By William Proulx [1]
BELLEVILLE – The 2015 boating season was much busier on the Trent-Severn Waterway [2] compared to 2014.
More than 116,000 boats passed through the locks between May 15 and Oct. 12, according to Meaghan Bradley, a Parks Canada [3] spokeswoman.
The numbers from this season are a 19-per-cent increase over last year’s numbers – when 98,000 vessels traveled through the waterway’s locks.
Trent-Severn is a canal that runs through Ontario’s cottage country and is a Canadian national historic site. The waterway includes the Trent River [4]; there are several locks in the Quinte region, including at Trenton, Glen Miller, Frankford and Batawa.
The canal used to be primarily used for commercial, industrial and transportation services, but now it is maintained for recreational and leisure purposes. It is a major tourist attraction for the Quinte area during the spring and summer months.
In total there are 45 locks over the 386-kilometre-long waterway through central Ontario. The waterway runs from Trenton to Port Severn.