Mr. Speaker, residents of the upper Ottawa valley who celebrated National Rivers Day this past weekend by boating on the Ottawa River may soon look forward to an eagerly anticipated event: the reopening of the beautiful sandy beaches that line the Ottawa River where CFB Petawawa fronts the river. The shoreline, over the years, was the location of military training exercises and was identified as a legacy site eligible for the DND UXO and legacy sites programs.
I am pleased to invite all members of the public to a community meeting hosted by DND on Thursday, June 14, at 7 p.m. at Troyes Cinema on base. The purpose of the meeting is to explain what work has been completed and what precautions, if any, boaters should take once the beaches are officially reopened for public use.
I am pleased to recognize the leadership that Lieutenant-Colonel David Rundle, CFB Petawawa Base Commander, has played on this and many other issues during his posting to Petawawa. On behalf of the Petawawa community, we wish him well on his next posting. We will miss him.