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will be within a half-hour’s drive for 34
million Canadians.
Once the existing infrastructure was
delineated, the real work began—flling
in the gaps, many of which are hundreds
of kilometers long and run through the
most difcult and sparsely populated ter-
rain. Tese gaps are also the most expen-
sive to build, so the national organiza-
tion has increasingly focused its eforts
on fundraising.
“Now we need to bring in the dollars,”
says TCT National Program Manager
Jane Murphy. She points to Alberta, where
more than half of the trail is completed.
Finishing the trail, however, will cost about
$40 million because much of the remain-
ing work is through the Rocky Mountains.
Te Canadian government has long
been the trail’s major fnancial supporter.
Parks Canada recently granted $10 mil-
lion toward completion of the trail; the
TCT organization relays those funds
directly to local groups to plan and build
their sections.
Carl Knoch, manager of trail develop-
ment for Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s
Northeast Regional Ofce, has followed
the progress of the TCT for the past few
years. He says the Canadian government’s
enthusiastic and direct fnancial support
of the project is a substantial advantage.
“We have federal funding for trails in
the United States, but it goes to the state
departments of transportation frst,” he
says. Management of the funds varies
from state to state.
Some of Canada’s largest corporations
have also supported the project, includ-
ing Te Globe and Mail, the Royal Bank
of Canada and the nationwide grocery
store chain Loblaws. In its Boots Across
Canada campaign in 2009, Keen Canada
donated $5 to the TCT for each upload-
ed photo of Keen boots on a trail; the
campaign raised more than $28,000.
Te national TCT organization has
focused on building the trail’s brand to
attract individual contributions. “We try
to promote the emotional component
of the trail, the sheer magnitude of the
efort, the inspiration of what we’re try-
ing to accomplish and the idea that being
involved with the trail makes you feel
more Canadian,” says Murphy.
business leaders hailed the TCT as “his-
toric,” a “lasting legacy,” a “celebration of
Canadian values,” and a “magnifcent gift
from Canadians to Canadians.”
Building the trail has been a uniquely
Canadian experience, a collaboration of
efort at all levels, from the federal govern-
ment to the 13 provinces and territories,
from national organizations to local groups,
and from businesses to individuals. And
now their ambitious goal is nearly at hand.
Filling in the Gaps
When the national TCT organization
was founded approximately 20 years
ago, the group faced a hugely daunting
task—funding, designing and building a
trail across more than 20,000 kilometers
of some of the harshest terrain on the
globe—and in just 25 years.
Tere were some advantages. Canada
already had a large number of world-
class trails, with such colorful names
as the Ceilidh Coastal Trail, Sentier
Gabrielle-Roy, the Itijjagiaq Trail and the
Confederation Trail. Te national organi-
zation merely needed to catalog the exist-
ing inventory and determine which trails
would be linked into the TCT.
Te TCT was never envisioned to be
the shortest line from coast to coast to
coast. Instead, it was designed to con-
nect as many communities as possible.
It wends and winds its way across the
nation and incorporates numerous spurs
and branches. When completed, the TCT
When completed, the Trans Canada Trail
(TCT) will stretch 13,500 miles across
Canada. Here, part of the TCT route heads
toward the Little Tunnel on the Kettle
Valley Rail Trail in Okanagan, British
Columbia.
Bruce Obee (2)
Crossing a trestle in Myra Canyon on the
Kettle Valley Rail Trail.