NCC closes south side of Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau

The National Capital Commission (NCC) says it’s closing the south side of Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau so it can clean up and rehabilitate the riverfront park.

The park, located just north of the Canadian Museum of History and the interprovincial Alexandra Bridge, plays host to several summer and winter events. The rehabilitation work needed arises from events hosted last year but was delayed because this spring’s floods have “monopolized” NCC crews, a statement from the commission said.

The NCC didn’t indicate how long the southern area of the park would be closed to the public.

The commission said it’s now in the middle of assessing the land and soil in Jacques-Cartier Park so it can “better plan” for the rehabilitation work that will have to be done. The NCC cited preserving public access and the park’s vegetation as priorities.

“The rehabilitation work will ensure that the site, as it is currently used, will be safe from a public health and safety perspective,” the NCC said.

While this spring’s floods haven’t impacted the park, according to the NCC, parts of its riverside bike and pedestrian pathways on both the Gatineau and Ottawa sides are under water.

Those pathways will reopen once the swollen Ottawa River recedes and after the commission has conducted a “post-flood inspection,” the NCC wrote.

The Voyageurs Pathway in Gatineau and the Ottawa River Pathway were both damaged by the historic floods in 2017. They were repaired gradually over the next two years.

The commission said last year the multi-use paths were being rebuilt to “higher standards” and would be better protected against future flooding.

Last summer, the NCC estimated it cost about $3.4 million to repair all the 2017 flood damage to its network of paths.