Renaming of parkway still shrouded in mystery

Not a whole lot to see in 180 pages NCC released on why road called Sir John A. Macdonald

The National Capital Commission has released 180 pages of documents on the renaming of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in August.

It is mostly a grim read, full of blanks, both literal and logical, with at least 65 more pages deleted.

Highlights and observations: ❚ Discussion of why the renaming was a good idea — Why now? Why this road? — has been redacted, never occurred, or sits in vaults beyond the reach of the Access to Information law. ❚ The NCC has no commemorative naming policy and, frankly, didn’t know how to respond to this request. ❚ What John Baird wants at the NCC, he gets; and he wanted this. ❚ It was so hush-hush, the NCC forgot or was unable tell key players like the RCMP, the city, fire, ambulance — anybody outside the cone of silence — until days after the announcement. ❚ The RCMP were not amused. ❚ The four new signs cost about $60,000.

Citizen reporter Ian MacLeod asked for all records relating to the renaming of the Ottawa River Parkway from 2007 until late in 2012. Good idea. It seemed, for one thing, to come out of the blue when it was rolled out at a morning press briefing by Baird on Aug. 15, 2012.

Indeed, from 2007 until the fall of 2011, there was no discussion.

Zero. Not one word or memo.

Then came an op-ed piece in the Citizen from Bob Plamondon, an author often referred to as a “Tory insider.” He is either an extremely persuasive writer or Baird’s new BFF. Not being “an insider”, we wouldn’t venture a guess.

Here’s how the piece, published in October 2011, ended: “Having spoken with many federal officials ... I believe the parkway by the Ottawa River could be named for Macdonald with widespread enthusiasm and pride.

“In 2015 we will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Macdonald’s birth. It would be a wonderful tribute to walk, bike or drive up Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to launch this capital tribute. He is the man who made us.” 2015? Why wait, my good man! Days after publication, the wheels were turning at the NCC, with a lot of head-scratching about who needed to be consulted and why, and where the landmines might be buried. The email trail touches a small army of NCC officials, from CEO Marie Lemay to chair Russell Mills to in-house lawyers to media staff, from VPs to secretaries. They don’t, however, get far.

Land manager Mike Muir, if I might go out on a limb, made the most sense in a December 2011 memo to NCC director Marc Corriveau, in which he pointed out:

a) “there is no policy or process”; b) “re-naming is very controversial topic, and would tie up resources for the NCC”; c) look at the mess the city got into with Charlotte Whitton and d) “John A has had his share of controversy.” All good points. Another staffer wrote an email to Corriveau, saying there had been requests to name various NCC spots after people like Karsh, or Elizabeth Manley or war veterans, and “we have always declined.”

Internal briefing notes prepared for the unveiling make plain the involvement from Baird, Canada’s Foreign Affairs minister, and the minister responsible for the NCC.

“Through the NCC’s governance process (corporate planning process), Minister Baird gave the NCC direction to rename the ORP after Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada and the NCC Board approved the approach (June 2012).”

NCC and Co. did a fairly good job of keeping the renaming secret, save for a leak to Le Droit just before the announcement.

Too good a job, apparently.

The day after the unveiling, complete with a Sir John A. look-alike, the RCMP were on the phone.

“(An officer) just called me regarding the Ottawa River Parkway name change,” a media staffer wrote to corporate affairs. “He expressed his concern as they (and other emergency services) had not been advised of the name change.”

Oops. Guess it would help to tell the police authority that actually patrols the parkway.

And so, as late as five and six days after the public unveiling, NCC staff were sending emails to the City of Ottawa, festival organizers, museums and others, letting them know the old street name had been pulled from under them.

Seriously? What terrible planning, especially for a national “planning” organization.

If there had been a serious accident or heart attack victim lying in the middle of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway on Aug. 16, one only hopes the ambulance would figure out where it’s going.

And all of this aside from the main point: Why would you choose a four-lane, divided parkway that didn’t exist when Sir John A. was alive to honour his memory?

We still don’t really know.