River taxis are a cool idea in a sizzling Ottawa summer | Opinion

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As I steered the 24-foot, 12-seat water taxi towards the dock outside the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau last week, I turned to Lara-May Baumann — technically the captain of the vessel despite the fact that I was at the helm — and asked if she wouldn’t mind docking the boat. I’d had a couple of practice runs doing it without passengers, but they weren’t the smoothest of transitions, and I didn’t want the pair of brochure-clutching tourists I was now responsible for ferrying across the Ottawa River to be left: a) with a poor impression of our city simply because of an ungainly landing on my part; or b) soaked.

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Now if you’re wondering how someone without fully developed boating skills could be in the position I was, welcome to the club. It turns out that $60 and a three-to-four hour online course, accompanied by nearly 100 multiple choice questions, is all you need to get your Pleasure Craft Operator Card. Were I to actually join the ranks of Aqua Taxi’s regular drivers — they are looking for marine enthusiasts/retirees/hobbyists to captain their vessels in and around the river’s parliamentary basin — I’d need to navigate my way through a few more hoops. But as long as no more than six passengers boarded the pontoon boat while I pretended to be in charge, I ticked all the required boxes.

I wrote about owner Luc Côté’s Aqua Taxi, a.k.a. Water Taxi Eh? business last November, in a column encouraging greater public use of Ottawa’s considerable waterways.

I also announced in that column that Ottawa Boat Cruise would start operating a water taxi service on the Rideau Canal this year. That service, known as Ekeau Water Taxi, was launched in May during the Tulip Festival, with attendees ferried between Carleton University (where there is vehicle parking) and the Dow’s Lake dock (where there isn’t). Ekeau, meanwhile, recently commenced its summer taxi service. It now picks up and drops off passengers at the Senate/Shaw Centre, Canal Ritz, Bank Street and Dow’s Lake. The cost is $15 per passenger per trip, and online booking is required.

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Aqua Taxi, meanwhile, plies the Ottawa River between the Ottawa Locks at the mouth of the Rideau Canal; Richmond Landing near the Canadian War Museum; and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Additionally, it does runs from the Ottawa Locks to the NCC River House. The latter trip, which includes a miniature Maid-of-the-Mist type close approach to the Rideau Falls — such a welcome respite during last week’s heatwave — must be pre-booked, while the others are catch-as-catch-can. The cost for the River House trip is $18, one way. The others are $9 for a single stop, and $20 for hop-on, hop-off service. There’s also a discount card available for frequent wayfarers.

A builder and inventor, Côté gets more of a thrill from designing and constructing his boats than piloting them. During my maiden voyage, he motioned to the solar panels that comprise the boat’s roof. “It excites me to do something that no one is doing,” he said.

So he scores originality points on a couple of fronts. Once he finishes converting the fifth of his fleet’s five boats from electric power to solar in a couple of weeks, Côté says that Aqua Taxi will be the first net-zero, multi-vehicle water transportation company in Canada. And we like our transit green.

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He also earns kudos for some of the services he’s attempting to create that will expand our options about how we can get around. Right now, for example, only about 20 per cent of the company’s current customers are local residents, but Côté sees potential in dialling that up, especially with cyclists looking to more easily cross the Ottawa River. To that end, he’s in discussion with the City of Gatineau to use its dock at the Rest-o-bord marina directly across the river from the River House.

He’s also negotiating with Escape Bicycle Tours on a plan that would allow people to go to or from the River House by boat and make the other half of the round trip by bike. For those thwarted by the River House’s limited access and parking, this solution could be just the ticket.

And when the Alexandra Bridge, a significant commuter link between Ottawa and Gatineau, is dismantled and replaced beginning in 2028, some of the 2,000 pedestrians who currently cross it each day may find themselves relying on water taxis to get from hither to yon.

Meanwhile, back at the Museum of Civilization dock, my inaugural passengers debarked without incident, their brochures intact. The last I saw of them, they were walking from the dock up to the museum, delighted (I tell myself) by their refreshing and safe aquatic journey on an otherwise blistering heat-dome of a day. Mission accomplished.

How easy, I wonder, would it be to get my Pleasure Helicopter Operator Card?

bdeachman@postmedia.com

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