United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Area codes 613 and 343
Area code 613 and overlay area code 343 are area codes for Ottawa and surrounding Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the North American Numbering Plan. 613 is one of the 86 original area codes in the NANP assigned in October 1947. The 613 area covered all of Ontario with the exception of the Golden Horseshoe, in area code 416; the area code has been split twice. In 1953, the Southwestern Ontario portion of 613 was combined with the western portion of 416 to become 519. In 1957 the vast northwestern portion of 613 was combined with the northern portion of 519 to become area code 705. Since 1957, 613 covers only Eastern Ontario, an area extending from Brighton and Deep River eastward to Saint Regis, Quebec. Ottawa and its twin city in Quebec, Gatineau fall on the boundary between 613 and Quebec's area code 819. However, Ottawa shares a local calling area with the former city of Quebec; as a result, for 46 years, a call could be completed between Hull with only seven digits. A similar situation prevailed in the Washington metropolitan area across three jurisdictions – Washington itself and parts of Maryland and Virginia.
While there are fewer than two million people in the geographic area covered by 613, the bulk of that population lives in the Ottawa area. To preserve seven-digit dialling between Ottawa and Hull, an exchange code protection scheme was implemented so that the same seven-digit local number could not be assigned on both sides of the National Capital Region. Technically, it was only necessary that no two prefixes within the same local calling area be duplicates, but the code protection as implemented reserved the numbers across both area codes; this meant that if a 1-819 number was being used in Hull, the corresponding 1-613 number could not be used anywhere in eastern Ontario in areas a safe distance from the National Capital Region such as Brighton. If a 1-613 number was being used in Ottawa–Carleton, the corresponding 1-819 number could not be used anywhere in western Quebec. Federal government offices in Hull duplicated their entire allocation of multiple exchanges worth of numbers available in 613 as part of a "dual dialability" scheme.
By the turn of the century, both 613 and 819 were close to exhaustion due to Canada's inefficient number allocation system. Every competitive local exchange carrier received blocks of 10,000 numbers in every rate centre in which it planned to offer local service, no matter how small. A tiny unincorporated village received multiple 10,000-number blocks. Once a number is assigned to a rate centre and CLEC, it is unavailable for use elsewhere in cases when a rate centre has more numbers than it needs. Larger municipalities have multiple competing carriers in each. For instance though Ottawa has been a single municipality since merging with the Regional Municipality of Ottawa–Carleton in 2001, it still has 11 rate centres – most with similar local calling areas – which have never been amalgamated; the "Ottawa–Hull" exchange only covers the area, the city of Ottawa prior to the 2001 amalgamation, plus the former suburbs of Nepean and Vanier and small sections of other urban communities. Since Canada does not use number pooling as a relief measure, these factors resulted in thousands of wasted numbers.
The proliferation of cell phones and pagers in the larger cities in the 613 area only magnified the problem. By 2006, the only remaining unassigned exchange prefixes in the entire 819 region were numbers which could not be assigned to the Quebec side of the Ottawa–Hull area without breaking seven-digit dialling between Hull and Ottawa. Ten-digit dialling in 613 and 819 became mandatory on October 21, 2006. Intraprovincial calls from rate centres with no local calling beyond a small fragment of their own area code were returning intercept messages if dialled as seven digits. Exchange protection in the National Capital Region was ended, except for the "dual dialability" scheme for government numbers on both sides of the river. Within two years, it became apparent that a new area code was necessary due to the continued number allocation problem – an issue exacerbated by the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. A geographic split was ruled out. Local telephone companies did not want the expense and burden of changing existing customers' numbers, which would have required en masse reprogramming of cell phones.
As a result, overlay area codes were proposed for both 613 and 819. Area code 343, an overlay proposed in 2007 and approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on September 10, 2008, was activated for the region on May 17, 2010, several years earlier than anticipated. Area code 753 has been reserved as a third code to overlay 613/343 with no set date of implementation; the main incumbent local exchange carrier in 613 is Bell Canada, although there are some five independent companies serving rural exchanges—the Lansdowne Rural Telephone Company serving Lansdowne. Served by area code 613 and Bell Canada is Saint Regis, Quebec, a native reservation bordering Fort Covington, New York which straddles the Ontario–Québec–New York border. St. Regis – Fort Covington is a local call, despite
United Counties of Prescott and Russell
The United Counties of Prescott and Russell are consolidated counties located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its county seat is L'Orignal, it was created as a result of a merger between Russell County and Prescott County in 1820. It is located in Eastern Ontario, in the wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River 55 km east of the City of Ottawa. According to Statistics Canada, the county has a total area of 2,004.44 square kilometres. The United Counties are bordered by the Ontario/Quebec border to the east, the Ottawa River to the north, it is crossed by the South Nation River that connects the Larose Alfred Bog. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has designated the Alfred Bog "a provincially significant wetland and an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest." Species of interest include the palm warbler, northern pitcher-plant, pink lady's-slipper, bog elfin and bog copper butterflies, ebony boghaunter dragonfly. It hosts one of the most southerly herds of moose.
The bog is open to the public with a 272-metre boardwalk. Municipalities and townships with major unincorporated communities: Township of Alfred and Plantagenet Alfred Plantagenet Municipality of Casselman Township of Champlain L'Orignal Vankleek Hill City of Clarence-Rockland Rockland Bourget Township of East Hawkesbury Town of Hawkesbury Township of Russell Embrun Russell Municipality of The Nation Limoges St. Isidore Prescott County Alfred Caledonia East Hawkesbury Longueuil North Plantagenet South Plantagenet West Hawkesbury Russell County Cambridge Clarence Cumberland Russell Historic populations: Population in 1996: 74,013The median income for a household in the county is $52,664 and the median income for a family is $59,817. Males have an average income of $35,984 versus $25,917 for females. Prescott and Russell has a large Franco-Ontarian population, is the most francophone census division in Canada west of Quebec. In 2011 French was the sole mother tongue of 64.2% of its residents, an additional 1.7% reported being natively bilingual in French and English.
Responsibilities of the county government include social services, county roads, paramedic / ambulance services and land-use planning. The County operates the Prescott-Russell Residence, a home for the aged in Hawkesbury. There are many public libraries located in the county; the largest is the Hawkesbury Public Library, located in Hawkesbury. There are two hospitals in Prescott-Russell: Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, in Hawkesbury, the Glengarry Memorial Hospital, a rural hospital in Alexandria, Ontario. There is a medevac helicopter, in Ottawa, Ontario; the two hospitals have seen an increase in wait times due to an influx of patients from Quebec. The Government of Quebec has stalled efforts to build a second hospital in Western Quebec and it is not known when funding will be made available; the counties are served by numerous commuter bus lines running to Ottawa, which are operated by private contractors. The route numbers are part of the Rural Partners Transit Service of OC Transpo.
Communities served include Rockland, Bourget, Casselman and Embrun. Greyhound Canada buses between Ottawa and Montreal and Ottawa and Cornwall service communities in the counties; the county is policed by the Ontario Provincial Police. There are two main police stations in Russell. In addition, there is a police station in Rockland; the OPP is in charge of patrolling Highway 417. List of municipalities in Ontario List of townships in Ontario Prescott and Russell Recreational Trail St. Davids Official website for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell Official Facebook Page for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell Official Twitter Page for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell Official Instagram Page for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell Official YouTube Page for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell Official LinkedIn Page for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America part of the Province of Quebec since 1763. Upper Canada included all of modern-day Southern Ontario and all those areas of Northern Ontario in the Pays d'en Haut which had formed part of New France the watersheds of the Ottawa River or Lakes Huron and Superior, excluding any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay; the "upper" prefix in the name reflects its geographic position along the Great Lakes above the headwaters of the Saint Lawrence River, contrasted with Lower Canada to the northeast. It was the primary destination of Loyalist refugees and settlers from the United States after the American Revolution, who were granted land to settle in Upper Canada; the province was characterized by its British way of life, including bicameral parliament and civil and criminal law not mixed like in Lower Canada or elsewhere in the British Empire.
The division was created to ensure the exercise of the same rights and privileges enjoyed by loyal subjects elsewhere in the North American colonies. In 1812, war broke out between Great Britain and the United States, leading to several battles in Upper Canada; the US had hoped to capture Upper Canada. The government of the colony came to be dominated by a small group of persons, known as the "Family Compact", who held most of the top positions in the Legislative Council and appointed officials. In 1837, an unsuccessful rebellion attempted to overthrow the undemocratic system. Representative government would be established in the 1840s. Upper Canada existed from its establishment on 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 when it was united with adjacent Lower Canada to form the Province of Canada; as part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years' War global conflict and the French and Indian War in North America, Great Britain retained control over the former New France, defeated in the French and Indian War.
The British had won control after Fort Niagara had surrendered in 1759 and Montreal capitulated in 1760, the British under Robert Rogers took formal control of the Great Lakes region in 1760. Fort Michilimackinac was occupied by Roger's forces in 1761; the territories of contemporary southern Ontario and southern Quebec were maintained as the single Province of Quebec, as it had been under the French. From 1763 to 1791, the Province of Quebec maintained its French language, cultural behavioural expectations and laws; the British passed the Quebec Act in 1774, which expanded the Quebec colony's authority to include part of the Indian Reserve to the west, other western territories south of the Great Lakes including much of what would become the United States' Northwest Territory, including the modern states of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and parts of Minnesota. After the American War of Independence ended in 1783, Britain retained control of the area north of the Ohio River; the official boundaries remained undefined until the Jay Treaty.
The British authorities encouraged the movement of people to this area from the United States, offering free land to encourage population growth. For settlers, the head of the family received 100 acres and 50 acres per family member, soldiers received larger grants; these settlers are known as United Empire Loyalists and were English-speaking Protestants. The first townships along the St. Lawrence and eastern Lake Ontario were laid out in 1784, populated with decommissioned soldiers and their families."Upper Canada" became a political entity on 26 December 1791 with the Parliament of Great Britain's passage of the Constitutional Act of 1791. The act divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, but did not yet specify official borders for Upper Canada; the division was effected so that Loyalist American settlers and British immigrants in Upper Canada could have English laws and institutions, the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain French civil law and the Catholic religion.
The first lieutenant-governor was John Graves Simcoe. The 1795 Jay Treaty set the borders between British North America and the United States north to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. On 1 February 1796, the capital of Upper Canada was moved from Newark to York, judged to be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans; the Act of Union 1840, passed 23 July 1840 by the British Parliament and proclaimed by the Crown on 10 February 1841, merged Upper Canada with Lower Canada to form the short-lived United Province of Canada. Upper Canada's constitution was said to be "the image and transcript" of the British constitution, based on the principle of "mixed monarchy" – a balance of monarchy and democracy; the Executive arm of government in the colony consisted of a lieutenant-governor, his executive council, the Officers of the Crown: the Adjutant General of the Militia, the Attorney General, the Auditor General of Land Patents for Upper Canada, the Auditor General, Crown Lands Office, Indian Office, Inspector General, Kings' Printer, Provincial Secretary & Registrar's Office, Receiver General of Upper Canada, Solicitor General, & Surveyor General.
Armstrong, pp. 8–12 The Executive Council of Upper Canada had a similar function to the Cabinet in England but was not responsible to the Legislative Assembly. They held a consultative position, ho
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely southernmost region in Canada; the exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disputed. It covers between 14 and 15% of the province, depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts which lie in the transitional area between northern and southern forest regions. With more than 12.7 million people, the region is home to one-third of Canada's population of 35.1 million. Southern Ontario differs from Northern Ontario, in that it has a much larger population density, a different climate, a different culture than its northern counterpart, it is broken into smaller subregions, including Central Ontario, Georgian Triangle, Southwestern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe, Eastern Ontario. The core area of Southern Ontario is part of the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, which extends northeast into southern Quebec; the transitional northern area of this primary region extends north to the Mattawa River and occupies part of the Grenville Geological Province of the Canadian Shield which extends northeast into southern Quebec.
Southern Ontario can be distinguished from Northern Ontario because it is far more densely populated and contains the majority of the province's cities, major roads, institutions. Northern Ontario, in contrast, contains remote wilderness. Although it has no saltwater coastline, the region has an abundance of freshwater coastlines on three Great Lakes, as well as smaller lakes such as Lake Simcoe and Lake St. Clair, it is a major vineyard producer of Canadian wines. While Southern Ontario has been a part of the province of Ontario since its establishment at Confederation in 1867 forming the colony of Upper Canada, a large portion of Northern Ontario did not become part of Ontario until 1912. Territorial Southern Ontario was explored and colonized by the French in the 17th century, who forged relations with the Wyandot Huron people, based around the Georgian Bay/Lake Simcoe area. Other Iroquoian speaking people to the south were the Petun and Neutral Nation, further northeast, Algonquins inhabited the upper Ottawa River/Madawaska Valley areas and the Mississaugas moved south from northern Lake Huron, settling lands in both the Kawartha region and just west of Toronto.
Following the Seven Years' War, the British wrested control of Southern Ontario, greater colonization efforts were spurred on by the arrival of United Empire Loyalists brought on by the American Revolution. Southern Ontario was where a large portion of the battles took place during the War of 1812, was a major destination for escaping slaves using the underground railroad. Following the enactment of Prohibition in the United States in 1919, Southern Ontario became a hotbed of smuggling alcohol across the border. Southern Ontario is home to over 94%, or 12.1 million, of Ontario's total population of 12.9 million people, compared to 750,000 in Northern Ontario. This is due to many factors, including the more arable land in the south, its more moderate climate, well-used transportation routes, proximity to populated areas of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, as well as a long history of early European settlers and colonialism. For thousands of years, Ontario has been home to indigenous aboriginal communities, with numerous nations with differing languages at the time of European contact.
Over 200,000 aboriginal Canadians live in Southern Ontario today. Southern Ontario was colonized by the British. After the area began to be developed for European settlement after the American Revolutionary War, other European immigrants arrived as well, with increased immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the late 20th century, many immigrants have come from other parts of the world; the region is one of the top destinations for immigrants worldwide the Greater Toronto Area. The area has a large manufacturing sector. Since the mid-2000s, Ontario has produced more vehicles per year than the state of Michigan. In a cross-border definition, a swath of Southern Ontario could be considered a part of the Rust Belt. Factory closings because of industry restructuring, globalization have for the past few decades taken their toll; this is most evident in the region's southern tier cities which have large automobile or associated industrial bases, such as Windsor, London, St. Thomas and St. Catharines.
Still affected by these factors but to a lesser extent is Hamilton, the centre of steel production, Sarnia, the centre of petrochemical production. The province's two largest cities and Ottawa, have moved to a service and knowledge economy, although Toronto still has a strong industrial presence spread over wide areas along its rail and highway corridors as well as a container port linking it to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Toronto, the largest city of the province, is the site of all of the major Canadian banks and its heart has the country's financial sector, including the Toronto Stock Exchange. Ottawa, the national capital, has an economy, dependent on the public sector, in addition to having a strong technology sector; some parts of Southern Ontario are heavil
National Capital Region (Canada)
The National Capital Region referred to as Canada's Capital Region and Ottawa–Gatineau, is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, the neighbouring city of Gatineau and surrounding urban and rural communities. The term National Capital Region is used to describe the Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area, although the official boundaries of the NCR do not correspond to the statistical metropolitan area. Unlike capital districts in some other federal countries, such as the District of Columbia in the United States or the Australian Capital Territory in Australia, the National Capital Region is not a separate political or administrative entity, its component parts are within the provinces of Quebec. Defined by the National Capital Act, the National Capital Region consists of an area of 4,715 km2 that straddles the Ottawa River, which serves as the boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec; this area is smaller than that of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area, 6,287 km2 in size.
Ottawa–Gatineau is the only CMA in the nation to fall within two provinces. The European first settlement in the region was led by Philemon Wright, a New Englander from Woburn, Massachusetts who, on March 7, 1800, arrived with his own and five other families along with twenty-five labourers to start an agricultural community on the north bank of the Ottawa River at the portage to the Chaudière Falls. Ottawa is located in the sub-region of Southern Ontario called Eastern Ontario. Gatineau is located in southwestern Quebec. Although overall Ontario is west of Quebec, the boundary in this region is situated in such a way that Gatineau is north of Ottawa, northwest of the city centre; the National Capital region is situated close to where the Canadian shield and the Saint Lawrence Lowlands intersect. The area has several major fault lines and small earthquakes do occur somewhat including the 2010 Central Canada earthquake that occurred in Quebec; the Gatineau Hills located in the region. They supply great snowboarding opportunities within minutes of the city.
The National Capital Commission is a corporation, established by the federal government in 1959 to oversee federal buildings and land in the federally designated National Capital Region. Although the NCR is not a separate political jurisdiction, the NCC has a mandate and mission to build the NCR into a source of pride and unity for Canadians through involvement in political and land use planning matters that are powers reserved for the provincial government under the Constitution of Canada. In the Supreme Court of Canada case of Munro v. National Capital Commission, it was decided the NCC had the power to be involved in matters relating to zoning in the NCR. In 2006, the NCC completed work on the long-discussed Confederation Boulevard, a ceremonial route linking key attractions in the NCR on both sides of the Ottawa River; the NCC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Heritage Mélanie Joly, is governed by the National Capital Act. Its headquarters are in the Chambers Building between Queen and Sparks Streets.
The NCR has numerous attractions, including world-famous festivals, national museums, famous buildings and architecture and entertainment. Ottawa has some of the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture in North America; the annual music festival Bluesfest, the world-renowned winter festival Winterlude, the Canadian Tulip Festival, Capital Pride, RCMP musical ride, Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival, Buskers festival, the biggest Canada Day celebrations in the Nation. Ottawa and Gatineau have a number of national museums; the most prominent museums are the Canadian Museum of History, Canadian War Museum, Canadian Museum of Nature, Canada Science and Technology Museum, National Art Gallery, Canada Aviation Museum. Some of the region's most famous buildings are the Parliament Hill, the Prime Minister's home 24 Sussex Drive, the Governor General's home Rideau Hall, the Canadian Museum of History, the National Gallery of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mint, the American Embassy and the National Library.
There are 29 National Historic Sites of Canada within the National Capital Region: 25 sites are located in Ottawa, with the Former Almonte Post Office and Rosamond Woollen Mill in Almonte, the Gillies Grove and House in Arnprior, the Manoir Papineau in Montebello and the Symmes Hotel in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau. The National Capital Region has many sports teams; the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League play in the City of Ottawa's western suburban community of Kanata. The Ottawa Redblacks are members of the Canadian Football League. Ottawa is home to a successful Ontario Hockey League club, the Ottawa 67's. Gatineau is home to the Gatineau Olympiques; the Ottawa area has three universities, two of which, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, compete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The Carleton Ravens are nationally ranked No. 1 in basketball, the Ottawa Gee-Gees are nationally ranked in football and basketball. Algonquin College has won numerous national championships.
During the decade of the 1990-2000, Ottawa was home to several successful tech companies, including Nortel Networks, JDS Uniphase and Newbridge Networks. High-tech employment had doubled in five years to reach 80,000 by 2001. With Nortel failing to meet high earnings expectations and layoffs starting in 2002, the company started to decline, a devastating shock to the tech industry in Ottawa. Others described it as an
Ottawa River
The Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it defines the border between these two provinces, it is a major tributary of the St. Lawrence River; the river rises at Lac des Outaouais, north of the Laurentian Mountains of central Quebec, flows west to Lake Timiskaming. From there its route has been used to define the interprovincial border with Ontario; the river reaches great depths of nearly 460 feet in some places. From Lake Timiskaming, the river flows southeast to Ottawa and Gatineau, where it tumbles over Chaudière Falls and further takes in the Rideau and Gatineau rivers; the Ottawa River drains into the Lake of the St. Lawrence River at Montreal; the river is 1,271 kilometres long. The average annual mean waterflow measured at Carillon dam, near the Lake of Two Mountains, is 1,939 cubic metres per second, with average annual extremes of 749 to 5,351 cubic metres per second. Record historic levels since 1964 are a low of 529 cubic metres per second in 2005 and a high of 8,190 cubic metres per second in 1976.
The river flows through large areas of deciduous and coniferous forest formed over thousands of years as trees recolonized the Ottawa Valley after the ice age. The coniferous forests and blueberry bogs occur on old sand plains left by retreating glaciers, or in wetter areas with clay substrate; the deciduous forests, dominated by birch, beech and ash occur in more mesic areas with better soil around the boundary with the La Varendrye Park. These primeval forests were affected by natural fire started by lightning, which led to increased reproduction by pine and oak, as well as fire barrens and their associated species; the vast areas of pine were exploited by early loggers. Generations of logging removed hemlock for use in tanning leather, leaving a permanent deficit of hemlock in most forests. Associated with the logging and early settlement were vast wild fires which not only removed the forests, but led to soil erosion. Nearly all the forests show varying degrees of human disturbance. Tracts of older forest are uncommon, hence they are considered of considerable importance for conservation.
The Ottawa River has large areas of wetlands. Some of the more biologically important wetland areas include, the Westmeath sand dune/wetland complex, Mississippi Snye, Breckenridge Nature Reserve, Shirleys Bay, Ottawa Beach/Andrew Haydon Park, Petrie Island, the Duck Islands and Greens Creek; the Westmeath sand dune/wetland complex is significant for its pristine sand dunes, few of which remain along the Ottawa River, the many associated rare plants. Shirleys Bay has a biologically diverse shoreline alvar, as well as one of the largest silver maple swamps along the river. Like all wetlands, these depend upon the seasonal fluctuations in the water level. High water levels help create and maintain silver maple swamps, while low water periods allow many rare wetland plants to grow on the emerged sand and clay flats. There are five principal wetland vegetation types. One is swamp silver maple. There are four herbaceous vegetation types, named for the dominant plant species in them: Scirpus, Eleocharis and Typha.
Which type occurs in a particular location depends upon factors such as substrate type, water depth, ice-scour and fertility. Inland, south of the river, older river channels, which date back to the end of the ice age, no longer have flowing water, have sometimes filled with a different wetland type, peat bog. Examples include Alfred Bog. Major tributaries include: Communities along the Ottawa River include: The Ottawa River lies in the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, a Mesozoic rift valley that formed 175 million years ago. Much of the river flows through the Canadian Shield, although lower areas flow through limestone plains and glacial deposits; as the glacial ice sheet began to retreat at the end of the last ice age, the Ottawa River valley, along with the St. Lawrence River valley and Lake Champlain, had been depressed to below sea level by the glacier's weight, filled with sea water; the resulting arm of the ocean is known as the Champlain Sea. Fossil remains of marine life dating 12 to 10 thousand years ago have been found in marine clay throughout the region.
Sand deposits from this era have produced vast plains dominated by pine forests, as well as localized areas of sand dunes, such as Westmeath and Constance Bay. Clay deposits from this period have resulted in areas of poor drainage, large swamps, peat bogs in some ancient channels of this river. Hence, the distribution of forests and wetlands is much a product of these past glacial events. Large deposits of a material known as Leda clay formed; these deposits become unstable after heavy rains. Numerous landslides have occurred as a result; the former site of the town of Lemieux, Ontario collapsed into the South Nation River in 1993. The town's residents had been relocated because of the suspected instability of the earth in that location; as the land rose again the sea coast retreated and the fresh water courses of today took shape. Following the demise of the Champlain Sea the Ottawa River Valley continued to drain the waters of the emerging Upper Great Lakes basin through Lake Nipissing and the Mattawa River.
Owing to the ongoing uplift of the la
Canada
Ontario
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Subdivisions of Ontario
