TEMAGAMI – Temagami’s 50-foot canoe project is back on track after some delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Council received a verbal update on the project from working group member Dave Wilfong at their December 10 regular meeting.
The purpose of creating the canoe is to give the town a landmark that would also be the world’s largest wood canvas canoe.
Wilfong told council he is currently building the form on which the canoe will be assembled.
“All of the dimensions are all configured, I have materials here for the form,” he said.
“The one drawback in this is getting the cedar material for the actual building of the canoe. I have a good line on some now but I still have to see if I’ll have it in time. I’ll bring an update on that shortly, probably sometime within the next few weeks.”
Wilfong said that once the form for the canoe is built, moving it to the Temagami arena would be “an ideal spot.” If that falls through, he noted that another location would be sorted out for it.
The construction of the canoe itself is planned for a March start, he said, with the form to be completed and set-up wherever the canoe is going to be built.
When June 2021 comes, Wilfong said that he would be “on hold” and that his hope is for someone - or a couple of people - to step in and keep the project moving along. Ultimately, he said a September launch date is in the plans for the finished canoe.
“I still do not have anything back as far as the grants, we applied for two grants,” he noted.
“One is for a video documentary and the other is for the painting. (Artist) James Faubert has been brought in to this to do some form of painting on the canoe and then Bradley Paul has been lined up to do the video documentary. That could possibly change due to (Paul) putting things on hold in his video career at the moment.”
Wilfong stressed that it wouldn’t stop the video documentary from happening.
Councillor John Shymko told Wilfong after his update that he could be a failsafe to do the video documentary production and editing.
Deputy Mayor Cathy Dwyer commented that she had been talking with some people who would have a possible source for the cedar needed to build the canoe “because that’s pretty key for the whole project,” she said.
Mayor Dan O’Mara and Dwyer added that there had been some money verbally committed from citizens toward the project.
Council later agreed on a resolution that authorizes Dwyer to coordinate with other parties associated with the canoe project and bring a draft action plan to council.
