My name is Sam Austin I'm the counsellor for District 5 Dartmouth Center, kind of dead center in the city of lakes and you know as counsellor I get lots of people who provide me feedback about what the lakes mean to them you know is whether it's swimming whether it's paddling whether it's skating in the winter although in an era of climate change that seems to be a little bit less these days. But I'll say for me and my own family we very much appreciate the value of the lakes, my daughters have basically learned to swim across a cross just across from us at Lake Banook and they've learned to paddle there and the anecdote I get and you know you just kind of come at it from the perspective of a parent. You're up there on the balcony looking down and they were short what they had if kiddie canoe that morning was full to the brim and so my oldest one had to double up with my younger one so it's the 7 year old and the 4 year old and they're in the double kayak together and they're taking turns paddling and it's just this lovely family moment and all possible because we've got this great recreational resource right here in the middle of the city it's kind of like everyone in Dartmouth has a cottage and it's just out the front door.

And so I think that's really remarkable and all all the worthwhile protecting well the collective story of Dartmouth is very much the city of lakes I mean it's hard to imagine Dartmouth without Lake Banook, I mean the other lakes matter as well but I mean this this lake system is so part and parcel of this place and it's not just the paddling community. The reason Dartmouth is here is because we had this lake and the river outlet coming into the harbour where they built the sawmill and then later on it's the Shubin a kadhi canal and then it's Star manufacturing and Star manufacturing part of why it was there is because 30 some odd years before there was electricity in Dartmouth they could run machinery there through the force of water and then you fast-forward and you have the glory days of paddling and everything and all that that has brought to our community in terms of culture it is so interwoven in how this place is developed and what it is now that you really can't separate the two they matter so much!