Members of the public will finally get a chance to have their say on City Hall’s plans to locate a new Central Library — but not nearly soon enough, says one prominent advocacy group.
The CEO of the Ottawa Public Library, Danielle McDonald, has announced that the city will reveal its preferred location for the city’s planned Central Library at a technical briefing on Dec.15.
However, the public will not be invited to speak at the meeting, which will consist of a staff presentation and staff recommendations.
The public will get a chance to voice opinions at a subsequent meeting on Jan. 31, just eight days before a crucial gathering of the full city council to consider the issue.
Twelve properties have been evaluated for the new building, which will replace the main branch location on Metcalfe Street, slated to close in 2020. Five properties are located in the downtown core, two are east of the Rideau Canal and the other five are west of Bronson Avenue.
Emilie Taman, spokesperson for the advocacy group Bookmark the Core, said the public should have been invited to speak at the meeting in December when the location is revealed.
“The Jan. 31 meeting is not a consultation with the public,” said Taman, whose group is pushing for a downtown core location for the Central Library between Bronson and the canal. “The board is not seeking out the public, they are not asking any questions of the public.”
Bookmark the Core presented its views to city council last year, and received backing from the Centretown Citizens Community Association.
Tom Whillans, CCCA president, said it is imperative to keep the library in as central a location as possible.
City officials have been considering a LeBreton Flats location for the Central Library, but critics have argued that’s too far west of the downtown population that currently uses the main branch of the library on Metcalfe Street.
Whillans’ group is also looking for more consultation with the public. “Once that preferred location is released, we have a very short window to comment as a community,” he said.
The preferred bid was going to be presented to council for approval in December, but the library board decided to delay the announcement for a month to allow a month-long public survey to take place, according to Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney.
Tierney, chair of the Ottawa Public Library board, said the public survey gives people an opportunity to speak out.
“People who don’t have time to come down to City Hall will be able to submit this survey online,” Tierney said. “People are also welcome to come in and speak to the selection on the library board meeting (on Jan. 31).”
The city is allocating $2 million in the 2017 municipal budget for planning the Central Library.
Taman said that tight timeline is not conducive to any substantial public debate on the chosen location.
“It’s a shame that there wouldn’t be an earlier opportunity for these comments to be considered, so they actually have some kind of impact on the decision-making process,” she said.
Taman said the public will not have time for their views to be heard on Jan. 31, because of the quick turnaround to the council meeting.
Tierney said the properties being considered for the Central Library are not all publicly owned, and that because some of the locations are private, it is difficult to put together a presentation for public consultation.
“That makes this process much more difficult,” he explained, “because we’ve never done anything like this before.” In the ongoing site selection for the new Ottawa Civic Hospital, the National Capital Commission controls all of the federal properties under consideration, allowing public consultations to occur more easily, Tierney said.
Still, he said the public will get the chance to weigh in through the survey.
“We established the process well over a year ago and made it very clear what the process will be,” he said. “We’re not going to deviate from it.”