The Future Canadian Canoe Museum Build Impacted By Environmental Contamination

The Canadian Canoe Museum (CCM) has announced that the results of its own independent investigations confirm that the designated site for the future building of the new Canadian Canoe Museum has been found to contain an industrial solvent, the chemical compound trichloroethylene (TCE). 

The ground water at 353 Hunter Street East, owned by Parks Canada, is believed to have been contaminated by chemicals seeping from an adjacent property. The 83,400 square-foot facility museum was to be located alongside the Peterborough Lift Lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

“All of us at the Canoe Museum, our project partners and supporters, are highly concerned and extremely disappointed by the situation,” says Carolyn Hyslop, executive director, The Canadian Canoe Museum, in a media release.

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) this week issued a Provincial Officers Order, under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), to the owner at an adjacent property directing it to undertake air quality, ground water and additional onsite investigations and to provide associating remediation plans.

“We are working with all parties including the MECP, Parks Canada and our community and funding partners to evaluate the overall impacts of these findings to our operations and our new museum build,” adds Hyslop.

“While the full implications of this environmental interruption are not yet fully known, we are fully committed to building a new world-class museum that will deliver on its vision and serve the needs of its patrons and local community while honouring and preserving this unique cultural asset of national significance.”

A Canadian Canoe Museum representative tells PTBOCanada in an email that they are “evaluating the situation to understand the full impacts to its operations and future new museum build, and further announcements will be made once a direction has been determined.”

[UPDATE: The Canoe Museum representative clarifies to us in a subsequent email that “testing was undertaken as part of the regular environmental assessments required for any build project. The museum relied on experts and consultants to do this testing and to provide the necessary reporting. The results reported today are the outcome of recent independent testing undertaken by the museum confirming the presence of the industrial solvent.”]

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