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Throughway Management

Water Control Obligations

Parks Canada operates four waterways – the Chambly Canal, the Lachine Canal, the Rideau Canal and the Trent Severn Waterway – that have significant and complex water control obligations.

Water needs to be controlled for a number of reasons; navigation, hydroelectric generation, shoreline erosion management, recreation and industrial uses. Some of these reasons such as hydro generation, industrial use and flooding rights are governed by legal commitments.

The Agency has developed an inventory of its water control obligations that are used to influence how water levels are managed in each of the sectors that each waterway is divided into. Parks Canada manages water levels in each sector according to what is known as a rule curve – essentially a water level range between an historical average high water level and, an historical average low water level. Sector managers, using science-based data from a network of 24/7 monitoring instruments, adjust the amount of water released to ensure that the water level in the sector remains within the rule-curve. It sounds simple, however it is complex and requires good monitoring data, knowledge of legal obligations and understanding of the implications of decisions to release water. For example, the Agency may not have flooding rights and needs to manage water releases so as not to bring on liability issues.

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