The Mysterious Elusive 2nd Tewin MOU

The Bulldog last weekend asked City of Ottawa media relations for the second memorandum of understanding outlined in the Official Plan concerning the Tewin project.

A long shot to be sure what with the city’s obsession with secrecy flying in the face of open, caring and inclusive government. But worth a try. Who knows? Maybe the city will do the right thing.

After a few days, this well-parsed note landed in your agent’s inbox:

Hi Ken,

We just confirmed with staff that the additional MOU has not been finalized yet and as such, it isn’t available at this time.

We’re sorry we don’t have anything to provide you with right now.

Media Relations

You could set your watch to that kind of response.

Media relations should be working for the media and the public rather than for developers … despite the fact that working for developers appears to be a trend at Ottawa City Hall. Maybe the public-relations folks will be seconded by Taggart for tossing compost on the lawns of newly finished homes. Tossing compost … now there’s something PR is trained for.

Now the truth is a bit different from the city answer above. Bulldog sources told us that … despite the Official Plan saying there was to be a second MOU…  in fact, there isn’t one. There’s supposed to be one. But there isn’t.

That said, a fictional MOU can’t be “finalized” so the city’s answer has an element of truth.

Your agent discovered between the time asking Happy Town News and getting the delayed answer that there was no MOU.

So I was curious to see what the city’s response would be when I’d already obtained the answer.

The MOU hasn’t been “finalized.” It hasn’t been started either.

Ken Gray