Shipping season begins today with opening of Welland Canal

The tell-tale sign of spring for residents in the Niagara region is the opening of the Welland Canal.

Community members marked this special occasion and the start of shipping season Thursday morning with the Port Colborne Top Hat Ceremony.

St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik said this annual event is a reminder of how vital the Welland Canal is to the economy.

“We lose sight of how many goods circulate through the Great Lakes,” Sendzik said in an interview on Morning Live Thursday.

“It’s a tremendous amount of goods that circulate and create a lot of jobs. This is an opportunity for us today to put on the top hat and say the canals are open, but at the same time, reflect on the importance of the system for our economy.”

The Top Hat Ceremony began in Port Colborne in the early 1970s under Mayor John Buscarino.

Each year, a top hat is presented to the captain of the first downbound vessel. The beaver-felt fur hat has been loaned from the Port Colborne and Historical Museum since 1999.

The captain was also presented with a silk tuxedo scarf bearing the Canada 150 logo.

After the ceremony, the top hat is stored in an acid-free box in the Captain John W. Sharpe Heritage Resource Centre, a climate-controlled building that was built in 1995 to house over 17,000 artifacts and archives.

The present Welland Canal is the fourth canal to be built and was officially opened on Aug. 6, 1932.