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The mayor of Montreal says his constituents will be able to plunge into the St. Lawrence River in the Old Port by the summer of 2017, just in time for the city’s 375th anniversary.

“Like other great North American cities, Montreal only recently became aware of the need to give residents more access to its shorelines,” Denis Coderre said on Friday. “We must step up efforts to correct earlier mistakes of turning our backs to the water.”

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The creation of a “harbour bath” — similar to those in Sydney, Australia, and Copenhagen — is among a host of initiatives included in an ambitious municipal waterways plan, unveiled on Friday morning at city hall. In addition to the harbour bath installation — near the Old Port clock tower — which will be fed directly from the river, but cordoned off by barriers to prevent swimmers from being swept out, the city is planning to open a stretch of swimmable shoreline in Verdun within the next two years. An “Eastern Beach,” in Rivière-des-Prairies—Pointe-aux-Trembles, is also scheduled to open by summer 2017, and is set to include a chalet, a promenade and water sports facilities. Smaller-scale upgrades and program subsidies across the island in the coming years will help encourage paddling, diving, surfing and other water sports, Coderre said.