City considers digital map highlighting access points to Winnipeg waterways

People skating on Centennial River Trail January 9 (Dan Timmerman/CTV News)

Winnipeg City Council is looking at creating a digital map to highlight access points to the city’s waterways.

It would let residents know where they can hop on the river trail during the winter or launch a kayak in the summer.

Brian Mayes, city councillor for St. Vital and chair of the city’s water and waste committee said there are spots throughout Winnipeg that give no indication they are city-owned and that having a central registry would be helpful to residents so they can know where to legally access the rivers.

"There are a lot of places where the city has little strips of property either not well marked or if they're marked at all," said Mayes.

A recommendation going before the city committee this week proposes the creation of a map detailing all of the public river and creek access points.

"The pandemic has triggered a lot more people to go outside, to get exercise. There's more interest in the rivers and getting access to the river,” said Mayes.

“I just think it’s fair that people would pay, these are tax payer funded walkways or entries and a lot of times people don’t know they are there."

Mayes said it would probably take more than the proposed 90 days in the recommendation to put the map together.

If the motion is passed, he said it would probably be next winter before any map would be available.

The water and waste committee meets on Wednesday.