Stop the modernization of the Parliamentary Precinct, Ottawa.

The Parliamentary Precinct encompasses the Parliament Buildings, the Hill and Parlimentary Library; Supreme Court of Canada; government buildings on Wellington Street across from the Hill; Conference Centre and the northern part of the Sparks Street Mall.

During the year 1973 the Trudeau government expropriated the northern half of the Sparks Street Mall in order to save the heritage buildings; create more office space and to prevent the construction of high rise apartments. The National Capital Commission took over the southern part of the Mall and buildings were sold off and demolished. The Thomas D'Arcy McGee office tower on 90 Sparks is now owned by Larco; and the CBC Headquarters are part of the Morguard portfolio. Luxury condominiums were constructed across from Canada's Four Corners.

Sparks is on the left and Queen is on the right.

"Sparks Street Mall redevelopment between Sparks Street and Queen Street west of Metcalfe. Proposed environmentally friendly residential construction of a six-storey building on Sparks Street and 18 storey building on Queen Street. The building will house a hotel and condominium units in the upper floors. In total there will be 235 units."

The Hardy Arcade and Chicken Villa, 1967. National Archives photo.
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                        "The Mall is the National Capital Commission's Public Enemy No. 1."

"Sparks Street: The five-block, east west pedestrian mall and surrounding area is the NCC's public enemy No. 1." (From: "Tidying up a mess. Macleans Magazine-September 3, 2001." The National Capital Commission has a hatred/animus towards the pedestrian mall and it should be precluded from any future involvement with the property.)

"It's town against Crown and sparks are flying as the National Capital Commission prepares to demolish an entire block in downtown Ottawa. City officials, businessmen and private citizens alike fear that the NCC's plan to raze Sparks Street and replace it with office towers, apartments and restaurants will destroy rather than revitalize the downtown core." (Globe and Mail newspaper, May 2, 2001.)

Now Public Works, the NCC and local politicians are focused on modernizing Wellington Street and the northern part of the Mall. How they plan to accomplish their goal:

1.)   Strip away the designation "Province of Ontario Heritage Conservation District" from the Sparks Street Mall.

2.)  Remove the designations "Classified Federal Heritage Building" and "Recognized Federal Heritage Building." PWGSC and the NCC have the power to declassify Canada's Four Corners; the post office; the banks, etc.

3.)  Convince the local politician for Somerset Ward and her counterparts to rezone the entire area as high-density commercial and residential. And that will not be difficult---she already wants to "animate" the area through the construction of clusters of apartment towers. Remove height limitations.Take a look at the corner of Preston and Carling.

4.)  Convince gullible people that facadism will preserve the heritage buildings. Facadism is an architectural term meaning that only the outer shell of a structure will be maintained.

5.) Claim that the structures are filled with asbestos or some other type of material and cannot be salvaged. 

My YouTube video "Government buildings on the Sparks Street Mall" documents the fact that the entire northern part of the Mall is endangered:

---Bank of Nova Scotia; Bate; Birks; Blackburn; Booth; Brouse; Canada's Four Corners; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce; Dover; Hope; Slater and Postal Station B at 59 Sparks. They appear to be vacant; business people are being offered month-to-month leases and a fence with a blackout screen encircles the post office on 59 Sparks.

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11 buildings on Block 2 which is outlined in red are facing demolition. "Major overhaul in store for entire block facing Parliament Hill." CBC News, February 3, 2020. They will be replaced with high rises or maybe even pyramids. The E.M. Pei architectural firm is part of an international design competition that will change the Parliamentary Precinct; and the Pei company designed the Louvre pyramid, Paris, France.