The Trent-Severn Waterway is now fully open for the 2017 navigation season.

All lock stations, from Lock 1 in Trenton to Lock 45 in Port Severn, are open to boat traffic.

For boaters travelling through the Kawartha Lakes, there’s an added bonus: free WiFi is available at Lock 32 (Bobcaygeon), Lock 34 (Fenelon Falls), and Lock 35 (Rosedale). The WiFi project was completed by Cable Cable Inc., based in Fenelon Falls, with the assistance of local supplier Lindsay Broadband.

To celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, Parks Canada is offering a free 2017 seasonal lockage permit. The permit allows free passage through the lock systems on all of Parks Canada’s national historic canals throughout the entire 2017 navigation season, including the Trent-Severn Waterway.

A seasonal overnight mooring permit is also available at a cost of $9.80 per foot. The seasonal mooring permit is valid for overnight mooring at seven national historic canals (including the Trent-Severn Waterway), two national parks and one national marine conservation area. The seasonal overnight mooring permit is valid for the entire navigation season. Mooring is on a first-come, first-served basis; no reservations are allowed.

Visit the Parks Canada website to order a free seasonal lockage permit and the seasonal overnight mooring permit. The free lockage permit is also available at any lock station on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

Whether you’re a boater or not, if you want to visit Canada’s national parks, historic sites, and marine conservations areas, admission is also free for 2017. The 2017 Discovery Pass will provide free admission for the entire year to Parks Canada locations across Canada.

Find out more about the 2017 Discovery Pass and how to order it at the Parks Canada website. Note that some fees still apply, including camping, special events, firewood, and more.

The City of Peterborough’s Public Art Program is continuing its efforts to make Peterborough the public art capital of Ontario with two new calls for proposals for projects in downtown Peterborough: a new mural at the YES Shelter for Youth and Families on Brock Street, and artwork for the new plaza at Aylmer and Simcoe Streets beside the renovated Peterborough Public Library.

As a result of previous calls for proposals under the program, two murals have already been installed under the Hunter Street Bridge (by Toronto artist Kirsten McCrea and by Edmonton artist Jill Stanton), and another mural has been installed on a building on Simcoe Street near Aylmer (by Peterborough artist Alex Bierk).

Another proposal was issued this past April for a UN Peacekeepers monument to be installed at the new Charlotte Street Urban Park at the Louis Street municipal parking lot (where the Peterborough Downtown Farmers’ Market is held during the summer months). The finalist for that project is expected to be announced this month.

The mural project at the YES Shelter for Youth and Families is the first of two public art competitions to create outdoor murals this summer. It’s the second phase of a five-year initiative, conceived in partnership with the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), to commission public art murals on private sites in the city’s core. The projects are intended to generate and continue interest and awareness of public art in the downtown.

The first mural by Peterborough artist Alex Bierk, “Passing Cloud” was installed last year on a building near the southeast corner of Simcoe and Queen Streets in downtown Peterborough.

The YES mural project, which has a total budget of $19,500, is open to professional artists working in Peterborough, Northumberland, Durham, Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton, Hastings, Lennox & Addington, Frontenac, or Prince Edward Counties.

The application deadline is midnight on Friday, July 14th, with the mural scheduled for completion and public launch in September. For more details and to submit proposals, visit publicartprogrampeterborough.submittable.com.

The public art project for the Aylmer and Simcoe Plaza is open to professional artists and designers who are permanent residents of Ontario and has a total budget of $50,000. The submission deadline is midnight on Thursday, July 13th, with the project expected to be completed along with the plaza itself in the fall of 2017.

Details of the call for proposals are available at akimbo.ca/107625. All proposals must be be submitted at publicartprogrampeterborough.submittable.com.

When Canadians coast-to-coast-to-coast reflect on how their country is viewed beyond its borders, terms such as diversity, inclusive, and welcoming come to mind quickly for many.

Well they should. Since the 36 original Fathers of Confederation affixed their signatures to the document that brought Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick together to form Canada on July 1, 1867, this country’s doors have been laid open to those seeking fresh beginnings in a new home, both by choice and as refugees fleeing war, famine and other calamities in their respective homelands.

So it that when Peterborough’s Canada 150th Anniversary Celebrations Committee sat down to map out the city’s June 29 to July 2 Celebrate At Home festivities, it was a no-brainer to fully include the annual Multicultural Canada Day Festival in the mix.

First staged in 2004 with New Canadians Centre (NCC) as the sole organizer, the celebration of all things international has been well ahead of the local Canada Day party curve for some time, last year delighting some 11,000 people in Del Crary Park.

On Friday (June 2) in Millennium Park, organizers rolled out a lively preview of this year’s 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. festival, highlighting its theme Bring People Together as well as two of the event’s enduring main attractions: international cuisine and live entertainment.

Chacho’s Bakery and Tre Ristorante — new food vendors this year — provided food samples while D’oh See Doughboyz — Curtis Driedger and Ken Brown with caller Ben Wolfe — pumped up its effort to lead Peterborough’s largest-ever square dance on the park’s Fred Anderson Stage.

“I think there’s something very magical about being in a space like Del Crary Park on a day like Canada Day with all your friends in the community,” said Yvonne Lai, NCC’s Director of Community Development, noting recent events south of the border surrounding immigration policies makes an inclusive event such as the festival even more poignant.

“In this community the response (to newcomers) has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve seen more than 300 Syrian refugees welcomed, about 200 government-assisted and 100 through private sponsorships. The number of people that have stepped forward to help them is more than 400. We did a calculation of the number of hours of volunteer time people have put in. It’s about 40,000 hours. In light of people wanting to do something that has impact in the face of this global wave of negativity, Peterborough has been a shining example.

“I think people have an impression that Peterborough is one dimensional and it’s really not. Newcomers are everywhere in all walks of life, in the classroom, in the workplace, and they’re sharing the experience of being a Peterborough resident with you.”

In addition to food vendors serving up Thai, Greek, Greek, Caribbean, Bangladeshi and other international delicacies, the noon to 2:30 p.m. stage show will feature performances by Wshkiigomang Women’s Native Hand Drum Singers, Curve Lake drumming group IR-35, singer Serafin Lariviere performing music from his bilingual music project, the aforementioned D’oh See Doughboyz, a martial arts demonstration by Shifu Rupert Harvey, and a number of cultural music and dancing performances representing Syria, India, Sri Lanka, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

And for the fitness-minded, interactive demonstrations of cricket, Tai Chi, para-sports, Jiu Jitsu and Zumba will return, being staged from 10 to noon.

Also back is the popular mock Canadian citizenship test as well as the popular Kids’ Zone, presented in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Peterborough.

With some 130 volunteers involved in staging the festival, there remains a need for more help. Visit www.nccpeterborough.ca to sign up.

Also scheduled for Canada Day proper is the Peterborough Canada Day Parade, Peterborough Musicfest with headliner Kim Mitchell, and the day-ending fireworks display over Little Lake presented by the city’s two Rotary clubs.

Terri Lynn Johnston of the City Recreation Division also spoke Friday, reminding all that while the parade starts at noon from City Hall, activities begin much earlier at 9:30 a.m., including a free pancake breakfast, live music, and the Decorated Bike Contest. She noted there’s still room for parade entries. To register, visit www.peterborough.ca.

And Rotary members promised an extra special fireworks display following Mitchell’s performance, all in keeping with the significance of Canada’s milestone 150th birthday.

Sponsoring this year’s Multicultural Canada Day Festival are Canadian Heritage, Ontario150, the City of Peterborough, Peterborough Community Savings, Darragh Moroney of RE/MAX, Ricart Promotions & Recognition, and Rocky Ridge Drinking Water with media sponsorship from Corus, CHEX TV, Fresh Radio, The Wolf, Energy 99.7, and Country 105.

Eight years after community members came together in 1979 to sponsor refugees fleeing Vietnam’s Communist regime, the New Canadians Centre formed as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting immigrants, refugees and other newcomers in the Peterborough and Northumberland regions.

With a mission to “empower immigrants and refugees to become full and equal members of Canadian society, and provide community leadership to ensure cultural integration in a welcoming community”, the centre has identified respect, diversity, partnerships and dedication as its values.

To that end, over the years since, centre staff and volunteers have strived to offer programs and nurture partnerships to better meet the language, educational, employment and settlement needs of new Canadians. Located at 221 Romaine Street in Peterborough (at Aylmer Street), the centre’s services and resources is a lifeline for some 800 new Canadians annually.

To find out more about the New Canadians Centre and for updates on the Multicultural Canada Day Festival, visit www.nccpeterborough.ca.

For more information and updates regarding Peterborough’s Canada 150th celebration schedule, visit www.peterborough.ca/ptbo150 or www.facebook.com/PTBO150.

This year, kawarthaNOW is a Gold Media Sponsor for Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival, so one of the things we have done is create a special section for the festival — our first-ever dedicated editorial section.

The special section contains photos and stories about the festival, including a profile of this year’s co-chairs Carol Mutton and Michelle Thornton as well as the host organization for the festival (Survivors Abreast), the origin of the festival’s annual flower ceremony, what the top fundraising team can expect at this year’s bigger and better “Dragon’s Lair” (hint: a butler), the schedule for race day, how to sponsor a paddler or team, and more.

We’ve also included a couple of stories about how the funds raised at the 2017 Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival will be used: for new state-of-the-art mammography equipment at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC). Through the PRHC Foundation, community donations will enable the hospital’s Breast Assessment Centre to purchase three 3D-capable digital mammography units to take breast screening into the future — right here in Peterborough.

Better screening technology is so important, because one in nine women will get breast cancer and we all live with that fear. And women with dense breast tissue, who are at increased risk for breast cancer, will benefit even more from the new technology.

And that’s where it becomes personal for me. I have dense breast tissue and I also have breast cancer in my family (my niece is a survivor and had a mastectomy at the age of 29). In consultation with my doctor, I opt for annual screening under the Ontario Breast Screening Program.

It’s already very stressful waiting for the results because, for women with dense breast tissue, traditional mammograms don’t have the resolution to distinguish visual artifacts from actual cancerous tissue. I’ve been called back for ultrasounds more than once when something unusual was detected, resulting in even more stress. Fortunately, so far, every time I’ve been tested the results have been negative.

I know my stress is nothing compared to what women go through when they receive a positive diagnosis of breast cancer, but the fact is the newest technology can make this stress a thing of the past.

The new 3D-capable digital mammography units have better resolution, reducing the number of false positives. Not only does this reduce the anxiety of women and their families caused by unnecessary call-backs, but it also improves detection accuracy — and early detection of breast cancer saves lives.

“The Ontario Breast Screening Program does a terrific job of ensuring women are screened for breast cancer,” says Dr. Rola Shaheen, Chief of Radiology and Medical Director of Diagnostic Imaging at PRHC. “But we have to do more.”

And that’s what PRHC is doing by purchasing the three new mammography units. Please visit our special editional section to find out more about the festival and how the funds raised there will be used.

And please, if you can, sponsor a paddler or a team at this year’s festival. We have all the teams listed and you can just click to sponsor them!