of the lake comes from the Pink family which was in an original manner ground owner in this zone.

The former first federal minister Mackenzie King bequeathed his field of 243 hectares to Kingsmere with the Canadian government with his death in 1950. The residence of summer of the Prime Minister of Canada is at the edge of the Lac Harrington and the Farm, the official residence of the President of the Canadian House of Commons and the old residence of the King Prime Minister, are located in the park.

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