Are swimmable cities possible in Canada?

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I feel like a lot of people thought it was dirty when I was growing up, and a lot of people didn't really want to go in it. But I never really cared when I was little. I just, I loved being in the water.

For a long time, Lake Ontario, at least the parts connected to Toronto, had a bit of a reputation. It was dirty and smelly and not the kind of place that you'd want to spend a sunny summer day.

But that has changed significantly over the years. The city of Toronto has invested a lot to clean up the beaches, and now they are a beloved destination for tourists and Torontonians alike. And like just relaxing, listening to the sound of the water,

I think it's great that we have this one so close. It's easy to forget that we are a stone's throw away from such beautiful places where you can lie on the beach, you can swim, you can hike. It's a 40-minute subway ride and a very quick walk, but it's so easy to get here. It's like a no-brainer to come here. As temperatures rise thanks to climate change, people are looking for more ways to cool off in the summer.

And natural bodies of water in urban centres could be an easy solution. I'm joined now by two people trying to make their city waterways more accessible. Neil Exgaard is the president of the Alberta River Surfing Association and Surf Anywhere. He's part of a potential redevelopment plan around Calgary's Bow River.

And Larissa Holman is the director of science and policy with Ottawa River Keepers, an independent nonprofit organization. And she is with me in our Ottawa studio. Good morning to you both. Good morning. Good morning.

Neil, I'm going to start with you because, and I have to start with this question, what exactly is river surfing? River surfing is surfing like you see in the ocean, but on a standing wave. So you have waves that form in a river and the waves don't move down the river and you balance out the surfboard going down the wave with the water pushing you downstream. And it can happen anywhere.

Yeah, and people are already doing that in Calgary, right? They are, yep, in Calgary and in the mountains in Kananaska, sort of wave we built. Okay, but I understand you are looking to redevelop the Bow River. Tell us a little bit about what's on the books so far. Yeah, there is a big opportunity in Calgary and a lot of river cities where you can take an area of unused waterfront and turn it into this big cultural area, economic area and environmental benefit for the city.

So what we're doing is there's a gravel bar that formed in the middle of the city that got larger during a flood. We had these really large floods in 2013, and it's now a flood risk. The city has to remove the gravel bar and change it. And so as part of that, they looked at putting in an urban beach and a whitewater park in this adjustable river wave.

And so that's what they're doing. One side of the river is going to be natural, the same as it's always been. And the other side is going to have three surfable waves for kayakers, paddlers, bodyboarders, surfers. And it's going to connect people to the riverfront, connect people to the river, create a big economic benefit and make the downtown area, create a cultural anchor in that downtown area.

And is the Bow River somewhere that people have felt was somewhere they could go into? Did people worry about the pollution there ever? Or has it always been a place that felt like a good place to go in the water? The Bow River gets heavily used by Calgarians and probably visitors.

So we have people who are floating down the river all the time right now. with rented rafts, inflatable unicorns, you name it, people are coming down the river. Okay, Larissa, I want to go to you now because Ottawa just opened up two more docks this summer. I was in Dow's Lake yesterday, for instance. How are you seeing all of these

docks being used now? They're being used very, very well. People are really excited to be seeing these new swim locations that were put in place by the National Capital Commission. and it's really fantastic to see people turning towards the river, people spending time in the river and along the river in different ways.

But I would say that there is more of a stigma about getting in the water in the Ottawa area, even though the water quality in the Ottawa River and many of its tributaries is fantastic. Tell me a little bit about that perception out there, because I know lots of testing is done, maybe not quite as much.

We can get to this in a minute as people would like. But what do we know about the water quality and the public perception, the mismatched public perception? Yeah, I mean, the Ottawa River is a brown river. That's the colour of the river.

So I think just visually people see it and think, oh, it must be dirty. But that is natural colour. It doesn't have anything to do with water quality. And also similar to other municipalities, but especially here in Ottawa, the city has invested a lot of money in reducing the combined sewer overflows and addressing that source of pollution,

which tends to be one of the larger contributors to poor water quality for recreational water quality swimming. Tell me about what is a sewer overflow and how does it happen? I understand there are specific times when it is worse. Yes, and that's a great way to sort of think about when is a good time to go swimming and when maybe to wait a day or two.