The life of the rivers – Rivière des Prairies | The small ferry on the Rivière des Prairies

All summer, The Press takes you across Quebec telling you about the life of the rivers. Human, scientific or historical stories that all have a river as their tie. This week: the great story of a small, century-old ecological ferry.

(Laval) Vitalien Bigras had no idea that by stretching a cable over the Rivière des Prairies between Île Bizard and Île Jésus, 120 years ago this year, he was inaugurating one of the greenest on the planet.

Even today, a small ferry – six vehicles maximum – continues to make the round trip all summer long to the same place, pushed only by the force of the current. The small engine humming on deck serves only to operate the ship’s internal systems.

Every day, it makes “hundreds of sleepers”, from dawn until midnight, explains Marc Guillemette, its current owner, sitting in the pilot’s seat. “I don’t know where the world is coming from! His employee Pierre Nadeau signals to the cars to come forward on the ferry deck and collects the tickets. “On beautiful summer days, the world envies my job,” he explains. When it wets, well less! »

Paul II – that’s the name of the ship – has been cruising between the two shores since 1987, but it is the heir to a long tradition that dates back to before Vitalien Bigras and his cable. Historians have been able to establish that ferries have been used to cross the river between Île Jésus and Île Bizard since at least the beginning of the 19th century.^e century.

Mr. Bigras himself had inherited the charge by marrying the widow of the previous smuggler, Zénon Clément, “probably” died by falling into the river, explains the Historical Society of Île Bizard. Enough to convince him to tie up his ferry.

Marc Guillemette points to a tip of Île Bizard, downstream. This is where, in the 1970s, the Quebec Ministry of Transport had planned to erect a bridge that would have made its service completely obsolete: “Everything is ready, they expropriated land, they demolished houses. This eventuality worried him when he acquired the company in 2005, but the project never came back to life.

Delayed departure

Mr. Guillemette and his team have opened the season particularly late this year, with a first crossing on May 16. Until then, the water level – and therefore the strength of the current – ​​was too high. The man sticks his head out of his cockpit and points to the banks of the river: until recently, the river covered the rocks and prevented the installation of docks.

Some were stamping impatiently watching the launch of the service on social networks. “We even came to see two or three times”, explains a passenger.

Because service has its followers.

“It’s been many, many years [que je le prends]. More than 30 years,” explains Ed, a motorist who lives on Île Bizard.

Lise Sabourin has been taking the ferry for 40 years. This morning, she is heading to her son’s home in Deux-Montagnes. “I love it, it’s relaxing,” she explained. It saves me 10 minutes. »

But Marc Guillemette did not want to rush the spring inauguration. Her Paul II is at the total mercy of the current.

“We are attached and we don’t have a steering wheel,” he recalled. No brake either, except to move the rudder to slow down. “We have to watch if there is someone coming. We have priority, but it is not respected. »

In 2015, a boater died in the river after his zodiac collided with the ferry. On June 29, 1969, three people – a mother, a pregnant woman and a priest – drowned after their disabled boat hit the ferry. “Once he’s gone, he doesn’t stop! “, explained the smuggler at the time, Fernand Bolduc, to the newspaper The homeland.

“I grew up on the river”

How do you become the owner of a sleeper more than a hundred years old? “I grew up on the Rivière des Prairies, in Laval, not far from Highway 15. I know it very well, the Rivière des Prairies,” explained Mr. Guillemette, while operating his boat. “I was looking for a marina or a campsite. And I’m done with that. »

Since then, the man has operated his business casually. Cash only: $6 per car, $2 per bike. How many passes in a year?

First come, first served, no privileges for those in a hurry. When a piece of the boat wears out, “you cut and replace”.

The boat continues its eternal coming and going for a hundred meters, like a lion in a cage. THE Paul II is surely the least adventurous ship on the planet, confined to a few tens of meters of travel in the summer and to a hangar in the winter.

On its bridge, luxury cars follow one another: it connects two opulent sectors, Laval-sur-le-Lac and L’Île-Bizard, where there are several golf courses: Mercedes, Audis, a Bentley and… many of Tesla.

“You can often have trips of four Teslas. Before, it was four Mercedes, now it’s four Teslas. »

He also sees more and more electric bikes. Samuel Laganière, executive chef at the Saint-Raphaël Golf Club, was able to save a few drops of sweat on his trip from Saint-Eustache early that morning. He may not leave his kitchens until 9 or 10 p.m.

Marc Guillemette would like to imitate them and convert to electric. His boat, at least. “One day it’s going to be electric,” he says, referring to the small gasoline engine that powers the ship’s internal systems. It’s coming, he swears.