O Ottawa. NCC Docks Its Vision: GRAY

So, is this all you’ve got National Capital Commission?

Really?

Here we are in the capital of a G7 country, and we pay $202 million for an organization that is to foster a sense of pride and accomplishment in what is supposed  the gem of a city in Canada. Might be someday if Mayor Mark Sutcliffe can make the trains run on time. And what does the NCC come up with?

A bunch of docks. People can swim and dive from these. That should help keep Alberta a proud part of Confederation.

And that’s not all. The NCC has got itself a sauna. No doubt the people of Winnipeg will be rushing to the mysterious east to use that. Is that all the vision of Tobi “Bubbles” Nussbaum?

Possibly his national chairmanship could learn a speck from my father and uncle.

They went out and bought a bunch of lumber, collected rocks from around the Canadian Shield and some piping and built a magnificent dock at our family cottage. And get this your chairmanship, they did it for the cost of materials, some very hard labour (just how much heavy-lifting is there at the NCC?) and they found a triple use for the dock. You could swim and dive from it, you could dock four boats and you could sit in a Muskoka chair and enjoy the sunset. Their reward? A beer and a sense of accomplishment and a damn nice view and a good look at the porcupine which walked between the dock and the cottage on his way to dinner. Atta boy. Three times the dock usage for great workmanship and a micro-cost of the NCC examples. O Canada.

Why they even put hinges on the dock so you could lower it into the water in the spring and arc it out in the fall with an ATV. Bet your docks can’t do that, your chairmanship. Just like they can’t park a boat. Fill your boots there Bubbles.

God, more docks in the national capital. It makes you want to hug a beaver.

This from the organization that has taken half a century to get plans in place for a redeveloped LeBreton Flats. Is that a vision or blindness?

How about a little more imagination from Bubbles and a bit more infrastructure than my father and uncle could conjure in a couple days with a plan on the back of an envelope.

Ken Gray is the editor of The Bulldog.

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