page_title: Trent–Severn Waterway
section_title: Canal today
hierarchical_section_title: Trent–Severn Waterway / History / Canal today
caption_attribution_description: English: Lock 31 in Buckhorn (Galway-Cavendish and Harvey Township), Ontario, Canada
context_page_description: The Trent–Severn Waterway is a 386-kilometre-long canal route connecting Lake Ontario at Trenton to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, at Port Severn. Its major natural waterways include the Trent River, Otonabee River, Kawartha Lakes, Lake Simcoe, Lake Couchiching and Severn River. Its scenic, meandering route has been called "one of the finest interconnected systems of navigation in the world".
  The canal was surveyed as a military route, but the first lock was built in 1833 as a commercial venture. This connected a number of lakes and rivers near the centre of the waterway, opening a large area to navigation by steamship. The government had begun construction of three additional locks when the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 broke out. This led the government to re-examine the project, concluding that the route would have too many locks to allow rapid movement for military purposes. They decided that the locks under construction would be completed, but the rest could be turned into timber slides. This left the completed inland section with no outlet, which business interests addressed by connecting to the route with a number of new toll roads, plank roads, and later, railways.
  John A.
context_section_description: Travel was blocked beyond Balsam Lake until the opening of the Kirkfield Lift Lock in 1907.
  The lock system aided the development of central Ontario, allowing a quick and efficient flow of goods to and from the major trading centres along Lake Ontario. The rugged, rough terrain of this area of the province made travel by land extremely difficult and time-consuming.
  When the canal was finally completed, it failed to have a major impact on the economy of the regions it was built to serve.  By the time it was completed its design had been made obsolete by larger boats: it had been designed for boats too small to be commercially viable.   In the years that it was under construction, railways had further developed their networks and improved service, which influenced settlement patterns.
  In 1910-11, the Township of Smith and the Chemong Yacht Club filed a claim for land damages caused by the Trent Canal.
  The waterway became obsolete for commercial purposes when the present day Welland Canal was completed in 1932. The Welland Canal could handle ships large enough to sail across the ocean, though cargo was generally transferred to or from larger ocean-going vessels at Montreal.
  The Trent-Severn system is still in service. It is maintained and operated by the national park service, Parks Canada, and now is used for tourism and by recreational boaters. There is a cruise line that operates the ship Kawartha Voyageur, as well as houseboat rental firms. In June 2013, Barry Devolin, Member of Parliament for the riding of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, reintroduced Bill C-530, the "Trent-Severn Water Authority Act",  in order to re-capitalize the century-old infrastructure of the waterway.
  Technical and navigational details (such as speed limit, maximum draft, maximum water depth and bridge clearances) can be found at Parks Canada's website.
caption: The lock at Buckhorn is typical of the Waterway today, with service buildings for the lock staff and users of the locks.
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