Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 07/99) - Canadians across the country are being told to take a hike.

They're also being encouraged to walk, run, rollerblade, snowshoe, ski, dogsled, cycle, canoe and kayak -- along the evolving Trans Canada Trail.

With its official launch set for September next year, the trail is growing all the time -- to the point where it will span the country east to west and north to south for a total of 15,000 kilometres and at a cost of $23 million.

Behind the project is the Montreal-based Trans Canada Trail Foundation, which is co-ordinating not just the building of the trail, but also a special event to kick off the opening -- Relay 2000.

Relay 2000 involves taking samples of water from Canada's three oceans -- the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic -- and relaying them to Hull, Que., where they will be placed in separate pools in a newly unveiled fountain.

"It's going to be Canada's biggest millennium project," said NWT regional co-ordinator Katherine McPhee on Wednesday.

The NWT finds itself in a fortunate geographic position. One of the three national "ocean gateways" and a trailhead will be built in Tuktoyaktuk, along with those in St. John's, Nfld. in the East and Victoria, B.C. in the West.

Much in the spirit of the Olympic Games torch relay, the water relay event is supposed to involve thousands of Canadians across the country -- and the foundation says the water-carrier application process will be unveiled this September.

Trailblazing in the North

The NWT and Nunavut will also play a major role in the trail-building process -- though details are still being worked out.

Like even the best of trails, this one seems to have its share of bugs. Since the trail-initiative was announced in 1992 as part of Canada's 125th birthday celebrations, there have been several individuals involved. Brian Kelln, a former president of the NWT Recreation and Parks Association, has been named as the incoming trail-building co-ordinator.

While some provinces have made considerable progress on building hiking trails and linking existing ones, the NWT and Nunavut have yet to register any -- though the Northwest Territories is to have some 3,000 kilometres, or 20 per cent of the total trail.

Newfoundland leads the pack with 98.3 per cent of its route complete, but the foundation's Jeff Kloss put that progress in context.

"Newfoundland has done quite well because they acquired an abandoned rail line from Port aux Basques to St. John's," he said. "The others are doing OK and basically for the 2000 deadline we want to have everything registered even if it's not built -- but the North might be post-2000 because it's so large and (requires) a lot of work."

McPhee said the Relay 2000 event will begin in Tuktoyaktuk next February. She said the Arctic water will be relayed through Inuvik to Tsiigehtchic, down the Mackenzie River to Fort Good Hope, Norman Wells, Tulita, Deline, Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Jean Marie River and Fort Providence, by snowmobile into Rae and Yellowknife, and then down to Kakisa, Enterprise, Hay River, Fort Resolution and Fort Smith. From there it will go down the Athabasca River into Alberta where it will join the Pacific water from Victoria for the rest of the trip east.

The Nunavut portion of the trail remains somewhat of a mystery, however. Initially there was no plan to enter the new territory at all. A subsequent proposal to have the trail run along the Thelon River from Great Slave Lake to Chesterfield Inlet has since been scrapped.

McPhee said she couldn't shed light on the new proposal as it has yet to be approved, and no Nunavut co-ordinator has been named.

Still, it's far more likely Nunavut will be linked to the rest of the country via the Trans Canada Trail long before it is by the Trans-Canada Highway.

A call to elms

Certainly, Northerners do have the chance to get involved -- the foundation is making the project as interactive as possible.

Kloss said only 10 per cent of the trail is funded by Ottawa and the rest of the $6 million raised so far has come through corporate sponsorship, merchandising and individual donations. For $40, for example, Canadians can "buy" a metre of trail and have their names inscribed on plaques at donor pavilions along the route.

Kloss also said some sponsorship is coming in kind. Canadian Geographic is donating advertising space and Tetra Pak Canada has set up a "Trailblazer" interactive school program and teacher-resource package that can be accessed through the foundation's Web site at www.tctrail.ca or by calling 1-800-465-3636.

Committee members are spread around the territory, and interested individuals can contact them via Katherine McPhee at (867) 669-0790 or Brian Kelln at (867) 920-5647.