That's the job of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., which went through a four-year CCTV upgrade to IP video along the Welland Canal section of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Cameras play a role in how it operates to ensure public safety, as well as the safety of employees who work on the structures and the vessels that move through the system. The canal, which is 27 miles long and connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, consists of eight giant locks, which lift ships 326 feet between the two lakes.

"We have a lot of property, and we have a lot of responsibility for public safety along our canals, especially around our vertical lift bridges," says Robert Killick, corporate operating technology integration specialist with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. The bridges are remotely controlled, with no one around for miles, so remote surveillance is imperative for the safe operation of the lochs, for shipping and for the public.

"Take a train crossing. CN's eyes are closed. The bells go ding-ding, down come the traffic gates and zoom goes the train. If you're there, you're squashed," he says. "We haven't taken that approach. We believe we have a responsibility and accountability for public safety." The public, for example, has the ability to drive a car across a bridge or walk around on it.

"We certainly do have our share of incidents," says Killick. "Cameras and archive video often play an important part in reviewing what happened, getting to the root cause. Having cameras in place has assisted us in managing through incidents, because incidents do happen, whether it's an operating incident or a security incident where somebody is somewhere they shouldn't be."