Stalinist Planning Writ Small:
A people's history of the NCC
The NCC is especially proud of their own special brand of planning genius. In a section on their website called Planning the Capital region, they go on at length about their planning victories, and at one time even provided a chronology of their greatest hits. As usual, they left out the best parts, so as a public service, NCC Watch offers this alternate planning time line:
1800 | First settlement on the north side of the Ottawa River. Notably, this was done without the aid of NCC planners. |
1826 | A town is founded on the south side of the river when the building of the Rideau Canal begins. Incredibly, this too was done without any advice from the NCC. |
1857 | Ottawa is chosen as Capital of the newly formed Province of Canada (created from Upper and Lower Canada, parts of today's Ontario and Quebec). The NCC regrets that it wasn't around at the time so that it could come up with this idea first. But if they had been, they would have, you bet. |
1899 | Formation of the Ottawa Improvement Commission "to beautify" Ottawa. It clears industry from around the Rideau Canal and creates parks and Ottawa's first scenic parkway. It then snubs the remaining industry by spreading vicious rumours about it and never inviting it to dinner. |
1903 | Todd Plan: Expresses the idea of a Capital region framed in a network of parks. Pushes for a boulevard to link the Parliament Buildings to Rideau Hall. The story behind this is classic Federal Government planning in action: Sussex was one of Ottawa's first and most successful commercial streets, but Lady Aberdeen, wife of the Governor General, wanted to enjoy a "beautiful ride on her way from Rideau Hall." She eventually got the government to expropriate the entire west side of Sussex, except for the Daly Building (that would be taken care of later). The Connaught Building was built between 1913-1915, but then the rest of the land stayed vacant. It was used as a parking space for decades. The U.S. Embassy was finally built there in the 90s. |
1915 | Holt Report: Recommends establishment of a federal district planning authority and extension of the park system. |
1922 | Yet Another Report: Boldly supports the idea of a new planning authority, recommends removal of rail lines from the centre, building of highways, extension of the park system, general tidying up. |
1927 | The Federal District Commission is formed with the authority and budget to enact past recommendations. And, according to the NCC's time line anyway, promptly does nothing for the next 20 years. This period is now looked back on as something of a Golden Age. |
1950 | Greber Plan rather imaginatively recommends emasculating Ottawa's rail network and building roads, decentralizing government offices (resulting in those triumphs, Place du Portage, Les Terraces de la Chaudiere, Confederation Heights, etc.), and expropriating vast amounts of land for the Greenbelt. |
1958 | The National Capital Act sets the mandate for a new kind of planning authority (just like the old planning authority). |
1959 | The National Capital Commission (NCC) is formed to carry out recommendations of the Greber Plan. The NCC's chronology then skips an entire tumultuous decade of furious activity. |
1959-66 | The NCC expropriates land for the Greenbelt from people like the Woodburns and Harold Munro. |
1962-65 | True to their ideals, the NCC expropriates and demolishes the LeBreton Flats. Incredibly, this was planned without consulting the people who actually lived there. The land remains vacant. |
1966 | The NCC generously decides to not demolish Ottawa Union Station, figuring a vacant lot might not look so good during the Centennial. The train station is however moved to the suburbs, guaranteeing its future irrelevance. The rail lines are replaced with roads such as the Nicholas Expressway and the Queensway. |
1973 | The Federal Government expropriates the north side of Sparks Street, essentially freezing development and accelerating its decline. |
1980 | Fearing its budget isn't growing fast enough, the NCC persuades the government to expand its mandate to include public programming, because the public need programming. |
1991 | After neglecting the building for a decade, the NCC demolishes the Daly Building in the heart of Ottawa, quashing plans for its restoration. The land remains vacant. |
1998-2001 | The NCC conceive a Vision for the Core Area (complete with a plan to demolish Metcalfe Street), approve a Plan for Canada's Capital, prepare a Core Area Concept of Canada's Capital, and develop a Core Area Sector Plan. That's two plans, a vision, and a concept. On the practical side, the development of the Daly site flounders. |
2000 | The NCC puts on the most widely panned Millennium Celebration in the country. |
2005 | The Canada and the World Pavilion closes after four years of operation. To this day, no one knows why the NCC built it in the first place. |
2006 | Because the NCC is doing such a swell job, the government conducts a Mandate Review. |
2013 | The government transfers all the NCC's public programming and capital promotion responsibilities to Canadian Heritage. |