On July 9, 1766, during a meeting of the Committee of the Crown Treasury, a plan was presented by artillery captain and royal geographer Franciszek Florian Czaki. He proposed to build the canal where Noteć river was the closest to Bydgoszcz. It was planned to be long, wide and deep. The level difference () between Brda and Noteć rivers was compensated by six water locks. Construction would have been carried out by a private company, which would then have received the right to collect taxes in return. Approval for building this project was not given by the Sejm, due to the political turmoils of the time (1768): Bar Confederation, then First Partition of Poland. In retrospect, the project was not devoid of technical defects, especially in under-estimating the requirement of water resources that could be found locally (streams and wetlands).