Editorial: Mayor should invite, not mock public input

By Dustin Cook

The intense debate around the planned location for the city’s new Central Library has reached its climax, and the library board’s chosen site at the eastern edge of LeBreton Flats will have city council’s blessing by now.

But the dust will not soon settle on the issue because of the way this year-long fight played out. Despite some opportunity near the end of the process for serious public input, there was a sense the fix was in all along for the 557 Wellington St. site. And the debate over the city’s future library hub was handled less like a civil conversation than a social media battle with mean tweets and rude comments.

There is an emerging idea for a potential new library branch in the downtown core to compensate for this loss. Let’s make sure that conversation unfolds in a more constructive manner.

Those on all sides are clearly very passionate, but the process for choosing a Central Library location was not the way a major city should handle an issue with such a significant impact on the public.

Many Centretown residents are opposed to the chosen site because although it’s still within the boundaries of Somerset Ward, LeBreton Flats is a good distance from the downtown core and certainly not as conveniently located as the current branch at Laurier Avenue and Metcalfe Street.

When the Ottawa Public Library Board voted 8-1 in favour of 557 Wellington at a long, fractious meeting last week, 16 of the 21 members of the public spoke against the board’s preferred site.

Yet Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney was the only member of the board to vote against the site, as the majority of her constituents are against the location.

On the other hand, Mayor Jim Watson championed the board’s preferred site.

In the days leading up to the pivotal board meeting, Watson ignited a Twitter battle when Bookmark the Core, a group advocating for the Central Library to be built in the heart of downtown, released a video that suggested Confederation Park as a potential alternative site.

The mayor immediately rallied residents via Twitter to “speak out” against the proposed use of precious downtown green space. He received responses from many backers, whose messages he re-tweeted in abundance.

For a mayor who is often emphasizing the importance of cooperation and collaboration, the petty politics of his tweet campaign were beneath him.

The NCC-owned park was never considered a serious option and was not even on the list of 12 properties that had been reviewed as potential sites. Still, Watson chose to respond to this ill-advised idea in the most public and churlish of ways.

Then, out of the blue, he tweeted to Emilie Taman, the co-chair and spokesperson for Bookmark the Core, that the video “has clearly backfired.” This is not the way the leader of the city should be responding in even a heated community debate.

Residents have a right and a responsibility to raise their concerns, and attacking public opinion — however misguided it may be — is not the answer. Watson, the library board and city councillors must always try to find ways to reassure local residents that their interests matter. Perhaps that chance will arise with the coming debate over a possible branch in the downtown core.