Petawawa on one page

The town in its present form dates from July 1, 1997, and it is the most populous municipality in Renfrew County. The name is commonly explained as coming from an Algonquin word for the sound of the river's water — a fitting name for a place organised around two rivers. The municipal office is the Town of Petawawa Municipal Office, 1111 Victoria Street, the address the Town itself publishes for its council chambers and its business advisory services.

Petawawa's governing count is 18,160 residents (Statistics Canada, 2021 Census, for the Town of Petawawa census subdivision). Higher figures in circulation describe other things — later estimates, or the wide Ottawa Valley catchment the town serves — and the lower one describes the population centre inside the town; none of them is the town's census count.

A garrison town, and proud of it

The military presence is not background in Petawawa; it is the town's largest employer and a large part of its identity. Garrison Petawawa has trained soldiers here since the early twentieth century, and the Town's own community profile describes the partnership between the municipality and the garrison as central to the local economy. Families arrive on postings, stay for a few years or a whole career, and the town's schools, rinks and businesses turn over with the posting cycle.

For visitors, the garrison's public face is its museum: the Garrison Petawawa Military Museum (63 Colborne Road) holds the garrison's collection, with material reaching back to 1905, alongside the Canadian Airborne Forces and Canadian Guards collections. Because the museum sits inside a working garrison with controlled access points, check the museum's own surface and call ahead before you go — this guide freezes no garrison access rule and no museum hours, because both are the garrison's to set and both change.

Two rivers and a park gate

The geography is the recreation. The Petawawa River drops out of Algonquin Park and meets the Ottawa River at Petawawa Point, where the town's beach looks across the water to the Laurentian hills on the Québec side. Inside the town boundary, Petawawa Terrace Provincial Park protects a terraced stretch of the Ottawa shore with a self-guided interpretive trail, bird habitat and river views — a provincial park you can reach on town streets. The Emerald Necklace trail system links the town's natural pieces together; its first phase, the Millennium Trail, is a paved walkway of about two kilometres along the Petawawa River, lined with storyboards telling local history.

Through the middle of town runs the Algonquin Trail, the converted rail corridor that carries walkers and cyclists in town and connects outward to the county's trail network, with seasonal motorised use under the Town's and the trail organisations' rules. And west of town, the roads into Algonquin Provincial Park's east side — the Sand Lake Gate and Achray country — make Petawawa the last full-service stop before the park. Park permits and park rules are Ontario Parks' to publish; this guide freezes none of them.

The civic core on Civic Centre Road

Much of the town's everyday life concentrates on one road. The Petawawa Civic Centre (16 Civic Centre Road) holds the arena, and the Petawawa Public Library shares the same address — the library publishes its own hours and programs on its own surface. Next door at 176 Civic Centre Road, the Petawawa Heritage Village, a non-profit living-history site, keeps the settlement-era story: its collections focus on the area's German founding families and reach back to the First Nations histories of the valley, and it runs tours and artisan markets in season. Civic Centre Park, beside the centre, hosts the Petawawa Container Market — the town's market in converted shipping containers — on Friday evenings and Saturdays through the warm season, with the exact season dates on the Town's events surface.

Petawawa votes in Ontario's municipal election on Monday, October 26, 2026. The Town's certified list (Form EL07, August 24, 2026) puts two candidates for mayor — Wayne Bando and Gary Serviss, one to be elected — and ten candidates for six councillor seats. Voting is by internet and telephone from Friday, October 16 at 10:00 a.m. to Monday, October 26 at 8:00 p.m.; in-person voting help runs on Advance Voting Day, Saturday, October 17, and on Voting Day itself, both in Council Chambers at 1111 Victoria Street. The Town of Petawawa's official Municipal Election 2026 page on petawawa.ca governs — check it for the full certified list, including school-board trustees, and for how to get on the voters' list.

Common questions

More to explore in Petawawa