Water park developer Guy Drouin. (Photo by Etienne Ranger)

The developer behind what would be Canada's largest water park has had to make a change to the park's name, following public complaints over language.

Le Groupe Village Vacances Valcartier said yesterday that it is officially changing the name its $50-million Sunnyland recreation-tourism complex to Calypso Park.

"We became aware of the comments concerning the linguistic concerns of the region's residents on the choice of Sunnyland and we decided to change it to a bilingual name," said Valcartier general manager Guy Drouin in a statement, adding that the decision stems from consultations that have taken place since Jan. 8.

The 460-acre park will be built near Russell Township, about 35 minutes east of Ottawa, where there is already a huge debate about enacting a new bylaw to replace English-only signs with bilingual ones.

"As a major recreation-tourism destination, we feel confident that this change will help make Calypso Park a source of pride for citizens of the greater region of Prescott and Russell. Also, as a result of its strategic geographic location between Ottawa and Montreal, Calypso Park will become the greatest water park in Canada," Mr. Drouin said.

This isn't the first challenge for the development: Calypso Park, which could be completed as early as June 2009, will also be facing off against a competing $30-million water park, ProSlide Technologies's Alottawata project. It will be built on a 100-acre site off Highway 416 on the southwest edge of Ottawa and is also set to open in the spring of 2009.

Calypso Park will offer more than 35 slides, an adventure river, a 40,000-square-foot wave pool, and more than 100 water games, as well as several restaurants, terraces and furnished picnic areas, Valcartier said.

Mr. Drouin said deforestation on the project area has already been completed and the developer will begin excavation on the site in a few days, with full construction to begin in the spring.

The project, which is expected to cost $50 million over a 10-year period, has received $2 million from the province. The first phase of the development is said to require $30 million in investments.

Calypso is anticipated to bring in more than $750 million in regional economic benefits over the first decade of operations, along with 550 seasonal full-time jobs and generate tax revenues for all levels of government.