The National Capital Commission has hosted a series of open houses and conducted an online survey to gather initial public input into its new draft master plan for managing the region’s extensive Greenbelt lands.
An open house at the Nepean Sportsplex on May 20 offered members of the public an opportunity to look at display panels detailing various planned updates to the commission’s Greenbelt Master Plan.
The original plan dates to 2013, and the NCC runs an amendment cycle roughly every decade. The Nepean open house, along with others held May 21 in Gloucester and May 26 in Kanata, were the first steps in the current review, which will wrap up in early 2028 after subsequent rounds of public consultation, further refinement of the draft plan and finally the presentation of a completed new master plan to the federal agency’s board of directors.
Overall, the NCC said more than 600 people attended the three open house events in May and more than 925 online surveys were completed before the digital outreach portal closed on June 8.
Information panels placed around a room at the Sportsplex highlighted the various uses and features of the Greenbelt, a 20,000-hectare, crescent-shaped tract of land that wraps around central Ottawa. These features include agriculture, archeology, heritage, and seven sectors that divide up the lands.
Andrew Sacret, the NCC’s chief of planning and design, described the Greenbelt as flying under the radar for many visitors to the capital as a destination to visit.
“(Canadians) don’t associate Ottawa with the Greenbelt at this point, but maybe we can do a little more to have people, when they visit the capital, go a little further than Parliament and the museums, and say, let’s see what’s out there in the Greenbelt,” he said.
The 2013 plan’s pillars focused on the environment, sustainable agriculture, recreation and facilities management. The draft guiding principles appear to put a higher priority on sustainable agriculture to help combat climate change, as well as a heightened focus on ecological protection and creating public experiences.
Priorities listed in the updated plan include responsible leadership, ecological integrity, agricultural vitality and capital experience.
Sacret described responsible leadership as engaging in an open, democratic process with stakeholders and partners.
“We recognize that we can’t do it all alone . . . We’ve got to understand what the public wants us to consider, and there are a number of other (government and community) actors as well,” he said. “It’s really about understanding the overall context and trying our best to balance the different interests.”
Sacret pointed to outlying ecological corridors beyond the Greenbelt as possible future sites of opportunity to preserve ecological connections.
“Ecological corridors that are mapped outside the Greenbelt (are) an opportunity, not necessarily for acquisition, but for working with partners to preserve those, because patches of habitat don’t occur alone, they need that connectivity.”
Retired architect Ian Young said he had difficulty interpreting what the NCC intends behind the notion of having “vision.”
“What is this vision?” he asked. “When it comes down to the average person, they’re going to say, ‘What will it mean for my children … or my grandchildren?’ Is it going to respond to their needs … or the needs of the city councillor over the next four years?”
Young, who has attended the NCC urbanism lab public talks and interacted with the NCC throughout his career, said that the low turnout and the setup for the Sportsplex consultation does not inspire public confidence.
“It’s unfortunate that it can’t bring in more people and really get (them) excited,” he said. “It needs to be an interactive seminar, I think, to be more effective.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated June 9 to include more information about the NCC open houses and online survey.
