Canada’s 150th anniversary next year will be celebrated with cross-country canoe journeys and the Sunshine Coast will be one of the first communities to take part.
The Canadian Voyageur Brigade Society is planning the sesquicentennial celebration that will see communities along a cross-Canada water route create their own canoe brigades and each do a leg of the journey.
“Currently 16 brigades are planned going from west towards Ontario and east towards Ontario,” said Jerry Rolls of the Gibsons Paddling Club, who brought the event to Sechelt council’s attention during the Oct. 19 council meeting.
Once in Ontario, paddlers will retrace the historic canoe trading route that was mapped out in the 1600s between Midland, Ont., and Montreal.
That leg of the journey is meant to promote reconciliation between the First Nations, French and English people of Canada.
“Here on the Sunshine Coast we’re going to be starting that journey,” Rolls said. “We want to set the proper tone.”
He said the Sunshine Coast leg of the journey would take five days starting in Egmont on June 13.
“We’re going down from Egmont through Skookumchuck, down to SSC Properties on the first day,” Rolls said.
“The second day we’ll have a small paddle, portaging through the town of Sechelt, then visiting Welcome Beach, Sargeant Bay. Third day another paddle to Roberts Creek and to Gibsons. Fourth day, a slightly smaller paddle around Paisley Island and the fifth day, a larger paddle across to Horseshoe Bay and down to Ambleside.”
Rolls expects about 10 sea-going canoes to join the brigade but noted smaller outriggers, canoes and kayaks will be invited to paddle alongside the group during two of the five days on the water.
Ed Hill, also with the Gibsons Paddle Club, said much of the Canada-wide celebration will be focused on the traditional Ontario/Quebec trading route that will be retraced by paddlers; however, the West Coast also has something special to offer.
“The West Coast canoe culture is not a re-enactment. It has been a continuous line of paddling in families and cultures for thousands of years, conceivably 10,000 years or more,” Hill said.
“The way we do it is unfamiliar to a lot of Canada and when the canoe brigade decided to include us we looked at it as a great opportunity to show them how we do it out here.”
He noted the journey would be filmed and ultimately shared with the country and the world.
Hill and Rolls asked for Sechelt’s help during the portaging of canoes through downtown Sechelt on June 15 and for staff’s involvement as planning continues for the local leg of the journey.
Council said staff would be made available and also encouraged Hill and Rolls to ensure a temporary use permit is taken out well in advance for the use of SSC Properties as a landing site and overnight camping location for paddlers.
