The site is a popular tourist location that also offers mooring places, picnic tables, boat launch, and park land.

Other merchants, opposing the unfair practice, petitioned the government to build a public lock at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.

Soon after it opened, it was used by many people travelling upstream to settle in Upper Canada, and it attracted a large amount of commercial traffic.

Following the recommendations of the Canals Commission in 1870, a second lock was built directly east and parallel to the first one, with work completed in 1882.

In the 1960s, a period of modernization saw the removal of many old service buildings, such as the toll collector’s residence and office, smithy, carpentry shop, storehouse, and tool shed.

[3][4] In 1972, the canal, locks, and banks were designated a National Historic Site and came under the jurisdiction of Parks Canada.