In its battle with the NCC, the city shows a complete lack of understanding of its national and international obligations.
The National Capital Commission is right to appeal the city’s rejection of a plan for an “embassy row” in Mechanicsville, on the western edge of downtown. For two important reasons.
First, the city’s tit-for-tat decision lacks any planning rationale and should not be allowed to stand. In a fit of pique, council voted 22-2 to reject the NCC’s plan for five embassies along Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway because the federal agency had refused to approve the extension of the Brian Coburn Boulevard in Orléans. Council rejected the rezoning of federal land for the embassy precinct apparently to get back at the NCC. “It’s time to send a strong message to the NCC that if they are going to be good partners with the city, they have to come to the table and speak to us about this,” Coun. Matthew Luloff said back in February, urging his colleagues to reject the project.
The thing is, planning approvals are not granted or rejected to settle scores, but solely on whether a particular proposal fits the bill. The embassy plan does, and rejecting it in retaliation for a perceived wrong on a different project was pretty juvenile.
The extension sought by the city would connect Brian Coburn Boulevard to Innes Road and the Blair Road LRT station, and ease travel congestion. But the city and NCC couldn’t agree on the right alignment. The NCC says it supports the extension but not the route chosen by the city because it would endanger the Mer Bleue wetland. The impasse has stalled the project, and frustrated east-end councillors essentially sought revenge. The strange thing about the council vote is that planning committee, including three east-end councillors, had voted in favour of the embassy precinct, then changed their minds and persuaded their colleagues to go along.
What is even more disturbing about the decision is that it shows the city’s complete lack of understanding of its role in building and sustaining the capital. Ottawa, like every capital, has national and international obligations, and city government has a duty to help advance them. One such responsibility, which falls to the NCC, is to provide land or space for countries with whom Canada has diplomatic relations so they can build embassies — just as foreign countries provide similar spaces for Canadian embassies abroad. It has been well-known since 2015 that the NCC had set aside the 3.7-hectare woodland south of the parkway for precisely that purpose. But the agency needed the city to rezone the land. Council balked, which is why we are where we are today.
It is interesting to note that in 2019, the city rejected a proposal by the Royal Thai Embassy for an office building on Island Park Drive because it was in a residential area. “There are places in the city you can put embassies,” Coun. Jeff Leiper said at the time, rejecting the rezoning because it didn’t fit. Mayor Jim Watson agreed, noting that council’s rejection of the proposal was not “a slight” to the Thai Embassy. “Island Park is a residential street. You shouldn’t have offices there,” Watson said. Fair enough.
Now, the NCC is setting aside land for future embassies that hasn’t been built on, and council says that can’t be done either because it is green space. Watson agrees. “I think the NCC has to find somewhere else for these embassies,” the mayor said. So, here’s the question: If embassies can’t be built in residential areas, and can’t also be built on a field by the road, where in Canada’s capital can they be built? Where is “somewhere else?” In whose backyard?
In Ottawa, there is the city, and there is the capital. The city has long surrendered capital-building to the federal government, believing its role is merely to collect the garbage and fix roads. Not that the roads are any good.
The city must understand that as the capital, Ottawa has important obligations to meet, and it must not stand in the way. The city must understand that as the capital, Ottawa has important obligations to meet, and it must not stand in the way. The Ontario Land Tribunal must now step in and reverse the city’s misguided decision.
Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa journalist and commentator.
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