Monday, January 13, 2025

The National Interest Land Mass.

 "Land forming part of the NILM will be retained by the National Capital Commission on behalf of the government in perpetuity, for purposes which lie at the core of the NCC's mandate." (1988-09-15-TB-re-NCC Land Holdings.)

Quebec

  • Gatineau Park, 32,000 ha (approx)
  • 3 parcels, Ottawa River shoreline at Portage Bridge & land beside Eddy Street
  • Parts of Laurier St in front of Place du Portage
  • Ottawa River shoreline at the Alexandra Bridge approach
  • Hull Wharf Ottawa River water lot only
  • Museum site Laurier Ave
  • Ottawa River shoreline south of Brewery Creek
  • 4 parcels, Jacques Cartier Park
  • Ottawa River shoreline proposed Voyageur Parkway
  • Leamy Lake and part of the Philemon Wright Corridor
Ontario
  • The Greenbelt, 14,000 ha or 34 thousand acres
  • GG's residence (Rideau Hall)
  • PM's residence 24 Sussex Drive
  • Rideau Gate (Guest House)
  • Central Experimental Farm, 960 Carling Avenue in Ottawa. "The CEF National Historic Site is designated in its entirety as part of the National Interest Land Mass." (From: Central Experimental Farm NHS Management Plan, Part 7/20.)
  • Greenbelt Research Farm, 1740 Woodroffe Avenue, Nepean
  • Shoreline behind Parliament Hill - 2.91 ha
  • Chambers Bldg. Elgin and Queen - 0.27
  • Confederation Square - 0.15
  • Part of Lebreton Flats N of Transitway - 65.37 ha
  • Victoria Island - 6.35 ha
  • Pts of Wellington in front of Chateau Laurier and the Conference Centre and land to the E of the Conference Centre. Also lands N of Wellington between the Rideau Canal Locks & the Chateau Laurier & Major Hill Park. Also the approach to Alexandra Bridge & the new Art Gallery site.
  • Lady Grey Drive and the Ottawa River W of Sussex Drive
  • Daly Building corner of Rideau & Sussex
  • 8 parcels of land E of Sussex (Mile of History) from Rideau Street to MacDonald Cartier Bridge
  • Pt of the Mint property W of Sussex Drive
  • Small park on W side of Sussex Drive S of MacDonald Cartier Bridge. 
  • Parking lot at Earnscliffe and water lot
  • 4 parcels on the Rideau River around City Hall
  • 4 parcels E of Sussex Drive between Stanley Ave & Rideau Gate
  • Ottawa River Parkway, Wellington Street to Carling Ave
  • Champlain Bridge, Island Park Drive
  • Rideau Canal lands from downtown to Hog's Back Road - 90 ha or 222 acres
  • Rideau River lands from Green Island to Revelstoke Dr
  • Airport Parkway
  • Eastern Parkway Hemlock Rd to Hwy 417
  • Eastern Driveway and Rockcliffe Park from Sussex Drive to Greenbelt
  • Lower Duck Island Ottawa River 

National Interest Land Mass properties cannot be sold or subdivided. They will be owned by Canadians forever.


The Agricultural Experimental Farm belongs to ALL Canadians, not just to the residents of Ottawa. "Taking away a 42 H. portion of the Farm, cutting down 500+ trees and building a modern hospital with its intense night lighting and ambulance and patient traffic will destroy the peace and serenity of the Arboretum, Farm and Gardens. It will negatively impact people, wildlife and farm animals. The 'Farm' is a defining part of our nation's capital. It is unique to Ottawa, no other capital has one within its boundaries. The Agricultural Experimental Farm belongs to ALL Canadians, not just to the residents of Ottawa and it should not be up to the City of Ottawa to decide to start its destruction and demise." (Google: The Ottawa Hospital Master Plan, Engage Ottawa.)

 Foreign ownership of Canadian assets House of Commons Ottawa March 18, 1998 Bill C-29, an Act to Amend the National Parks Act. Mr. Nelson Riis (Kamloops, B.C.) New Democratic Party: "Members  can probably tell that I do not support Bill C-29 at this point. This bill involves a great deal of Canada: 31 national parks, 786 historical sites, a number of historical canal systems (Rideau Canal), 661 sites that are managed by third parties that are ecologically or environmentally significant, 165 heritage railroad stations and 31 river systems."

Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk-Interlake, Manitoba) Reform: "Mr. Speaker, I am quite interested in the financial aspects of this bill. Is there a possibility of foreign interests getting involved in our parks system?"

Mr. Nelson Riis: "Obviously the answer is yes..." 

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Street names.

CFB Rockcliffe Jupiter Avenue, Via Venus, Mars Avenue, Polaris Avenue.

  • Via Vega - Vega is the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra.
  • Arcturus Crescent - Arcturus is a giant red star in the Northern Hemisphere.
  • Castor Avenue - Castor is a binary star in the constellation Gemini.
    Avro Drive
The CEF








Friday, January 10, 2025

Comments from the public.

"The Experimental Farm is protected against development of any kind. Period. The hospital is not permitted. But, even more obviously, the three or more mixed-use (condo) buildings are absolutely unnecessary and not permitted. Please explain why the existing protection is being ignored. Please explain why any mixed-use (condo) buildings are part of this plan. Please explain why parking for all this mixed- use (condo) is part of this plan. Thanks."

"I have been at the Civic many times over the years and I also regularly walk in the Experimental Farm. I am deeply dissatisfied with the plan to use the Experimental Farm in any way. It has been a signature green space of our centre city core for over 100 years, and thus, has trees that are over 100 years old. These trees contribute to the cleansing of the air, providing home for birds and animals, contribute to the beauty of the city. They should not be bull-dozed! Also, "the bowl" (the area near Birch) is one of the most gorgeous landscaped areas I have ever seen."

"Room to grow? One need only look at the long history of our current Civic Hospital to appreciate just how much such a world-class facility grows over time. To where, exactly, will the new Ottawa Hospital expand in the future? By further incursion into the Experimental Farm? A move across Prince of Wales Drive into the Dominion Arboretum? Or across Preston Street into Commissioners' Park? Maybe a new Dows Lake Pavilion. The fact is there is no room to grow in the proposed location without the loss of more accessible green space, historic sites and/or tourist attractions. What are the plans in that regard?"

"Using Maple Drive as an emergency access: Why turn Maple Drive, the main entrance to the Experimental Farm, into an ambulance route instead of keeping ambulances on Carling, where they already are for the current Civic campus? The noise from ambulances having to turn off Carling into the Farm will be a nuisance to residential neighbours. Alternatively, having ambulances enter the hospital campus directly from Carling nearer Preston (largely commercial), as they do now directly from Carling near Melrose would not require turning a tree-lined drive into a hospital service entrance. Plans also show that Maple Drive will be fronted by noisy air, heating and other industrial requisites; this seems a gratuitous reason for destroying old-growth trees - can these utilities not be sited elsewhere?"

"Hello, It is nothing short of a sin that the historic site of the Experimental Farm has been chosen for the Ottawa Hospital. There will be no way to contain the footprint of the hospital to simply what is being designed. People will, out of necessity, find ways to park and use other areas of the farm to avoid parking fees. Have you used a drone to see the actual footprint of existing hospitals in the City and how far out people park? With environmental impacts so front and centre, I simply do not understand why this open and formerly protected heritage area would have been chosen when other options existed...and frankly still do exist. Why designate a site to be of historical significance if years later it is destroyed. And there is no question about this, it will be utterly destroyed. There is time to correct this decision. For our future and the future of generations to come."

"It is not too late to do the right thing and change the plan for the location of the Ottawa Hospital. It would be a travesty to build it at Dow's Lake so close to the Arboretum. Ottawa needs more green space, not less; and more and more research is showing the benefits to citizens. There are other locations that are still central and are closer to public transit, such as Tunney's Pasture and LeBreton Flats. Please, please reconsider this decision."

"Destroying the green space would be a tragedy."

"I am opposed to the hospital plan and the plan to build a new parking lot on Queen Juliana Park Land on the Experimental Farm. The above ground parking lot is a bad idea for a number of reasons. There has never been an environmental assessment of the new hospital or the planned parking lot. We have no idea what the environmental impact will be of building a concrete parking lot across from Dow's Lake."

"It is nothing short of a travesty to select the Central Experimental Farm for the location of a new Civic Campus hospital. The Farm has been a gem for Ottawa, a testament to green space and research, and a wonderful zone for walking and biking within the nation's capital." 

"Is the city concerned about mixing tourist/neighbourhood pedestrian/cyclist traffic - those who are visiting our National Historic Buildings - with emergency vehicles on Maple Drive. Does the city think having emergency vehicles and the Central Utility Plant on Maple Drive will negatively impact the experience of visitors to our National Historic sites?"

"Monstrous car-centric vanity project with poor pedestrian and cycling access. The new hospital project is a constant disappointment and they haven't even cut down a lifetime of heritage trees yet."

"How is it even acceptable to even consider removing over 600 trees in order to build this sprawling health complex, when we are in a climate emergency?"

"Disappointed to see this plan includes a four story parking garage that would require the destruction of the Queen Juliana Park."

"The Experimental Farm is a special spot and one that is unique to Canada. It should be preserved at all costs."

"The Queen Juliana Park immediately across Carling from Champagne Avenue is the only stretch of green space easily accessible to this neighbourhood on foot."

(The Ottawa Hospital Master Plan. Engage Ottawa.)


Historic buildings that are facing demolition.



Observatory House No. 2


Geophysical Laboratory No. 3

Machine Shop No. 4


South Azimuth No. 8

Seismology Survey No. 7

Photo equatorial No. 9

Dominion Observatory

William Saunders Building No. 49

The Experimental Farm is off-limits to a medical centre.

A March 19, 1954 Privy Council Order-in-Council created by Canadian Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent.

A United Nations agency called UNESCO will remove the designation "UNESCO World Heritage Site" from the Rideau Canal, if a hospital is built near Dow's Lake. Residential towers, parking garages and health care centres cannot be constructed within 500 metres or 1,640 feet of a World Heritage Site buffer zone. (Google: "May 2018, State of Conservation Report Rideau Canal" and go to "November 14, 2019.)
Agriculture Minister Sidney Arthur Fisher and Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier on the grounds of the CEF in the early 1900's. A National Archives photo.

House of Commons Ottawa May 13, 1988
 The Hon. John Wise (Minister of Agriculture): "...Next to the Parliament Buildings, the Experimental Farm is the second most popular tourist attraction here in Ottawa."
House of Commons Ottawa August 1, 1958 The Hon. Hazen Robert Argue, C.C.F, MP and Senator: "...I would express the hope that the central experimental farm may be kept in its present location. I think it is doing tremendous work and is, amongst other things, a most valuable tourist attraction in the capital city."




 

Thursday, January 9, 2025

"Canada's Farm" cannot not be encroached upon by a hospital.

 The entire Experimental Farm is a National Historic Site of Canada and a National Interest Land Mass. Also, the Dominion Observatory is part of the Parliamentary Precinct:

 "The popularity of the Observatory occurred when it opened in 1905, due to the support of Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Laurier's advocation reinforced the idea that this Observatory was to be considered an arm of the parliamentary precinct. At the time it was recognized as a national achievement, where the nation's time would be kept, and it would be a symbol of Canada's progress in astronomical science." (From: 'Journal of the Study of Architecture in Canada' and 'Astronomer Mary Grey and the Architecture of Canada's Dominion Observatory'. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada-Sharon Odell, page 10/67.)

"The Central Experimental Farm should remain an open area in perpetuity". From a March 19, 1954 Privy Council Order in Council signed by Canadian Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent.

House of Commons June 18, 1958 Hon. George James McIlraith (Ottawa West): "Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister is now prepared to make the statement he said he would make concerning the policy of the government with respect to building on the central experimental farm?"

Hon. Howard Charles Green (Minister of Public Works): "The policy is that no buildings will be built on the central experimental farm except buildings for the Department of Agriculture."

Mr. Mcilraith: "If I may pursue the first question a bit further, has the minister come to any conclusion as to what will be done with the land on the experimental farm now occupied by the temporary buildings when they are removed?"

Mr. Green: "I take it that the hon. member for Ottawa West refers to temporary buildings Nos. 5 and 8. For some years the policy has been that when these temporary buildings are torn down nothing will be constructed on the site."

After Building No.5 was demolished the land became the Dow's Lake parking lot. No.8 became Queen Juliana Park. Photo is from Eric Darwin. 

The 14-acre Queen Juliana Park was a gift to Canadians in 1976.

Ottawa Research and Development Centre

  • Property Number: 08625
  • Use (s): Agricultural Research and Management
  • Interest: Crown Owned
  • Address: 960 Carling Ave,
  • Municipality: Ottawa, ON
  • Land Area: (ha) 409.8200 or 1,012.68727 acres
  • Buildings: 87
  • Floor Area: (sq. m.) 100,214,0200
  • Record Created On: July 18th 1990
  • Record Last Modified On: November 10th 2021


Heritage buildings that were protected in 2021
  • K.W. Neatby #20
  • Laboratory Services #22
  • Michelle Comeau Learning Centre-Nutrition Building #59
  • Arboretum Building---CEF Horticulture #74
  • Swine Barn-Swine Showcase #91
  • Engineering Research #94
  • Carpenter Shop #98
Not Protected and Facing Imminent Demolition
  • The Dominion Observatory
  • South Azimuth
  • William Saunders Building

Landscapes that are endangered

The Arboretum "...A huge section of the Arboretum was rezoned, without public input or consent, for the new Civic Hospital, cutting down 700 trees in the process." (The Glebe Report, page 5, September 13 2024.)

The William Saunders Garden, where hundreds of historic trees will be uprooted for a Civic Hospital parking lot.

Commissioners Park may be converted to a parking lot. 

Trees beside Prince of Wales Drive, including Isabella Preston's crabapple trees and cherry blossom trees.

The Dominion Observatory
South Azimuth