"The Canadian government calls Mile Circle a vacant meadow. The neighbors protest that it is suburban parkland. And a brouhaha has broken out because the United States Embassy may call it home. The U.S. Embassy has occupied a stately mansion in downtown Ottawa since 1932. But 12 years ago the Government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau asked the US to move out as soon as it could build another chancery. The Trudeau government said it needed more office space...
The National Capital Commission, a federal agency created in 1948 to develop Ottawa into a more imposing capital, selected Mile Circle for the new US Embassy from a list of 16 available parcels of federally owned real estate. The commission proposed that up to 10 acres of the meadow, which covers 52 acres in eastern Ottawa, be sold to the US and that an additional 10 acres be reserved for five or six other embassies...But Mile Circle is the backyard for two affluent neighborhoods, Rockcliffe Park and Manor Park, where some of Ottawa's most influential civil servants, diplomats and business officials live...More than 4,000 signatures have been collected on a petition to keep the embassies out."
House of Commons Debates Ottawa February 7, 1986
Mr. Don Boudria (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, Ontario) Liberal.
"Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has embarked on a policy of selling the Crown jewels. First it was the threat of logging the national parks, then selling our national aircraft manufacturer...and finally, the potential sale of Mile Circle Park right here in the city of Ottawa to build a U.S. embassy...As the opposition critic for the Department of Public Works, I call upon the Government to reject any American offers to buy or lease Mile Circle Park. I call on the Government to send a clear signal that Canadian parklands, our national treasures, are not for sale."
House of Commons Debates Ottawa April 9, 1986.
Mr. Barry Turner (Ottawa-Carleton) Progressive Conservative.
"Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to present another petition signed by 34 residents of the National Capital Region who are very much opposed to the National Capital Commission proposal to turn the Mile Circle into an embassy row. They indicate that Mile Circle was designated in 1925 by the Ottawa Improvement Commission as a national park and they are very much opposed to this change."
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| The Mile Circle. Wikimapia image. |
3.) Queen Juliana Park on 870 Carling Avenue was donated to the Ottawa Hospital Corporation by Public Works Canada.
4.) Vacant land that was earmarked for Major's Hill Park near the Chateau Laurier was sold to the American Embassy.
5.) The La Ronde amusement park that was built for Expo 67 was sold to the City of Montreal.
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House of Commons Debates Ottawa March 24, 1986
Request for government directive prohibiting the sale of national parkland.
Mr. Jean-Robert Gauthier (Ottawa-Vanier) Liberal.
"Mr. Speaker, could the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House whether he intends to act responsibly and give clear and precise instructions to all those who are responsible for our national parks, indicating clearly that none of our national parks are for sale?"
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"Parks Canada to look at divesting highways, bridges, dams." by Dean Beeby, CBC News, August 26, 2017. "Parks Canada is considering whether to give up as much as $8.3 billion of its highways, bridges and dams."
(Note: All of the Rideau Canal locks and lock stations are managed by Parks Canada and they may be privatized. How dare you, Parks Canada, even consider taking away Crown assets from the people of this nation. I am sure that many foreign governments, global corporations and celebrities would love to own the Rideau Canal and the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park.)
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| A Fraser Institute document from the late 1990's. |
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