Bridge Early, NCC? How About LeBreton?

Published 08/28/2023 · Updated 08/27/2023

The National Capital Commission has been telling anyone who will listen … and that’s not many … that it completed construction on the Champlain Bridge three months early.

That’s interesting. Who exactly set the start date? Or the finish line? Why the NCC.

And what constitutes open? Closing it at night apparently. There are other provisos to go with that.

But the general perception of open is that something be open. So closing it for stretches at night doesn’t sound so open. That sounds like not really open.

Frankly, the early date on the bridge is a bit pathetic. The NCC is so late with things that kind of having something open when it closes constitutes open kind of? It also constitutes desperate. And where is that joyous press release from the gerbils at the NCC on the Chaudiere Bridge supposed to be open in May but that is not pushed back to the fall. Or the release on closing Westboro Beach last summer for construction but then the construction didn’t occur. So why wasn’t the beach open? Furthermore, why didn’t the local councillor notice?

Here are some other target dates that Ottawa’s favourite federal Crown corporation might address. When will the polluted land on LeBreton Flats be remediated? Is that one of the reasons the NHL is loathe to move the Ottawa Senators’ arena there? Or is that the Senators wondering? NHL commissioner Gary Bettman came to town saying the LeBreton site is too small. Is it too polluted?

And here’s a start and finish date that might interest Ottawan’s.

When will redevelopment of LeBreton Flats begin? When will redevelopment of LeBreton Flats finish?

When will we see a press release from the NCC touting the lateness of LeBreton? When will the start date be? Or was it a half-century ago? It’s so hard to know.

Champlain Bridge Open Except When It’s Not

But here’s a bit of advice from a veteran Ottawa-watcher for the Senators.

Stay away from the NCC and the City of Ottawa and everything will work out fine. Your agent has two words for you … LRT and LeBreton.

Do we need say more?

Former mayor and pioneer train-builder Jim Watson used to say that when something was late it was because he wanted to get things right. Maybe that’s the line the NCC should adopt when nothing continues to happen at LeBreton.

Except the NCC has had more than a half-century to get it right.

Ken Gray

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