PARKS CANADA AND CANADIAN CANOE MUSEUM CONSIDER POTENTIAL RELOCATION OF MUSEUM TO PETERBOROUGH LIFT LOCK
Parks Canada and the Canadian Canoe Museum are exploring an innovative idea of relocating the museum to the Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site on the Trent-Severn Waterway as a way to boost the tourism and revenue potential for both organizations.
The construction of a new museum at this location would consolidate two significant tourism and recreation destinations in the region and offer enhanced opportunities for Canadian families, including the opportunity to better explore the canoe's history in Canada and enjoy the diverse water-related programming and associated activities that can be offered by the museum at this historic location.
Parks Canada and the Canoe Museum will now enter into detailed negotiations to determine the terms of the potential partnership. This joint project would aim to increase visitation and offer new opportunities that would support each organization's mandate and their financial sustainability.
For the Canoe Museum, this initiative represents the potential fulfillment of a long-cherished aspiration – the relocation to a new water-based site that will enable wider and more extensive programming.
Parks Canada and the Canadian Canoe Museum have signed a Letter of Intent to formalize their collaboration. The Canadian Canoe Museum Redevelopment Project Feasibility Study identified the Parks Canada location as the preferred destination for the new Museum.
This initiative would bring new economic growth with new construction projects as well as create additional employment and business opportunities for the Trent-Severn Waterway. The construction of the new museum may include a building of 80,000 square feet and space for a gift shop, a restaurant and a meeting room facility to accommodate up to 250 people.
The relocation of the museum at the Lock 21-Perborough Lift Lock historical site would unite two of Peterborough's major tourism attractions, providing water access for the museum's programming activities as well as preserve Canadian heritage of canoes and other related watercraft.
For further information:
Office of the Minister of the Environment
819-997-1441
Ken Powell, Chair, Board of Directors, Canadian Canoe Museum
Kenneth Powell
705-930-2304
James Raffan, Executive Director, Canadian Canoe Museum
613-540-4319
Media Relations
Parks Canada
1-855-862-1812
