The Rideau Canal system in eastern Ontario has been hard hit this season by high gas prices, bad weather and border confusion.

Officials say boat traffic is down by as much as 30 per cent on the 202-kilometre chain of lakes, rivers and canals that runs between Kingston and Ottawa.

Locks along the Rideau Canal have seen a downturn in boat traffic this season.
(CBC)

"Certainly traffic is down on the Rideau, but it varies from place to place," Pam Buell, eastern Ontario communications manager for Parks Canada, told CBC News Online. "Some locks report a 10 per cent drop [in traffic] and some 30 per cent."

The centre sections of the Rideau system are the most heavily travelled and have seen the smallest declines. Losses are higher at each end, indicative of fewer long trips being made by boat owners in the central area.

Boaters say it's the gas

Boaters point to gas prices as the main culprit.

"Actually, some people don't even leave the marina because of the prices," said an employee of Hurst Marina, in Manotick, south of Ottawa, to CBC News. "I think they just have a party on their boat and leave it at the marina all summer."

Guy Lacoste, who has an 11-metre powerboat, spent two weeks travelling down the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers and then up the Rideau Canal, a trip he says cost him $3,000 in gas.

Larger powerboats can cost upward of $500 or more for a single fill.

Other factors are reducing traffic, however.

"I think tourism in Ontario is generally down," says Buell.

"We … have issues at the border. A lot of Americans think you need to use a passport to get across the border. And the weather has been crappy. June was wet and rainy and thunderstormy, and not particularly conducive to enjoying summer."

Economic driver

A drop in Rideau traffic affects more than the take in Parks Canada's cash register (costs for use range from 90 cents a foot of boat length for a return trip through one lock to $8.50 a foot for a season pass along the entire system), it also affects other businesses along the way, Buell says.

"The Rideau is a large economic driver in eastern Ontario. There are marinas, gas stations, restaurants and communities that rely on the tourism the Rideau Canal brings.

"So there is an economic spinoff."

Farther west in Ontario, the large Trent-Severn waterway system, a collection of canals, lakes and rivers ranging 386 kilometres from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay, has also been seeing traffic reductions, but not to the same extent.

"We are experiencing a bit of a drop in use," Ken East, the waterway's superintendent, told CBC News Online. "We were down in May and June [but] we attribute it to weather more than anything.

"July is down as well, but whether it is high gas prices or a number of factors, it's hard to tell."

Passport worries

East also pointed to passport worries along the border and the rising Canadian dollar as factors. And heavy rain damage in June to the Erie Canal, in upstate New York, has also cut some of the traffic from the United States because the system there is still working to get back to full strength.

American boaters coming through Oswego or the Champlain Lake system from the Erie Canal add significantly to the usage numbers in both the Trent-Severn and the Rideau.

As for those gas prices, East personally thinks boaters will find a way.

"Our sense is that once people have an investment in boats, that ultimately they are probably going to use them despite what gas costs, because so much capital is invested [in it]," he said.