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Climbers reject NCC responseOttawa area climbers have voted against the NCC response to their climbing management plan, according to Ontario Climbing: In March 2010, the National Capital Commission (NCC) released a land management plan for Gatineau Park which restricts climbing to the Western CWM west (North wall to Cave wall), Home Cliff west, Twin Ribs and Eastern Block. The NCC moved forward by installing No-Access signs, in late May at the majority of the climbing sites recognized in the previous access agreement. In addition, access to the Shrine parking lot on Chemin de la Montagne was removed. To address the closures the Ottawa-Gatineau Climbers' Access Coalition (OGCAC) submitted a climbing management plan to the NCC. The scope of the plan was created to meet the ecological concerns raised by the NCC while maintaining access to climbing on the Eardley escarpment. This plan was endorsed by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Unfortunately, the NCC largely rejected the plan. On August 17, the OGCAC members gathered to vote on how to move forward. It was decided not to endorse the NCC response and that the OGCAC will maintain its position outlined in the management plan. Sadly, the limited success in securing climbing access in the park puts 60 years of Gatineau climbing at a crossroads. Documentation related to the climbing dispute, including the NCC response to the climber management plan are available at the climber coalition site.
Ontario Climbing: Climbing Access in Gatineau Park Update [19 August 2010] Just like the NCCEverybody knew that whatever the NCC came up with would be lame; the question was how lame. So: "Just like you". Kelly McParland comments in the National Post: What is it with Ottawa and its desperate need to find a slogan that city poobahs hope will convince Canadians it's more than just a boring place filled with politicians, bureaucrats and museums? In a big announcement that almost no one paid attention to, the National Capital Commission revealed on Wednesday that it spent $102,500 coming up with yet another slogan. Wanna hear it? OK, wait for it ... "Just like you". Yup, that's it. Ottawa, just like you. What's it mean? God knows. Only a city jammed with civil servants would consider it a good idea to spend $102,500 to "research, develop and test the concept" of a lame-ass slogan like "Just like you." Apparently it costs that much to discover that people think "Just like you" is catchier than "The Capital of being Canadian" and "Where Canadian stories live", two other equally lame possibilities that were considered. [...]Grow up folks. Slogans only work for cities that already have an image in the public imagination. The slogan has to catch that image, it can't create it. Continually blowing money in the hope that some ad campaign will magically transform boring Ottawa into a sexy tourist destination is just a sign of rampant civic insecurity. And a waste of money, to boot. Actually, we have to concede that its very meaninglessness makes "Just like you" less lame than the other two painfully earnest and truly astoundingly lame slogans that were apparently in contention, though the mind boggles. So way to go NCC!
National Post: Ottawa, lame like you [2 July 2010] NCC wants to design transit stationsScant weeks after the Citizen revealed the NCC was blocking the LRT tunnel on the pretext of heritage, the NCC is now offering its mad design skillz to the city for the transit stations. From the Citizen: The National Capital Commission wants to team up with the city on some of the creative design for Ottawa's light-rail transit stations. NCC chief executive Marie Lemay has asked Mayor Larry O'Brien if the city would be interested. Lemay is still coming up with the possibilities, but mentioned a potential design competition or showcase involving each of the country's provinces and territories. [...]The two sides would have to discuss the idea further if the city's interested, Lemay said, adding the NCC's involvement wouldn't include additional financial help. The federal and provincial governments have each already committed $600 million to the project. "At this point, what I'm talking about is more expertise and maybe being able to engage Canadians in this wonderful project," Lemay said. In the past year alone, the NCC has refused to commit to allowing light rail along the parkway, balked at shuttle services on Queen Elizabeth Drive, and refused to grant approval for the LRT tunnel under the Rideau Canal. But they would like to inflict their bland, patronizing design on the transit stations. Ottawa Citizen: NCC wants to help design Ottawa's LRT stations [29 June 2010] NCC blocks canal LRT tunnelThe city's LRT plans hit more snags in the multi-layered federal bureaucracy. From the Citizen: The city's plan for a light-rail tunnel underneath the Rideau Canal has hit a heritage speed bump that could further complicate the biggest infrastructure project in Ottawa's history. According to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, a year of active talks between the city and Parks Canada over the placement of a tunnel have ended fruitlessly, at least partly because federal authorities want to keep a say over the design and placement of a new rail station near the National War Memorial. The city's plans for a $2.1-billion new light-rail system, see a tunnel to be built 30 to 35 metres beneath the surface when it passes under the canal. By refusing to grant the city approval to run the tunnel underneath the canal, the National Capital Commission and Parks Canada maintain leverage in influencing what nearby Rideau Station will eventually look like. The concerns about the Rideau Canal are the latest stumbling block federal departments and agencies have created for the city's attempts to bring light rail to Ottawa. The NCC has also yet to make any commitments to let the city use land it is counting on. Ottawa Citizen: Plans for canal tunnel stalled [3 June 2010] Greenbelt grievancesThe Citizen has a three-part series on farming in the greenbelt, highlighting typical problems experienced by anyone who is a tenant of the NCC: Behind one of the barns on Eliane Michèle Crematy's farm on Ramsayville Road is the rusted carcass of a Ford truck. The windows are smashed, the vinyl seats are slashed and the white paint has turned grey with time. A Manitoba maple tree and other weeds threaten to swallow the truck whole with their foliage. This isn't Crematy's truck, but it's been there since the day she moved onto the farm almost two years ago. She has asked the National Capital Commission - her landlord - to remove the truck, yet here it remains. "It's just so hard to get somebody here to say, 'Yes, you're right, we're going to fix this,' and take action," Crematy says, letting out a long sigh. [...]Today, the NCC owns more than 60 farms, leased to tenants like Crematy through a third-party property management company. [...]On the other side of the Greenbelt, near Shirleys Bay, David Burnford grows organic vegetables on about two hectares of land. He says the line between what regular maintenance he's responsible for as a tenant and what tasks should fall to the NCC is fuzzy. "I think that results in a lot of issues not being addressed by either party," he says. He cites, as examples, a kilometre-long driveway that is pocked with potholes and a century-old barn needing structural work. Burnford says the NCC should invest in the farms. "If we're going to designate it as a special area and keep it away from development, we might as well do it properly," he says. Burnford, who is more than halfway through a five-year lease, adds a longer lease would allow him to invest capital more confidently. These problems have existed since the land was expropriated, and there's little reason to believe, consultant reports, 'buy local' faddism and Marie Lemay's personal enthusiasm for farming notwithstanding, things will ever change. And while the NCC churns away on its next plan for the greenbelt, the city had its own consultant report on the greenbelt, recommending that land along major arteries be developed. However, as Randall Denley notes: To really get anything done in Ottawa, one requires intelligent involvement by either the federal government or its agencies. That's a problem. The consultants highlight the disconnect between federal actions and good land use policies. For example, the federal government has done nothing to intensify development in its outmoded office campuses at Tunney's Pasture and Confederation Heights. These are prime revenue-generating and intensification targets, but the government has no particular motivation to act.
Citizen: Greenbelt Acres: Farm living, it's the life they seek [22 May 2010] Government to continue "efforts in modernizing the NCC"The prorogued Bill C-37, a set of tepid reforms to the National Capital Act, returns as Bill C-20: Canada's Transport Minister John Baird and the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State (National Capital Commission), today announced that the Government of Canada has reintroduced legislation to amend the National Capital Act (NCA), the enabling statute of the National Capital Commission (NCC).
Transport Canada: Government of Canada continues efforts in modernizing the National Capital Commission [30 Apr 2010] A brand for all CanadiansThere is no task that the NCC pursues with more zeal than their primary mandate: promoting themselves. And so it is that they are spending $2.5 million over the next five years to develop a brand for the Capital, for all Canadians. Apparently it is to be reflective, inspiring, and, uh, something to do with the environment. From the Citizen: The National Capital Commission is working to develop a catchy yet dignified slogan, to be unveiled in June, that's meant to brand the capital region as a source of pride for all Canadians. [...]"It's not just a phrase. It's about: Why does (the capital) matter to you as a Canadian?" said NCC chief executive Marie Lemay. "There are a number of things that are important to Canadians that are not, in their mind, reflected in the capital. Those had to do with the environment, with making it more reflective of the country, and inspiring. Working on those is really important. ... It's about the value of the capital to Canadians." The slogan is to be part of a five-year $2.5-million branding and marketing project that the NCC began last year. The values identified in the research are meant to infuse the NCC's corporate culture and operations, as well as the development of a new "Plan for Canada's Capital." [...]In the efforts to come up with a branding and marketing strategy, the NCC commissioned Ipsos-Reid to conduct a survey of 3,500 Canadians on their attitudes toward the national capital. The survey found that four out of five Canadians have a positive impression of the place. Most people saw the capital as historic, interesting, beautiful, welcoming, and culturally rich. Fewer saw it as fun, dynamic, modern, cosmopolitan and innovative. "It doesn't matter that much -- they don't expect you to be those things," said Ipsos-Reid vice-president Alexandra Evershed. Obviously that's a good thing, being that this project is in the hands of the NCC.
Citizen: NCC to roll out hip (but not too hip) slogan for national capital region [22 Apr 2010] "Misinformation and regressive management practices"The Gatineau Park News blog has a transcript of a rock climber info session put on by the Climber's Coalition and presented by Eric Grenier. It lays out pretty clearly why user groups form and the challenges of dealing with the indifferent bureaucracy that is the NCC: Back in 2005, the NCC attempted to ban climbing on the escarpment altogether. The Coalition was formed at that time. Yes, step 1 in forming a group is for the NCC to ban an activity. Dog owners and mountain bikers are nodding their heads at this point. Despite the fact that the NCC claims to be engaged in a process where community involvement is at work and where user input is valued, that hasn't been what we've noticed happen over the last couple of years. [...] they're proposing to limit climbing access to the Twin Ribs, so Copacabana and Down Under, Eastern Block, and Home Cliff West, which is the Main Corner and the Peggy area. That's all the climbing that they are willing to allow on the Eardley Escarpment. Mostly the reasoning is that these are the areas that are already most affected. In addition to this, they are also proposing to ban ice climbing, citing as justification some regulations regarding winter use trails being prohibited. Additionally, they've also already started to implement some of these initiatives that they have developed based on the recommendations in the park. A lot of you are probably aware that the hang-gliding parking area has already been closed. A culvert's been dug, and there is no access to that parking lot anymore. They state that that parking lot was disused. Obviously anyone who's actually been there knows that that parking lot and overflowing every weekend. They've done this without any consultation to anyone. It was a surprise when this happened. People just showed up and were wondering what was going on. So that's the situation as it stands today. Essentially, the NCC seems to be just going ahead with whatever they've decided to do based on recommendations of a consultant in a process that hasn't had any meaningful input from the community. [...]It's clear that the NCC doesn't understand what climbers are looking for in terms of recreational experience. It's clear from information in the report that they don't have any experience managing climbing activities. They don't have any expert knowledge on climbing. Some of the conclusions they've drawn are based on the impacts of climbing that they perceive seem to be related to climbing practices that are decades out of date. So we have a lot of issues with what we don't know about the NCC's plans and what the NCC doesn't know about climbing. In addition, there's been a very large disconnect in terms of how they've been interacting with the community. They, like I mentioned, they claim to have a transparent and community involved process and that simply hasn't borne out to be the case. We're getting dictated to based on misinformation and regressive management practices that really aren't defensible in terms of any modern management that they bring us. So our position, essentially then, is that the process hasn't happened. The process that needs to happen to develop proper climbing access management in the Gatineau Park simply hasn't happened. Nothing that the NCC has shown us demonstrates that they've been willing to actually engage in a meaningful process with us despite claims to the contrary. Plus ça change.
Gatineau Park News: Monday's rock climber info session [21 Apr 2010] Conroy Pit parking lot overflowsBeen a few years now since the NCC unilaterally banned dogs from most of their property, and all off-leash dogs with the exception of a couple of fenced in areas. Now the parking lots are overflowing at Conroy Pit. From the CBC: A lack of places where Rover can run free is forcing pet-owners to drive to one of the six dog parks in the city and creating congestion in those neighbourhoods, according to a city councillor. Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans wrote in an open letter Tuesday to the National Capital Commission that it should dedicate more space in the Greenbelt for off-leash dog parks as part of its Greenbelt Master Plan. "Less than one per cent of the green space the NCC owns within the boundaries of the city of Ottawa is for dog walkers, or for dogs off leash," said Deans. Deans said Conroy Pit, in her ward, is a great place for dog walkers, but the overflowing parking lot is beginning to cause problems with residents of the neighbourhood.
CBC: Councillor calls for more dog parks in Greenbelt [21 Apr 2010] Seventy years, thirty days noticeWell that's what happens when your property is expropriated by a faceless bureaucracy. From the Citizen: For almost 70 years, the family of Alan Hay has owned or rented a cedar-shingled cabin on the edge of Gatineau Park, beautifully preserving its simple, rustic spirit. Hay, after all, was no ordinary woodsman. Before he died in 1978, he left his mark all over the humble hideaway, set back from Meech Lake Road near Camp Fortune: hand-made bunkbeds, a slab dining room table with a sliding bench, pine panelling, and a number of exquisite maps and landscape paintings. And a fascinating legacy. Alan K. Hay was the second chairman of the National Capital Commission, the very guardian of Gatineau Park. This makes last week's letter to his descendants all the more poignant. The NCC is giving the family 30 days to vacate, asking that the property be left vacant by April 30, ending four generations of occupation. "Heartbroken," said Hay's daughter, Marion Rankin, 93, as she sat by the old Beach woodstove on Thursday, a fire chasing the April chill. "I feel like someone has died in the family." Her father bought the cabin and several adjoining acres in 1941, the family says, and owned it until the NCC expropriated in the early 1960s. Since then, the family has leased back the cabin, lately signing year-long leases for a fee of about $5,000. It annually pours about $4,000 into upkeep. But the NCC discovered high amounts of radon gas; they generously decided not to go with their first instinct and demolish the place, but now the family has 30 days to vacate. UPDATE: The NCC has agreed to compromise and allow the Hays to proceed with a plan to reduce the radon gas. Grandson Alan Rankin obtained the agreement after a meeting with CEO Lemay. "It helped that my grandfather's picture was on the wall."
Citizen: NCC eviction leaves family 'heartbroken' [9 Apr 2010] Two wheels good, four wheels badMomentarily setting aside the NCC's solid 50-year legacy of road building and putting cars first, NCC CEO Marie Lemay blue skies a bit in the Citizen about making Ottawa a walking and biking capital: Ottawa has a "car-first, bike-after" attitude, says the chief executive of the National Capital Commission. And Marie Lemay said residents have to decide if that's really the way they want to build the future of Canada's capital. "One of the fundamental things that I think we need to have a discussion about is, do we want our National Capital Region to be bike- and pedestrian-friendly? And if the answer is yes, we have to be ready to do the things that implies. It might mean it will be more difficult for cars, for example," she said. "Do we make the decision that bikes and pedestrians come first? And if we do that, everything else follows." Lemay said the place of cyclists and pedestrians will be a central question in the NCC's new, three-year initiative to develop a plan for Canada's capital [surely they already have one of those? - ed.]. Public discussions on the plan are to begin this summer. Given this is merely chit-chat in advance of an initiative to discuss, publicly, the development of a plan for Canada's capital, nothing is imminent. Obviously. Nevertheless, over at his Citizen blog, David Reevely sees this as a sign for some sort of hope: This isn't to say that it ought to be the NCC's mission to make Ottawa a biking-first city - I'd like that, but the NCC's imposing it unilaterally would be no better than deciding that biking isn't the NCC's problem. What is nice to hear is that Lemay seems to see Ottawa's permanent residents as necessary partners in the enterprise of planning and running the place, rather than the hamsters that inconveniently happen to live in the city the NCC's planners want to build. Being that the NCC was more or less the unilateral imposer-in-chief of Ottawa's "car-first, bike after attitude," they don't carry a whole lot of credibility in this regard. But this is the second time in a year Lemay's been put on the front page of the Citizen regarding these bicycle contraptions, so there's evidently something to be said for the whole concept.
Citizen: Pedal pusher [19 Apr 2010] Canlands Sparks St project launchedLast heard from about two years ago, the NCC's Canlands A project on Sparks Street was "won" by Ashcroft, and now the development has been announced. Surprise surprise, it's a luxury condominium, not unlike the one that went up at the Daly site, i.e., another condo by another ordinary Ottawa builder. Why is the NCC necessary to this process?
Citizen: Luxe living by the Hill [20 Mar 2010] NCC releases Gatineau Park conservation planThe NCC has announced another plan, this one for Gatineau Park - the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan. Apparently it will be essential reading up until 2035. As is usual for these plans, some group or other gets it in the neck; this time it's the rock climbers, who will see climbing routes developed over the past 50 years pared back to a handful. Apparently this is to protect and rehabilitate the Eardley Escarpment. From the CBC: The commission is concerned climbers are trampling endangered plants and disrupting wildlife. "The rock climbing is now happening all over the ecosystem and we need to address that," said Michel Viens, the NCC's senior manager of natural resources and land management. Eric Grenier, chair of the Ottawa-Gatineau Climbers' Access Coalition, said the new restrictions are unfair because most climbers are already careful not to disturb the ecosystem. "You'll be hard pressed to find a group of people who care more about the environment ... than people who spend as much of their free time in it as much as they can," said Grenier, who has been climbing for about six years. The NCC's own eco-credentials have, of course, been severely eroded by years of road building and trail widening in the Park, as "Ray From Ottawa" explains in the comment thread: This is the same NCC that allowed a large swath of the south end of the park to be cut down, blazed, bulldozed, dynamited, and paved to allow Blvd. Allumettieres (Highway 148 -- Google it) to pass through. The same NCC that brings in heavy machinery and tonnes of gravel every year to turn narrow walking paths into gravel highways for the fall leafers. The same NCC that cut down and paved even more sections of forest for the convenience of Mackenzie King Estate tea drinkers. They aren't standing up for nature. They are using nature as an excuse to limit an activity they know little about, don't partake in, they don't like, and they don't make money from.
CBC: Eardley Escarpment climbing routes scaled back [18 Mar 2010] Gatineau Park Protection Committee websiteHarsh critics of the NCC's management of Gatineau Park, the Gatineau Park Protection Committee now has their own website at www.gatineauparc.ca. Not a public spaceSome scathing remarks from Jean-Paul Murray of the Gatineau Park Protection Committee at Low Down Online on the NCC's inept administration of Gatineau Park and its new-ish CEO Marie Lemay: Being in essence a gated community run for its landowners, Gatineau Park exists amid utter bureaucratic anarchy thanks to the National Capital Commission (NCC). At once a provincial game sanctuary, a federal park, a municipal fiefdom and a private playground, no one seems to know who really runs it, where its boundaries are, or even who owns lands around lac La Pêche or the Outaouais CÉGEP. [...]Today, as NCC CEO, Ms. Lemay has made helplessness to protect Gatineau Park the earmark of her administration. She has routinely been caught off guard by development projects in the park; allowed construction of new housing on Carman Rd; retained the services of a law firm having close family ties with Gatineau Park landowners to tell her she lacked authority to impose a development freeze in the park. As well, Ms. Lemay has limited access to information, misled a parliamentary committee, and overseen an administration which participated in an attempt to discredit park activists - while refusing to disclose the nature of an NCC director's conflict of interest in Gatineau Park. The Low Down: Gatineau Park: Not a Public Space [27 Jan 2010] NCC bill dead, but will probably rise againThe government's NCC touch-up bill C-37 has died with the recent prorogation, but according to Le Droit, it will likely return in some form: Mort au feuilleton, le projet de loi sur la Commission de la capitale nationale (CCN) devrait renaître de ses cendres avec plusieurs couches de vernis. C'est du moins ce que souhaitent certains députés fédéraux, qui ont passé les dernières semaines de 2009 à éplucher le texte législatif, pour finalement se faire couper l'herbe sous le pied par la prorogation du Parlement. [...]Pour le député libéral de Hull-Aylmer, Marcel Proulx, il s'agit d'une manoeuvre indécente, qui a pour effet de renvoyer des projets de loi à la case départ. « Les témoignages peuvent toujours être utilisés, parce qu'on a les transcriptions, mais le travail comme tel est à recommencer », dit-il. Au total, 41 amendements ont été présentés en comité parlementaire, tant par les conservateurs (14) que par les bloquistes (14), les libéraux (8) et les néo-démocrates (5). Les députés d'opposition souhaitent que le nouveau texte législatif en tienne compte. « S'ils redéposent le même projet de loi, c'est de la mauvaise foi », estime M. Proulx. Le bureau du ministre responsable de la CCN, Lawrence Cannon, a laissé entendre hier que le projet de loi serait rapidement remis sur les rails, après la rentrée parlementaire. « Nous tenterons d'obtenir l'accord de l'opposition pour faire adopter rapidement les projets de loi du gouvernement, y compris le projet de loi de la CCN », a assuré un porte-parole du ministre Cannon, par courriel. (The article is also available in an English translation at GuideGatineau.)
Le Droit: Le projet de loi sur la CCN est appelé à renaître [6 Jan 2010] NCC gets "stimulus" moneyIn the giving from the right hand to the left department, the federal government is granting itself $35 million, give or take, to fix some roads, bridges and fancy washrooms administered by the NCC. There are 14 projects in all:
So the roads and bridges brigade beat out the parks and washrooms contingent roughly 2-1, which is probably par for the course.
CBC: National Capital Commission gets $35M in stimulus [6 Jan 2010] NCC bill still in committeeBill C-37, introduced back in the summer, is still grinding its way through parliament, with forty or so amendments tabled against it according to Le Droit: Présenté le 9 juin dernier, le projet de loi C-37 assure une protection accrue au parc de la Gatineau, en plus d'introduire un train de mesures touchant la gouvernance de la CCN. Le document législatif est scruté à la loupe par le Comité parlementaire des transports, de l'infrastructure et des collectivités, sur lequel siègent notamment les députés Marcel Proulx (Hull-Aylmer), Richard Nadeau (Gatineau), Mario Laframboise (Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel) et Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa-Vanier). Le comité parlementaire a entendu de nombreux témoins, dont le ministre John Baird, qui coparraine le projet de loi. Au total, 41 amendements ont été présentés, tant par les conservateurs (14) que par les bloquistes (14), les libéraux (8) et les néo-démocrates (5). Pour le député Marcel Proulx, le projet de loi ratisse si large, qu'il était impensable qu'il soit adopté avant la fin de l'année. « C'est loin d'être strictement un projet de loi qui protège le parc de la Gatineau, dit-il. C'est une réforme de la gouvernance de la CCN, ce qui ouvre toutes sortes de portes. » (The article is also available in an English translation at GuideGatineau.)
Le Droit: Le projet de Cannon fortement revu [23 Dec 2009] NCC conflict in Gatineau ParkThe Gatineau Park Protection Committee has issued a press release asking the NCC to disclose the reason behind a board member's conflict of interest in Gatineau Park. Board member Robert Tennant recused himself from a discussion of Gatineau Park property acquisitions at an NCC Board Meeting in February, declaring a conflict. In response to an Access to Information request by the GPPC, the NCC replied that Tennant was under no obligation to disclose the nature of his conflict. OttawaStart: NCC Refuses to Disclose Nature of Board Member's Gatineau Park Conflict [4 Dec 2009] Use the Rail Bridge for RailOver on his blog, the Citizen's Ken Gray has a post about a proposal for the unused Prince of Wales rail bridge that is circulating: [The National Capital Commission, STO, the City of Gatineau, and the City of Ottawa] are actively considering turning the rail bridge into a road bridge, at least according to Christine Leadman, the Kitchissippi councillor for the area. That's likely to cost tens of millions of dollars to achieve what? Create a staging area for STO buses at Bayview? That's prime downtown land, suitable for intensification. Why you put a library, some housing ... heck, even a trailer park, bowling alley or roller-derby oval would be better than a bus-staging area. How long do we want to treat the LeBreton, Bayview, Hintonburg, Mechanicsville area like a dump? We would simply note that the NCC never saw a railway right of way it didn't want to convert into a road, or a road proposal, no matter how crazy, it didn't want to build.
Citizen: Use the Rail Bridge for Rail [4 Dec 2009] NCC fails to preserve architect's designsMore heritage problems for the NCC, this time in Vincent Massey Park. Kelley Egan explains in the Citizen: Only government could spend $2.2 million to put up a spiffy bathroom in a public park. Only Ottawa, caught up in all its commandments, could make the story even stranger, possibly dishonouring a governor general's son in the process. Suffer with us. At Vincent Massey Park, at the end of a long parking lot, there is an unusual entranceway. It was designed by Hart Massey, the son of the GG for whom the park is named and an acclaimed architect in his own right. His design consists of three big pieces, mostly done in a white, glazed brick. The first is a bus shelter, with a roof, a long wall and bench seating. Inside the park, there is an entrance court, then a refreshment stand and covered eating area, and, finally, public washrooms about 50 metres away. The canopies are unusual in that the steel trusses and slender poles give the roof the feel of floating, stylized tree branches. [...]The Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office is an outfit that evaluates the possible heritage value of federally owned properties. It reviewed the park entrance and gave a "recognized" designation to the bus shelter and what it calls the "refreshment stand." [...]For reasons unclear, the washroom building, about 50 metres away, but obviously of the same design, received no designation or protection. The park owner, the National Capital Commission, intends to demolish that building and, as reported last week, replace it with a new structure that is cleaner, greener and capped with a saddle-shaped roof. The project is to cost $2.2 million. [...]Architecture critic Rhys Phillips is one person who thinks it's wrong. [...]The critic believes the NCC has been a poor guardian of the capital's built heritage. He cited the demolition of the Daly Building as a glaring example, but also mentioned the "mile of rebuilt history" along Sussex Drive and LeBreton Flats as other failures. If the Massey washroom building was shoddy and not up to code, then the answer is to restore it, not tear it down, Phillips said. By the same reasoning, we'd be tearing down the West Block on Parliament Hill, he argued. With the new Vincent Massey washroom coming in at $2.2 mil, the Rockcliffe outhouse now looks like a bargain.
Citizen: Massey's work down the toilet [25 Nov 2009] Sussex barriers may be removedMeanwhile, on the NCC's mile of rebuilt history, the security barriers at the U.S. embassy, put up back in 2001, may finally be removed. From the Citizen: Sussex Drive will be reconstructed between George Street and St. Patrick Street over the next year and city officials want to use the project as an opportunity to get rid of the barriers, which were first installed after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001. The barriers, considered an eyesore by city officials and visitors alike, also take two lanes of traffic out of the downtown core; one on Sussex and one on Mackenzie Avenue. The construction project is a partnership between the city and the NCC, which is estimating in its documents that the cost will be $7.7 million. The NCC's share is $3 million, including $1.2 million for "aesthetic treatment" of the security elements along the edge of the embassy. The NCC is scheduled to endorse the treatment of the embassy frontage in January. The NCC board approved the overall project last week, along with an impressive new landscape plan for Colonel By Drive in front of the new Ottawa Convention Centre. The Sussex Drive reconstruction is a complex project that includes new water mains, sewers, relocated utilities, pavement, trees, signage, granite curbs, new streetlights and premium street furniture to create "a welcoming streetscape." The commission will use the opportunity to repair foundation walls on buildings it owns from George to York streets and from Clarence to St. Patrick. Citizen: NCC ready to revamp Sussex [25 Nov 2009] NCC avoids taking sides on LansdowneThe Citizen reports on the NCC's annual meeting, where opponents of Lansdowne Live provided the novel spectacle of someone complaining to the NCC about a banal development that wasn't built or proposed by the NCC: Opponents of Lansdowne Live took shots at the project before the board of the National Capital Commission Wednesday, but the NCC gave no signal it wanted to get too heavily involved or take sides in the bitter debate. Three representatives of the Glebe Community Association -- Caroline Vanneste, Robert Brocklebank and June Creelman -- urged the board of the NCC to either throw all of the commission's planning weight into the project or to cancel its involvement. "There has been a huge public outcry about what has happened here," Creelman said. "It's banal on the canal. What is happening now is way too mediocre." The NCC are acknowledged masters of banal mediocrity (viz. the LeBreton Flats); we can only hope that Lansdowne will be spared most of the dead weight of the NCC's planning.
Citizen: NCC quiet on stadium issue [19 Nov 2009] NCC picks Navy monument designThe NCC has decided on a design for a monument honouring the Navy, they've announced in a press release: The winning design reflects many facets of the Canadian Navy in its use of the naval black, white and gold colours to create a distinctively sculpted open space charged with meaning. At the heart of the monument site is a white form suggestive of a multitude of naval associations, ranging from sails to classic ship design lines to icebergs to naval attire. The design also makes use of gold spheres, which speak of the sun, moon, stars and the global reach of the Canadian Navy. Sounds about par for the course. Whatever it is, it's gonna be built at Richmond Landing starting early next year. NCC: Canadian Navy monument design selected [28 Oct 2009] NCC misleads Parliament on park boundariesOttawaStart has a post from the Gatineau Park Protection Committee highlighting the NCC's own confusion about Gatineau Park's boundaries: The NCC's CEO Marie Lemay and Chair Russell Mills appeared today before the Commons Transport Committee to support the Conservative government's Bill C-37, the so-called Action Plan for the Nation's Capital. "Ms. Lemay has had 22 months on the job to get her act together and she should know better than to say the size of Gatineau Park has increased by some 1,700 acres," said Mr. McDermott. "The lands Ms. Lemay refers to may be part of the National Interest Land Mass, and the NCC may wish they were in Gatineau Park, but legally they are clearly outside the park," said [GPPC co-chair] Mr. McDermott. The NCC's own 1995 documents say "The boundaries of Gatineau Park [were] established by the Order in Council in 1960," adding that "new Gatineau Park boundaries [would require] an amendment to the 1960 Order in Council which legally created the park." However, no new Order in Council has ever been adopted to ratify the park's so-called 1997 boundary. In legal terms, only the 1960 boundary is valid, which means the Meech Creek Valley is legally outside the park, and that the park has suffered a net loss of 1,842 acres since 1992. "Not only did Ms. Lemay get it wrong on the boundaries, she also misled the committee over NCC ownership of 12,500 acres of Gatineau Park, falsely claiming the titles still had to be registered," said Mr. McDermott. "That is utter and complete nonsense, since all the NCC needs to claim ownership of those 12,500 acres is a transfer of control and management from the province, which is exactly what it got by virtue of a 1973 agreement," said Mr. McDermott. [...]Gatineau Park's boundaries were set by a legal instrument years ago. On April 29, 1960, the federal government approved Order in Council P.C. 1960-579 which included a plan "indicating the Gatineau Park boundary." Moreover, various documents prepared by senior officials for the NCC's executive management committee confirm that the 1960 decree set the park's legal boundary and that any changes to it would require a new Order in Council. Over the last two years, however, the NCC has been changing its story on the exact nature of those boundaries. For instance, it told Senator Mira Spivak in 2004 that "the legal boundary of the park ... had been established by federal Order in Council in 1960." And then, in a complete reversal about a year later, it told Ottawa-Centre MP Ed Broadbent that "the 1960 Order in Council did not establish the park boundary." Adding to the confusion, NCC Chairman Marcel Beaudry said in a letter of April 12, 2005 to senators that Treasury Board had approved the park's new boundary in 1997. However, in response to a written question from Senator Spivak seeking clarification, the NCC now said that the Treasury Board decision had not established the park boundary... And in the wake of these contradictions the NCC has also claimed that Gatineau Park's boundary was set by everything from the Meech Creek Valley Land Use Concept, to National Interest Land Mass designation, to section 10(2)(c) of the National Capital Act. Little over a year ago, the NCC was trumpeting the fact that they had actually managed to figure out the park boundaries.
OttawaStart: NCC Misleads Parliament -- Again [28 Oct 2009] NCC bill in committeeThe Citizen has coverage of committee hearings for the new NCC bill (C-37) introduced in the summer: The expropriation powers of the National Capital Commission should be repealed to protect private property rights within Gatineau Park, federal Transport Minister John Baird told a House of Commons committee meeting Monday, while an advocate argued that the land must be given legal federal status, otherwise it is really just a park in name only. Baird, who introduced a bill to protect the boundaries and natural environment of Gatineau Park, said the government wants to guard the rights of private property owners in the park. Bill C-37 stops short of declaring Gatineau Park a national park, but designates its boundaries and allows the NCC to administer it. The NCC will also be required to maintain the park's "ecological integrity." The chairwoman of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's Gatineau Park Committee, Muriel How, said Bill C-37 has serious deficiencies, since it does not adequately deal with the issue of ecological preservation or provide the legal means to control private development within the park. [...]Baird said Bill C-37 won't satisfy all concerns about the NCC and Gatineau Park, but it does require public board meetings, a five-year master plan and a list of lands to be preserved in the national interest. He said new regulatory powers would allow the commission to protect the park's ecological integrity. Critics of the bill argue that new housing permitted within the park has been chipping away at its boundaries and causing erosion around some of its most beautiful lakes.
Citizen: Baird wants an end to NCC expropriation rights in Gatineau Park [9 Oct 2009] Steward or greedy landowner?The Ottawa Business Journal takes a look at the NCC's latest manoeuvrings over land that the city wants for its (rather pointless, it has to be said) extension of the transitway to Moodie Drive: There's something exhilarating about living in the National Capital Region, where one is often compelled to stickhandle through more layers of government in an afternoon than most see in a lifetime. But it's especially exhilarating when all those scrumptious layers start bickering with one another. It's pure entertainment, really. Though it usually means as a city, we don't get a whole lot done. But while the rather catty letter sent by the National Capital Commission last week to Ottawa deputy city manager Nancy Schepers - a letter which, in effect, told the city to get its grubby paws off certain NCC Greenbelt lands designated for a light-rail system - is a great example, it also illustrates another, more disturbing pattern. And that is that the NCC, for decades tasked with "building a great capital for Canadians," has in effect become a big landowner first and foremost. A builder of a great capital? That one seems a very distant second, in many cases.
OBJ: The NCC: Steward or greedy landowner? [7 Oct 2009] NCC and New Edinburgh residents reach dealCitizen columnist Mariah Cook notes that the NCC has reached a compromise regarding fences in a New Edinburgh park that is being remediated by the NCC: The NCC has proposed:
Following the meeting, [NCC CEO Marie] Lemay wrote: "The remediation work will require that all plants, fences and other decorative elements encroaching on NCC property be removed. Some type of visible barrier must be installed, in order to mark the property line." An unusually (freakishly, even) accommodating solution from the NCC, then, with CEO Lemay herself intervening after such a typically unpromising start to the project earlier this month (see below). One wonders who actually lives on Stanley - a clutch of cabinet ministers perhaps? The entire fence building exercise is, of course, entirely pointless.
Citizen: NCC and New Edinburgh residents reach deal on Stanley Park fence [29 Sep 2009] Users fear recreation plan will block off Gatineau ParkMore on the NCC Gatineau Park recreational plans in the Citizen: Skinouk, which operates both recreational and competitive programs for its 300 members, had hoped to develop trails in the park suitable for hosting national competitions in accordance with the standards of Cross-Country Canada, the sport's governing body. Though the club has hosted national competitions in the past, the standards have recently become more demanding. That hope has now been dashed, said Skinouk's race co-ordinator, Pierre Millette. "The consultations last Wednesday put the last nail in the coffin," he said. "We find it deplorable that we have the burden of proof with respect to the environment, while I don't know how many cars go through the park, and have a much greater impact on the environment." Millette said that by clearing one or two kilometres of new trails to link existing trails, the club could have created competitive-level circuits of 7.5K, 5K, 3.5K and 1K. With technically-challenging ascents and descents, those trails would have been open to the general public as well as club members, he said. "We don't think one or two kilometres of trails will have a big impact on the environment," Millette said.
Citizen: Users fear recreation plan will block off Gatineau Park [20 Sep 2009] Gatineau Park workshop recapguidegatineau has a recap of the NCC's Gatineau Park planning workshops: On September 15, 2009 I participated in the first of two workshops the National Capital Commission is holding to consult with the public about how people use Gatineau Park recreationally; and more specifically how these activities can best be managed in the future. The bottom line is that there are changes coming. There are going to be more restrictions imposed on park users. What those restrictions are, we don't know yet. But now is the time to speak up if you have ideas on how the park should be managed. Although discussion at the meeting was polite and usually constructive, managing recreation in the park has the potential to be a contentious issue and once or twice, more incendiary topics did get raised. If you are a frequent park user, you may want to find out what's coming down the pike for your favourite sport. The deadline for this round of feedback is October 5, 2009.
guidegatineau.com: NCC Gatineau Park Recreation Management Plan Workshop [15 Sep 2009] NCC board bravely runs awayShowing more of that mettle for which they are so renowned, the NCC board is trying to neuter a proposal for a monument to victims of communist regimes. From the Citizen: The NCC board passed a motion supporting the concept of the commemoration, "but perhaps with a different title," after objections about the title were raised by nearly all members who spoke. The title -- "monument to the victims of totalitarian communism" -- has already been changed once. In the first proposals, one by a non-profit group called Tribute to Liberty, the other by Open Book Group, it was to be called "monument to the victims of communism." After beginning discussions with the NCC in March 2008, the groups had back-and-forth discussions with a committee of experts who suggested that the title be changed because it could be perceived as "unduly critical of Canadians who might associate themselves with communism," Egan said. The group then changed the name to include the word "totalitarian." The title still did not sit well with the board. "I was unsettled by this name, and other members of the committee agreed with me," said Hélène Grand-Maître, speaking in French. "We should make sure that we are politically correct in this designation." Board member Adel Ayad said the name was troubling for its "very tight definition" and for the presence of the word "communism" in the title, as Canada has a communist party. "It's not communism itself that we should be fighting here. It is rather totalitarianism we are against in any form," he said. Richard Jennings suggested replacing "totalitarian communism" with the phrase "oppressive regimes." Some also suggested that the monument should focus more on Canada as a refuge for victims of oppressive regimes. The criticism that the monument's focus is too narrow came as a surprise to Zuzana Hahn of the Open Book Group, who points out that the monument represents people from three of the world's seven continents. "We feel that we are just broad enough," she said. "We represent everybody from Vietnam to South America and through Europe." The monument aims to honour the 100 million people who died under communist regimes across the world and to recognize the experiences of Canadians who emigrated from communist countries. The monument will also thank Canada for its role in providing a homeland for those coming from communist regimes. The NCC, still standing on guard for thee. UPDATE: Kelly McParland weighs in on the National Post Full Comment blog: For God's sake. What's really alarming about this is not just the level of timidity that afflicts members of the chronically hyper-apologetic class, but the fact it exists so openly within the ranks of an official federal organization. These terror-stricken milksops apparently take for granted that such levels of obsequiousness are not only acceptable, but are expected of them. Isn't every Canadian supposed to apologize regularly for their views, and live in perpetual fear of offending anyone anywhere, at any time? On the NCC, apparently so. UPPERDATE: And the Calgary Herald editorializes: Evidently, this is one group of bureaucrats in urgent need of a history lesson. Tribute to Liberty, the group behind the memorial, has already added "totalitarian" to the intended wording to appease federal naysayers, but is now facing further difficulties over what NCC members allege is a "provocative" reference to communism. The NCC wants to excise any reference to a specific ideology from the memorial and dedicate it to the victims of totalitarianism in general, watering the project down into bland nothingness. One commission member, who appears never to have cracked a history book to inspect the contents, even suggested Canadians are out of line for criticizing communist regimes because of the officially sanctioned internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War. The NCC could not be more wrong. UPPERMOSTDATE: Presumably weary of being mocked in the national press, the NCC has moved at what is for them light speed and approved a title for the monument: "A Memorial to Victims of Totalitarian Communism - Canada, a Land of Refuge".
Citizen: NCC approves monument against 'oppression' [11 Sep 2009] Trouble at the millThe NCC is having a hard time finding a tenant for its newly renovated mill building at Chaudière Falls, vacant since the last tenant, a legendarily bad restaurant, left a few years back. Could it be because there is absolutely nothing nearby? Yes, it could. From the Citizen: The search for a classy new tenant to transform the old mill at Chaudière Falls into a major waterfront destination is turning into something of a fiasco as the National Capital Commission fails for the second time to find the right proposal. However, the NCC, keen to develop the site because it sees the Ottawa River as part of its vision to transform the capital, is willing to try again. It has put out yet another request for proposals, hoping to be third-time lucky. It hopes to attract a museum, art gallery, spa or retail destination to the site and to turn it into a city hot spot. [...]Built in 1842 when Ottawa was a backwater lumber town, it served for a number of years as the Mill restaurant. Since that lease expired and the restaurant closed, the NCC has spent $1.6 million to restore the building in hopes of getting a big draw to a site that covers more than 7,000 square feet on two floors. Despite interest shown by more than 40 businesses earlier this year, not one made an offer. Saying the recession may have dampened interest, the commission put out a second call in June that attracted two proposals. Neither made the cut. NCC officials acknowledge the building is too small for a portrait gallery and may not be appropriate for a museum because it might not meet temperature and humidity requirements. Its location and heritage also pose problems. "This is a historic site and that creates specific requirements," said NCC spokesman Jean Wolff. "We want to protect the heritage of the site and that requires a different way of handling it. That's part of the difficulty." Keenberg, however, says the NCC might have to acknowledge what he thinks is obvious: The site is just not suitable for commercial development. Pedestrian access and walk-on traffic is so limited that business owners might not imagine the site's working financially. The Mill sits between two busy roads with virtually no pedestrian traffic, beside the vacant Victoria Island and the equally vacant LeBreton Flats, neither of which, thanks the the NCC's meticulous planning, are scheduled to be anything other than vacant in the near or distant future.
Citizen: NCC to try, try again on Mill site [8 Sep 2009] NCC neglects duty to protect Gatineau ParkMore construction in the park, the Citizen reports: Continued construction in the eastern part of Gatineau Park shows that the National Capital Commission has neglected its duty to protect the park from development, a park activist said Thursday. Jean-Paul Murray said one house is under construction on Carman Road off Highway 105 in Chelsea and three more homes will eventually be built on adjacent lots. Murray said the work is shocking because the NCC purchased more than 35 hectares of land on the same road to stop a planned development that caused an uproar in 2008. The purchase came after the NCC announced in April 2008 that it would buy up to $385 million worth of private property to stop further development in the park. [...]"They keep saying it is the capital's conservation park and the main focus of the master plan is conservation. In what way is building houses in the park conservation?" [...]Marie Lemay, the NCC's chief executive officer, said the commission sent the owner an offer to buy the land, but it had already been subdivided for housing. She said the NCC decided not to acquire the lots because they are near Highway 105 and are not ecologically sensitive. Lemay said the house under construction on Carman Road is not a sign that the commission has failed to protect the park.
Citizen: NCC neglects duty to protect Gatineau Park: activist [4 Sep 2009] "Email answers do not work for me at this time"Citizen writer and blogger Mariah Cook has an item today on the new open and transparent NCC's "remediation" of a park in New Edinburgh: A public meeting will be held Thursday, September 3 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Dufferin Room of the Crichton Cultural Community Centre, 200 Crichton Street, second floor. It is organized by the New Edinburgh Community Alliance to review the project. The NCC has declined to attend. [...]A chain-link fence is to be built along the entire length of the park behind the adjoining houses. A mix of fences, stone walls and open gardens is there now. The sole declared purpose of the fence is to block access and the informal encroachment of gardens. Residents query why this significant public expenditure is necessary. Why has the information and consultation process been so abrupt, and clarification difficult to obtain from the NCC? [...]I sent a list of questions to an NCC media relations officer and requested a written response by email. "I'm sorry, but email answers do not work for me at this time," was the reply. Designing Ottawa: What is the NCC up to at New Edinburgh Park? [2 Sep 2009] Pathways to frustrationMuch ado about the NCC's bike paths during a slow news week at the Citizen. First, Kelley Egan weighed in; spot the howler: Much is known about usage on NCC paths, but much is not. The commission does not keep track of how many accidents occur on its pathways, a spokesman said Tuesday, or injuries. Nor does it know how many electric bikes are wheeling about. It has a sometimes-posted 20 km/h speed limit for cyclists, but admits this is a rule without legislative force. It does not ticket anyone for speeding. And, frankly, how could the Crown agency expect an accomplished cyclist to go that slow? The paths are a victim of their own success, with traffic steadily climbing. According to surveys conducted for the NCC, there were 17 million trips on NCC paths (including a portion of Gatineau Park) in 1998, but 31 million in 2008. The proportion of pedestrians, meanwhile, is shrinking: from 30 per cent in 1998 to 24 per cent a decade later. Similarly, the share of cyclists has grown over the decade, from 56 per cent to 64. In other words, almost two-thirds of users are now cyclists. With greening attitudes, more central infill, a broadening path network, that ratio will probably rise. Two wheels now rule. It is a point worth discussion: Is the safest long-term option to kick everybody but cyclists off the paths? Houle and Jonah would like to see improved signage about e-bikes on the paths themselves, clear information on the NCC website and perhaps an education campaign. The NCC, meanwhile, has a 2006 strategic plan for pathways. Shared use and courtesy are big concepts. Twin, separated paths are not. "I think the NCC has a good record of being attuned to what the people in the National Capital region want," said spokesman Jean Wolff. Not two days later, and NCC CEO Marie Lemay, freshly in tune with the masses, is on the front page explaining how the NCC is open to considering the possibility of twinning paths: The National Capital Commission is open to twinning some of its recreational pathways to handle the capital's thriving cycling community, says chief executive Marie Lemay. "I think we have to look at all the options," said Lemay. "Twinning is one we have to consider, where we can." But let's not be hasty: Lemay says, however, that the solution to enhancing bicycle use in the capital involves more than the NCC. "I think there's a bigger picture here than just the pathways." As the NCC's chief executive, Lemay said she has convened a regular meeting of the 13 municipalities in the national capital region. One of the first issues to crop up was the need to better co-ordinate cycling paths, she added. To that end, an "intra-agency" committee involving the NCC and each municipality is to be struck this fall. She expects some progress by the spring. Citizen: Scooters, cyclists war over right to use NCC trails [12 Aug 2009] NCC looks at reducing cars in Gatineau ParkHaving spent the last 40 years building roads in Gatineau Park, capped by the freshly built McConnell-Laramee freeway - the NCC's self-styled "Gateway to Gatineau Park" - the NCC now wonders how to reduce the number of cars in the park. From the CBC: Park director Marie Boulet said giving visitors transit alternatives would be good for the heavily used green space. "It is not uncommon that we have real traffic congestion in the park," she said. "We're concerned with the impact motor vehicles can have on the park environment. But also on the recreational experience in the park." Boulet said the NCC is currently gathering data in order to come up with alternatives to cars, which could include building transit links inside the park. CBC: NCC hopes transit can cut traffic in Gatineau Park [21 July 2009] NCC's finest harass scoutsThe NCC's pseudo police have been at it again, this time busting up some scouts having a campfire. From the Citizen: Desjardine and his friend [...] biked from their homes in Crystal Bay to where the Grandview path meets the Ottawa River with a package of hot dogs and four cans of Dr. Pepper. The Nepean Third Scouts Troop veterans - each spent nine years in the club - also brought with them their pocketknives and a small axe. They stopped at a fire pit that they said had clearly been used before and started a campfire. With their hot dogs almost ready to go, the cloudy skies gave way to rain, so they decided to build a shelter with nearby trees and a makeshift tarp. Desjardine says he cut down four poplars whose branches were already dead. The NCC says he cut down live birch and cherry trees. Just as the youths were about to finish the shelter, four NCC officers crashed the party. Desjardine said they tried to intimidate the teens by lecturing them about causing trouble and saying they could be criminally charged for carrying weapons. [...]In a written statement, an NCC spokeswoman said the commission had received a complaint from a nearby resident about fireworks and a smell of smoke coming from the area around Shirleys Bay. "When conservation officers arrived on site, they found two youths building a shelter. According to the report, one of the youths had an axe," Marilyne Guèvremont said. Guèvremont said it was illegal to cut trees on NCC property, adding it was also illegal to cut, break, injure, deface or defile any rock, shrub, plant, flower or turf on the commission's land. As well, campfires are prohibited except on designated campgrounds, such as Lac Philippe in Gatineau Park. As to why campfires - if handled responsibly - were not allowed, Guèvremont said it was simply illegal according to the commission's regulations. "Is the question about finding a responsible way to do something illegal?" She said the NCC believed the officers exercised their judgment appropriately, adding the teens were liable to pay fines of up to $500 and could even have faced jail time. Desjardine admits not knowing he and his friend were on NCC property, and he probably would have acted differently if he had. The NCC's conservation officers are frequently overzealous in performing their duties. Citizen: Teens run afoul of NCC officers over campfire and Dr. Pepper [8 July 2009] NCC sandbags veterans groupThe NCC's design mandarins are causing problems for a group trying to honour veterans of the Battle of Hong Kong: In just over a month, soldiers who served in the first Canadian ground units to see combat in the Second World War are to finally have a national monument to mark their service. But demands by the federal government for the design of the Battle of Hong Kong memorial to be more interesting have doubled the cost just as construction is set to begin, the Winnipeg Free Press reported from Ottawa. [...]The association has been working for more than five years on getting a national monument, including raising $150,000 needed to build it. "They said it wasn't artistic enough, or innovative enough," said Carol Hadley, chairwoman of the committee working on the wall. "It didn't fit with their concept for Ottawa." [...]The association's original plan was for a four-metre granite wall engraved with the names of the units, the soldiers, two women and a dog who served in the campaign. It was to be installed along Sussex Drive, midway between the Parliament buildings and the prime minister's residence. But in December the association was informed the design wasn't good enough for the National Capital Commission, the Crown corporation which oversees government land and structures in the Ottawa area, she said. The NCC and the association went back to the drawing board and the new concept is for a seven-metre concrete wall inspired by the mountains in Hong Kong where the soldiers fought. Despite replacing the pure granite wall with a concrete wall with a granite facade, the new bill will be $300,000, twice what the association has raised. A request for help from the federal government was denied, so the association has sent a plea to its members to try to get the word out. Recall for a moment that the NCC design team approved the human rights monument. Associated Press: Canadian veteran's group worried about Hong Kong battle memorial [6 July 2009] More tinkering with the National Capital ActThe government today announced an "Action Plan for the National Capital Commission." This Plan of Action consists of a few mild proposals for changing the National Capital Act: Highlights of the proposed legislation (Bill C-37):
This follows on from previous tinkering after the Mandate Review from a couple years back, and leaves the NCC to go about its business in much the same way they always have. The NCC board meetings are already public - excepting those portions that aren't - so no real changes there. The NCC has never been short of plans, just worthwhile achievements, so requiring them to submit yet another plan every 10 years is something that, if we were in the government's shoes, we'd have kept to ourselves. The government release does mention that "a transparent regulatory regime be established before properties can be designated as part of the National Interest Land Mass." So perhaps when the government is done, the mysterious and arbitrary process by which the NCC buys and sells land will become less mysterious, although probably no less arbitrary. The release also includes vague language about "due regard for ecological integrity" and "principles of responsible environmental stewardship" - more specifics in due course, no doubt. "Enhanced regulatory authorities" is, of course not something you want to hear about an already regulation-happy group like the NCC. And, lest they forget, they've put those elusive park boundaries in a schedule - well that should come in handy. The legislation will be introduced in parliament this summer. Citizen: New law would let NCC designate Gatineau Park lands [9 June 2009] Leave governance to elected officialsMichael Polowin, writing in the Citizen, believes the NCC should leave governance to elected bodies: I have given this long thought, and reached the conclusion that the NCC in its present mandate has outlived its usefulness, and needs to be substantially cut back. [...]There are thousands of ways that the NCC regulates life and business, and it does so without direct accountability to the public. [...]First, we should consider limited development in the current greenbelt, combined with a provincially mandated greenbelt somewhere outside the city, one that cannot be leapt (as is now the case in southern Ontario). Let's preserve wetlands, recreational areas and agriculturally valuable lands, while allowing scrub lands that are otherwise lying fallow to be used to intensify development of our city. In other words, get the NCC out of the greenbelt business; it has failed miserably. [...]Height limits were intended to protect views of Parliament, but seriously, can you see Parliament from anywhere on its south side? No, you can't. The real effect of height limits is that they create more buildings and thus more sprawl. They create less profit for developers, and less profit leads to cost-cutting, which leads to boring and banal buildings. Artificially low height limits were an NCC thing. Taller buildings would promote a more vibrant downtown, better architecture and more taxes paid to the city on more valuable real property. We will constrain sprawl as fewer buildings accommodate more people. Return the NCC to its previous mission of beautifying the city. Let it keep the parks and bikepaths. They can make my jogs and bike rides more pleasant, but not regulate life or business in the capital. Let those we elect do the governing, for good or for ill. For more on the impact of height restrictions on the city's tax base, see Greber's legacy. Citizen: Leave governance to elected officials [26 May 2009] LeBreton Flats inhabited again IIThe Citizen looks at Claridge's lone tower on the Flats: In 2004, three companies competed in an National Capital Commission contest to redevelop the prime piece of land which was once home to modest housing and shops, but two dropped out at the last minute, leaving Claridge Homes as the sole bidder: 4.4 hectares of LeBreton Flats for a little more than $8 million, with Montreal architecture firms Dan S. Hanganu Architects and Daoust Lestage at the helm. Some questioned the default win and called the Claridge proposal bland, institutional and ordinary. At the time, the NCC said the proposed design was excellent, but lacked poetry and needed revision. The NCC reminded the public that a detailed design for each building had to be individually approved by their national advisory committee before anything was built. "It's a process," Malhotra says of the experience "It's been beneficial, and at times, you know, you're just arguing about pointless things." The Claridge phase is a done deal, and even at 4.4 hectares only accounts for a portion of the Flats that is to be developed. Unfortunately the article doesn't address the most important question - how will the NCC proceed with the remaining phases to be developed? Citizen: 'I have a vision' says LeBreton Flats resident [9 May 2009] Bill granting protection for Gatineau Park expectedDebate on one bill to protect Gatineau Park has been adjourned because the government will introduce its own. From the Citizen: After years of debate about proposals to protect Gatineau Park from development and overuse, the Conservative government is expected within the next several weeks to present its own bill giving legal protection to the park. The Senate adjourned debate on a private member's bill by Senator Mira Spivak on Wednesday after Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin told senators that a government bill to protect the park will be introduced soon. [...]Speaking in the Senate, Nolin said unlike national parks, the boundaries of Gatineau Park can be changed, its land can be sold and roads can be built without parliamentary approval. Catherine Loubier, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon who is also responsible for the NCC and Gatineau Park, said the government hopes to present a bill on the park and the role of the commission before the end of June. "We are going to be more active in the coming weeks in the review of the NCC's mandate," Loubier said. "I can't confirm that we are tabling a bill today, but Minister Cannon is still living up to his commitment to provide more protection for Gatineau Park." Various bills for protecting the park have come and gone over the years; the NCC has generally opposed the idea. Citizen: Gatineau Park nears national status [7 May 2009] Inter-provincial transit links project starts againWhat do you get when you combine OC Transpo, STO and the NCC? From the Citizen: Gatineau is building a bus-based rapid transit system, Ottawa is hoping to build a light-rail system with a downtown subway, the job of figuring out the best way of linking the two falls to the National Capital Commission, and they all want to hear from you on what should be done. The first meetings happen May 15 in Ottawa and 19 in Gatineau - there is a website with the details. Citizen: Ottawa, Gatineau and NCC seek public input on interprovincial transit links [5 May 2009] NCC ombudsman office now openThe NCC ombudsman, a position recommended by the NCC Mandate Review some time ago, is finally operational. From the Citizen: The National Capital Commission's ombudsman is open for business, ready to take complaints about the federal agency. Lawyer Laura Bruneau, appointed to the part-time post by the NCC's board, said Wednesday that she will have a two-track approach to complaints. She will intervene and try to resolve a complaint, but if that doesn't work, she will start an investigation and present a formal report. [...] Ken Rubin, one of the commission's longstanding critics, said he would not likely use the ombudsman's office. He said that if he wanted something changed at the commission, a more effective way is to go to the chairman, the minister responsible, a parliamentary committee or the press to raise the issue. He said an ombudsman should be able to probe the organization on his or her own, without any specific complaints. The ombudsman also has a website. Citizen: New NCC ombudsman set to solve problems [9 April 2009] "The monument part seems completely gratuitous"Maria Cook takes a look at the NCC's plans for the Sussex-Rideau intersection in the Citizen: Achieving the balance is a critical issue because it has to do with a change of attitude and to what extent traffic engineering dominates urban design choices. "If only we could get the traffic engineers to agree to take down the ugly traffic lights and install something more reasonable," says Rideau-Vanier Councillor Georges Bédard. The space in question is a triangle with busy roads on two sides and a blank wall. It used to be the site of the Grand Hotel, which was attached to the east wall of the former Union Station, now the Government Conference Centre. What makes it work from a traffic perspective is the MacKenzie Avenue ramp extension and the sunken underpass -- which has become a hangout for the homeless. In three scenarios under study by the NCC, the underpass and the ramp would be removed. [...]The NCC sees the space as having potential for some sort of monument, though with the Rideau Canal, a world heritage site, and Confederation Square nearby some people question whether there is a need to compete. It may be enough to make it an attractive urban space, a pause on the ceremonial route, as well as a breathing point in civic life, whether you're getting on a bus at the Rideau Centre, passing in your car or riding your bike. "The monument part seems completely gratuitous," says Paul Kariouk, architecture professor at Carleton University. "It's never going to have the significance of the Cenotaph. This thing could be a glorified traffic circle." Kariouk says there should be an ideas competition. "If it's a vital threshold into the city for dignitaries let's rethink what that could be. It's almost like the front door to downtown. "It has to have some quality that allows you for a moment to forget the city," he says, as well as "a stunning night presence" with illumination. Citizen: Taming a 'cranky intersection' [9 Mar 2009] Genies and truck routesOne of the ways the NCC likes to promote itself is by bringing award shows to town. This year it's the Genies, and the NCC just can't get over themselves: The NCC has worked since 1899 to make the Capital an expression of the Canadian identity. Thanks to the steady, persistent and focused efforts of generation after generation of planners and landscape architects, Canada's Capital is today a model of unspoiled shorelines, scenic parkways and boulevards, preserved heritage, monuments and expansive parks. Just as importantly, the Capital has become a place for national encounters, commemorations, learning and celebrations such as the Genie Awards. Where will the national encounter/commemoration/celebration take place? Why, the Aviation Museum, where guests can take a last, long look at the Aviation Parkway, which, thanks to the steady, persistent and focused efforts of generation after generation of planners and landscape architects, is about to be turned into a truck route. This is being done to alleviate truck traffic downtown, where one of the previous generations of planners and landscape architects turned King Edward Boulevard into a smoking ruin. So don't worry folks, it's all part of a plan bigger than any one single generation of planners and landscape architects. Hari Seldon, eat your heart out. NCC: The nation's capital to host the 2009 Genie awards [14 Jan 2009] More on the NCC plans for Sussex-RideauCentretown News reports that the NCC's plans for the Rideau-Sussex-Wellington-Colonel By intersection were discussed at the most recent NCC meetup, and some artist impressions passed 'round. First revealed in the Citizen last July, the NCC's plans apparently include rebuilding the intersection and adding a monument of some sort: The plans are far from complete and only represent the beginning stages of the project, officials say, adding that many planning obstacles need to be overcome and consultations held before any work begins to take place. One issue already raised by some NCC board members is the substantial grade problem at the site - sloping ground with streets converging at awkward angles. "Our next step is to talk to the City of Ottawa and Public Works, since they own the Conference Centre," says Irwin, "(then) hammer out an agreement and define timelines." A planning document discussed at the meeting referred to "potential construction within the next five years." The brief report noted that the intersection is "an important entry point into the capital core" and that the proposed redesign will be reviewed as part of a consultation among NCC, federal and municipal officials, area property owners, BIA representatives and citizen groups. The intersection is one of the prime locations identified in a 2006 study of Confederation Boulevard as being an "eminent landmark" in the capital's development and deserving of a major public commemoration. Of course it was an even more "important entry point into the capital core" when Union Station was a functioning train station instead of an anonymous and mostly empty federal building. According to the NCC's own web page on the "Urban Design Study" they are conducting, they are looking to "transform" the "space" to "represent a truly Canadian experience" and "symbolize Canada's values, ideals and role on the world stage." If it ends up being typical of the NCC, that translates into flagpoles for each province and territory. Frankly, we don't care, as long as the pedestrian underpass goes. Centretown News: NCC planning local version of Times Square [5 Feb 2009] Board of Directors meet coming upThe swells on the NCC Board of Directors are having a get together Thursday, January 22 at the Westin Hotel Ballroom. The agenda is now up at the NCC Public Board of Directors Meetings page. Among the topics will be the always controversial interprovincial bridge, the currently preferred plan being a crossing at Kettle Island using the Aviation Parkway. The last time something like this happened, over at Champlain Bridge, these meetings were closed and the Board didn't have to look anyone in the eye while it voted. Otherwise, the script looks the same. NCC: Public Board of Directors Meetings [15 Jan 2009] Greber's legacyPaul Bennett has a piece in the Ottawa Business Journal examining a generally overlooked aspect of Jacques Greber and the National Capital Commission's planning legacy - an unsustainable cap on property tax revenues: Greber's influence on this city's modern day geography is immense. He conceived our greenbelt interspersed with urban islands called garden cities, including for example Orleans and Kanata. He also proposed commercial building height restrictions in the downtown to preserve the silhouette of the Peace Tower's clock from strategic viewing planes along the banks of the Ottawa River and he relocated railway lines to less visible domains. Our Garden City wisdom encouraged the development of thousands of hectares of raw land into single-family homes where the highest part of any building is the dormer windows that grace single home rooftops. Greber's urban vision is troubling today because it unwittingly caused a simultaneous increase to infrastructure spending with a reduction in tax revenue potential. [...]Economic laws affect both city form and its function. As to function, one acre of residential land will barely contain 8 single-family homes with a collective tax base of perhaps $30,000 a year. The same acre of land on Carling Avenue will earn the city $200,000 as an apartment building or $400,000 in taxable revenue developed for office space. In the downtown, the same acre will produce over $3,000,000 in taxable revenue each year, and more than double that if height restrictions were relaxed to any reasonable extent! As to form, Greber's height restrictions have wiped out over 12,000,000 square feet of taxable floor space in Ottawa's business core. Moreover, since 1979 builders have erected over 10,000,000 square feet of new office space in that core and have left it with barely six properties remaining with less than 3,000,000 square feet of floor capacity. This number is arguably a puny 12-year office supply. Land is virtually a non-renewable resource. By using more land to produce fewer buildings everywhere, Ottawa is quite literally running out of space. If offices cannot be built downtown where they belong, the city will have to increase office space development in our backyards. Is this the city form we all aspire to achieve? The Greber plan is an example of 1940s urban artwork at its grandest and most naive. [...]Thanks to Greber's earthy vision though, Ottawa has enjoyed the appearance and character of a little City but with big aspirations. Our little bigness is a comfort to we residents, and it has helped shape our community's undemanding personality and we like it that way. The greenbelt is a popular and cherished aspect of our community, but at what cost do we embrace its sprawling finery? Homeowners have by and large paid a disproportionately lower share of the City's annual tax requirements. If we are going to continue to rely on a stable commercial sector to pay the bills and finance new forms of transit, things have to change and fast. We must accommodate a larger commercial land base or reduce height restrictions to existing land, or both, lest we face the consequences of more development in our back yards. The alternative is to increase residential taxes to absurd levels, which is clearly ours and our politicians' death wish. [...]It is no small irony that Ottawa's dated master plan is causing it to struggle today to finance new rail infrastructure that Greber himself worked so hard to remove in the first place; a classic confrontation between function and form that is fuelled by economics. Gutting the tax base - just one more way to count the cost of the NCC's planning. The unparalleled bungling on the LeBreton Flats doesn't just represent a lost opportunity, it represents millions of dollars in lost tax revenues, while the building dispersal programmes contributed to inefficient sprawl. And imagine if they'd followed through on their plans for Metcalfe Grand Boulevard. OBJ: Ottawa Is Just A Little Big [12 Jan 2009]
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Working to consign the National Capital Commission to oblivion since 2000.
