"Why LeBreton is public property". Lindsay Lambert.

1997.

 

 House of Commons Ottawa November 22, 1991 MP Mac Harb (Ottawa Centre): "We have approximately 150 acres of land on Lebreton Flats. In the summer part of the flats is used for camping, balloonists and people who might want to take a walk."

Lindsay Lambert letter to the Ottawa Citizen on August 5,2020: "The author describes how the government of Canada evicted residents from the LeBreton Flats in 1962 and transferred ownership to the National Capital Commission. He refers to this as an "historic injustice."

"Privately owned land can only be expropriated for a good public purpose. The reason given at the time was that the Flats were required for a new National Defence headquarters. It was never built. Now that years have passed and the original owners have died, the land is largely being transferred for private development. This is dishonest. LeBreton Flats should remain public property and be devoted entirely to public and social use. The NCC doesn't own the Flats in the private-property sense. It holds them in trust for us."

"If I were heir to the estate of someone who was expropriated in 1962, I would be fighting to get my family's land back."

Lebreton Flats in 1983, more than 130 acres.