I was cc.ed this letter which brings forward staff concerns primarily regarding the resourcing (or rather lack thereof) of the Rideau Canal. Many of these issues were predicted back in 2012 with Parks Canada's poorly thought out re-structuring of canals into Waterways which put the resourcing of the Rideau in the back seat behind the TSW. This letter has deeper insights that issue and is a call to action, this imbalance has to change.

September 26, 2024

Not since DRAP has there been a more critical time for union action to hold management accountable for the current state of the Rideau Canal. Since 2012, the Rideau Canal has been treated like the unwanted cousin in the Ontario Waterways family. Current reasons for extreme concern include:

• A infrastructure investment portfolio that has been over 75% focused on TSW assets over Rideau Assets;


• An unexplained drain of support function human resources to the TSW Headquarters from the Rideau Canal Headquarters;


• An imbalance of off-season staffing levels across both Asset Management and Operations;


• No public pushback against PSPC and Transport Canada regarding the closure of the Lasalle Causeway.

These are some of the high level issues where the Ontario Waterways Management Team have been and will continue to fail you unless every attempt on the part of the union is made to improve accountability of those who are paid manage them.

For the purposes of your upcoming UMC, please consider the following action items for the key issues plaguing the Rideau Canal in comparison to it's spoiled sister over on the TSW:

A infrastructure investment portfolio that has been over 75% focused on TSW assets over Rideau Assets;

First on this topic is to ask why the investment has been so one-sided? The 75% figure is a conservative one that may skew in reality above 80%

The Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is being allowed to fall apart.:

• The historic blockhouse at Kingston Mills is inaccessible and in horrible visual condition, the historic blockhouse at Newboro is in poor visual condition with the upstairs inaccessible, the historic blockhouse at Narrows is being held together by pest control mesh and it's timbers are quickly deteriorating to the point where no historical fabric will be left to rehabilitate. The blockhouses are key aspects of the WHS designation of significant universal value. Add in the lack of investment in any building in the system and you get things like the Anglin Centre as public embarrassments and key historical assets like the Upper Nicholsons swing bridge being taken out of service.


• Several locks on the Rideau are in such poor condition that we are now using very slim A-base capital resources to complete patch repairs like what happened at Lock 14. By not securing key B-base infrastructure funding for the Rideau, the management team is allowing the A-base capital program on the Rideau to be wasted on emergency repairs reducing available funds for seasonal extensions of staff to complete needed projects like vegetation management, re-decking docks, renovating lock station offices and bathrooms, or completing desperately needed IT upgrades to all Rideau Canal locations including compounds in Manotick and Elgin,

The spin-off staffing benefits of an infrastructure program are significant and have allowed seasonal TSW maintenance and operations to receive almost endless extensions for the past decade. Staff on the TSW have been receiving outsized extensions for things like water management, vegetation management, landscaping, site prep or clean-up, or deficiency remediation as a result of individual projects. An unexplained drain of support function human resources to the TSW Headquarters from the Rideau Canal Headquarters;

• There has been a serious and deliberate transfer of management positions and support staff across all functions moved to the TSW from the Rideau Canal.


• In 2012, the Rideau Canal Headquarters was full. Today, there are less than 10 staff occupying positions in the building.


• Today, TSW Headquarters is overfull and the back-to-office requirements are unable to be met as there is not enough space in the building. Very valuable business unit resources are being spent on IT systems and renovations of office space to accommodate this realty. Why is the business unit considering spending upwards of $250,000 to renovate the Peterborough Lift Lock Visitor Center to accommodate too many TSW office staff when 20 cubicles in Smiths Falls sit vacant everyday?


• Proximity bias is real. With so many of the Ontario Waterways management positions and the majority of their staff located on the TSW they spend the majority of their time and effort on the Canal they see everyday. There is no excuse for staffing so many positions in Peterborough, and there needs to be a promise that is kept by the Director that no further positions will be staffed there until balance is brought back to the human resource levels on both canals to ensure the Rideau gets the attention it deserves and staff on the Rideau gain access to positions for career development here.


• Don't let the Director get away with saying that he leaves process work locations open to both to attract the best people! The Rideau Canal is in the NCR, where the top public service talent in Canada is centralized and available.


• The Rideau Canal needs a Director level position located on the Rideau. For the Rideau Canal not to have a Superintendent or equivalent position located in it's headquarters is an embarrassment. To see the TSW Manager of Operations Chad Buchner currently occupying the Associate Director position is unexplainable. TSW Operations is being prioritized over the Rideau Canal because of this. Chad's qualifications include zero work experience outside of TSW Operations. He is uneducated, he is not bilingual, and with zero experience outside Operations he is not qualified to occupy such an important position in the business unit that should be focused largely on Rideau Canal interests. Chad has worked less than a couple of months at even the Sector Manager level, and he never qualified on an actual competition for his substantive Manager of Operations position. Is this who should be second in command for Ontario Waterways?

An imbalance of off-season staffing levels across both Asset Management and Operations;

• Rideau Canal winter watch is limited to 6 staff with little to know reserve funds to replace staff on leave, which most days translates to 5 staff covering off-season responsibilities across the 202km Canal. Limited work is getting completed on vegetation maintenance, lockstation office or bathroom upgrades, and large off-season winter watch crew work lists are not seeing the light of day because staffing levels are so lean.


• In contrast, TSW off-season winter watch crews are 21 team members deep. This 21 member A-base team is being supplemented annually by additional winter watch crews being paid for by infrastructure project funds. The entire winter watch team has surplus time to complete valuable beautification project work and many of the team members enjoying full FTE work years.


• Similarly, the TSW seasonal maintenance team members are all getting off-season extensions because the oversized B-base program there is saving valuable A-base capital budgets. This year, all of their seasonal staff were offered off-season work extensions.


• The Rideau A-base capital budget is largely spent after asset failures requiring the draining of this budget for emergency repairs at Black Rapids, Long Island and Upper Brewers. All of these issues were related to failures that should have been addressed as part of an infrastructure program investment.

No public pushback against PSPC and Transport Canada regarding the closure of the Lasalle Causeway.

• As communicated recently by a key commercial operator on the Rideau Canal, there was no public comment made by Ontario Waterways management against the installation of the temporary fixed bridge at the Lasalle Causeway. Management needs to explain why they did not act to stop TC from issuing the Navigable Waters Act exemption permit, which allowed the installation of the temporary fixed bridge on September 19.


• Published figures show Rideau Canal visitation down over 10% across the board in all categories as a result of this seasons poor communication and the threat of the Causeway closure. Things will be much worse in future years as there is rumoured to be as few as monthly openings only through 2027 and beyond.


• The union should be requesting an ATIP level sharing of information for all correspondence from Ontario Waterways Management to understand why there has not been real action on this file.


• If the Rideau Canal visitation continues to suffer for years as a result of this inaction, inevitable cuts by the new Conservative government will be targeted at the Rideau by a TSW leaning management team with stats showing the Rideau needs less staff, less hours of operation and a shorter season in comparison to the TSW.

I personally beg you as the current union management executive on the Rideau to act and stand up for your Canal and membership before it is too late!

Thank you.

Hartwell James Clowes