Ottawa Ontario - Indigenous reconciliation was at the forefront of an announcement along the Ottawa River on Monday confirming $8.6 million in federal funding to help transform an old rail bridge into a unique interprovincial pathway.
 
The Chief William Commanda Bridge (previously called the Prince of Wales Bridge) is expected to be ready for pedestrians and cyclists sometime next year.
 
The pathway will be installed on the bridge deck and connect to the National Capital Commission pathways along the river.
 
Ottawa city council made the name change official earlier this month, voting in favour of honouring the late Algonquin elder while also supporting the $22.6 million project.
 
Council is also requiring the winning construction contractor to consult with Algonquin communities about hiring indigenous companies and workers for the project.
 
With the backdrop of the bridge, elected leaders gathered off Onigam Street near Lemieux Island to celebrate the federal funding and change in the bridge's name.
 
Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Grand Chief John Boudrias said, "there's no more need than the time right now for reconciliation and these types of gestures are the first steps in reconciliation."
 
Boudrias drew a comparison between restoring a bridge and working toward reconciliation.
 
"We have to reconstruct those bridges of reconciliation, and make things new again, and make the two sides of the bridges work together again."
 
At the same time, Dylan Whiteduck, chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, called on the federal government to rename the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in response to the role Canada's first prime minister played in creating the residential school system.
 
The National Capital Commission operates the road along the Ottawa River.
 
Some members of city council have been pressing the federal government to change the name of the parkway.
 
"In this time of reconciliation, the era we're entering into, it just doesn't make sense that we support a name like this on a parkway like this," Whiteduck said.
 
Whiteduck said he hopes the refurbished Chief William Commanda Bridge includes vibrant colours, not just the drab browns in the preliminary renderings.
 
The city stole the feds' thunder when it confirmed the upper-government funding as part of a project update to council at the beginning of July.
 
The funding announcement was originally scheduled to happen on National Indigenous Peoples Day in June but was cancelled at the last minute, a 26-year-old man died that previous weekend after jumping into the river from the closed bridge.
 
Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna said the bridge funding might be her last announcement in the capital.
 
McKenna revealed last month that she won't seek re-election.
 
Her riding of Ottawa Centre includes the part of the bridge.
 
It was also one of the last times Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin participates in an official event in Ottawa.
 
He's not seeking re-election in the fall municipal election.
 
The City of Gatineau isn't contributing money to the bridge transformation.
 
Pedneau-Jobin said he liked those kinds of funding announcements, quipping, "I celebrate the thing and they pay for everything else."
 
Jon Willing.