Would a ‘canal crawl’ featuring local eateries be eaten up by red tape?

What if you could eat and drink your way down the 7.8-kilometre stretch of the Rideau Canal in the summer? That was the thought Ottawa-based content creator and travel agent Jessica Traina had one day while on a run along the city’s famous waterway. “I’m a travel agent and a marker that I use in my head when going abroad is that all of the entertainment, lively areas and good restaurants are going to be along the water. It’s always been surprising that the space along the water in Ottawa is just not utilized,” she told OBJ. Since dreaming up the idea, Traina said she hasn’t been able to shake it and is now reaching out to her social media followers to see how it can be brought to fruition. “Picture this: Canal Crawl,” Traina posted on social media. “Local restaurants, breweries and wineries popped up from one end of the canal to the other. From Dow’s Lake to ByWard Market, a line of tents and vendors tucked under trees and in grassy openings, all along the UNESCO Rideau Canal. “Hear me out,” she continued on the post. “There are at least 30 legitimate grassy locations along the Rideau Canal between Dow’s Lake and Confederation Park that can be utilized for pop-ups, beer gardens, picnic tables and temporary dining spots.” Her idea is for these food and beverage installations to be temporary and non-damaging to the greenspace. But since the canal is maintained by Parks Canada and the surrounding greenspace by the National Capital Commission, Traina’s chief concern is the amount of red tape she or other organizers would have to go through to bring the “canal crawl” to life. “Unfortunately, Ottawa is a red-tape city. I can’t even imagine what the red tape is like around the NCC and Parks Canada,” she said. “What would need to happen is to understand the allowances … with these greenspaces. I’m not sure what the legalities are like for having pop-ups there that serve alcohol and food between certain hours. “We may have to get in touch with the city to see what the potential of this could be, what the restrictions are. Then, once we receive that information from the governing bodies, (it’s about) understanding if we can put a festival like this together and perhaps it would be a matter of making adjustments, changes to meet in the middle to allow something like this to go ahead.” If she were to pitch the idea to stakeholders, she would describe the event as “high potential and low risk.” “What I’m proposing is a non-permanent, locally driven, tourism-focused event along Ottawa’s most famous attraction. The goal is to bring in more people and improve the level of business for local businesses,” she said. If the concept were approved, she could see it becoming a recurring seasonal event, similar to a farmer’s market, that could add to the city’s vibrancy during its busy summer tourism season. “I feel like a lot of tourists can be seen around Dow’s Lake or Commissioners Park and then really not again until the little nook by Parliament Hill. I just feel like there’s such a massive chunk of the canal that just goes unvisited in the summer. (This project) could flood people into the downtown core, the Glebe, Old Ottawa South and Little Italy. I think it could bridge a gap,” she said. Since she posted her idea on social media on Thursday, Traina said she’s gotten “hundreds” of messages and comments, mostly in support of the “canal crawl.” “I’ve just gotten lots of comments to the tune of, ‘We’ve been saying this for years!’ I never thought I’d get this many comments and messages. Everybody seems pretty excited about it … I’ve even gotten some people within the industry, civil engineers and city planners, with some ideas for what the next steps could look like. Definitely not what I expected to wake up to,” she said. Her followers aren’t the only ones excited by the idea. Nitin Mehra, executive chef at East India Company, said that he loves any kind of event that brings the city together. “Zero question about it, we’ll hop on board. East India Company has been in town coming up on 25 years now and a big part of why we love this city is its sense of community.” With locations on Somerset Street West downtown and Robertson Road in Bells Corners, East India Company would benefit from having a pop-up along the Rideau Canal, he added. “Any opportunity that brings more life back into Centretown and gets people moving is a good thing. Rising tides lift all boats. This is that concept at work,” he said. Mehra co-organized a food and drink festival called Best Fest Ottawa earlier this month and he said he would expect the “canal crawl” event to run into many of the same logistical hurdles. “We were absolutely jumped with the (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario), the city, with every conceivable department within the city. It did seem as though we were being encouraged not to create this event that was ultimately beneficial for the city,” he explained. Mehra added that there should be more help for individuals like Traina trying to highlight the city’s local businesses. “We need champions for the city, like (Traina) and (Henry Monkhouse, content creator and co-organizer of Best Fest Ottawa), who are willing to show it off. We need to make sure we get out of their way and help them.” Beyond the logistics of getting the event approved, Mehra said there are a slew of other logistical considerations. “It’ll be planning a menu, trying to understand the quantities needed. Can we execute out there? Am I cooking on-site? From a business point of view, it’s about how we bring a smaller version of East India Company to the canal and is it profitable?” he said. Over in Chinatown, John Sproull, co-owner of Spark Beer, said that animating the area around the canal “makes perfect sense.” “It’s an underused area of the city … What better way to advertise and promote local business than when you have tourists front and centre?” he said, adding that having a presence along the canal would help increase visibility for his Chinatown business. While enthusiastic about the idea, Sproull shares Traina’s concerns about red tape. “Licensing is always the biggest challenge, with the AGCO and the City of Ottawa. There’s special occasion permits that people can get and it’s not a big issue, but my No. 1 question would be, ‘Is it licensed as an event or is it individual licensing? Would we have to work with the AGCO to get the license?’” Despite concerns, Sproull said he’s encouraged by the fact that the NCC seems more willing to work with local businesses to bring vibrancy to the National Capital Region. “It’s always difficult to deal with the NCC, but they had a pop-up with beer at Dow’s Lake (last year) and that’s huge. It feels like they’re trying to use their space for the benefit of the capital region. I just hope that they would see the benefit in (this idea), not only for businesses, but also for the people who visit Ottawa.” Traina said she would love to be part of the team to bring this idea to life, but with no experience in event planning, she’s happy to let others take the reins. “It’s very much an open conversation at this point. It’s a new avenue for me. I have connections in ways of businesses, but when it comes to the actual planning side of it, I’ve never done it. I’m open to being a part of the conversation, or not at all. I’m happy if my hands are out of it, if it means it comes together. I just wanted to facilitate the idea. I actually wrote in my post, ‘Feel free to steal this idea.’”