For 40 years, Linda Mathies has been carrying her kayak down to the Rideau River, along Alta Vista Drive near Billings Bridge. To reach the water, she navigates narrow footpaths, mud, and steep brush — an increasingly difficult process as the riverbank becomes more overgrown and, more recently, choked by invasive wild parsnip.
In 2021, she contacted the National Capital Commission (NCC), which owns the shoreline along the Rideau River Eastern Pathway. Mathies asked whether a small, low-impact dock could be built at the water’s edge near Pleasant Park and Riverside — a dock she believed the community could help fund or even construct themselves.
The NCC said no.
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