What I Said to a Senior NCC Official

Here’s what I said to a senior official, recently appointed to the NCC, National Capital Commission.

Congratulations on your new job. Wow. If anyone can change the NCC, it is you. May I suggest a few things for your consideration?

-Scrapping the poor plan developing at Lebreton Flats and working to make it more like a diversified urban in-fill space a la Byward Market or Granville Island allowing smaller developers to engage as well

-Creating a national boardwalk/making it part of the Algonquin Trail as we discussed

-Adding a density bonus on all NCC lands where the bonus is used to add a residential component (could be hotel, apartments, condos, whatever, anything that will help animate downtown)

-Opening up parts of the Greenbelt (like the lands between Bells Corners and the Queensway or lands around the 416/417 interchange) for industrial/commercial/residential development

I can think of other useful things the NCC could do…

The NCC wasn’t always known as the “No Commitment Club”; it once had leaders who didn’t mind doing things like burying a railroad to preserve Dow’s Lake.  I believe in you!

Cheers, Bruce