Ideas to improve Ottawa’s downtown

Time to instil new life in old buildings to make the capital vibrant, says Ken Rubin

Only in Canada do we let an anonymous government spokesman announce a bright future for the long-vacant former American embassy as the new centre for Indigenous Peoples.

Perhaps that’s because a CrownIndigenous partnership and reconciliation has not arrived, but the centre could be a portrait of a new relationship to come.

While we’re thinking about it, many more changes downtown would greatly improve our city and skyline.

How about letting the Government Conference Centre, after the last parliamentarian leaves, become the new Union Station Meeting Place and home for the provinces, including three new former territories?

It always looked good as a venue for federal-provincialterritorial conferences and as a classy rail terminal.

So why not let all provinces have gathering places there? And why not let Quebec back in the front door as an unique and distinct Canadian partner?

Along the path of Canada’s parliamentary/judicial precinct and Confederation Boulevard area, there are a few other functional places needed besides the new monuments that are going up.

Near the site originally selected for the victims of communism memorial should be a Citizen’s Assembly Place for Canadians of all origins and views — alongside a new spectacular Federal Court building.

We also need a Press and Freedom of Expression Centre, to give us a renewed media and transparency focal point.

So what if that means kicking people out of the National Press Building who have taken over most of it. They have plenty of office towers.

Go across the Ottawa River divide and the E.B. Eddy complex needs a new life. It should be renovated as a Labour Meeting Place, side-by-side with a vibrant Celebrate Women’s Centre.

And yes, give a new, combined Ottawa and Gatineau central libraries and the National Archives a larger and more prominent space to allow Canadians an interactive learning place of international stature.

This would help build a vibrant new downtown for the capital, whose signature and overall environment should be more spacious and gracious. We can and must expect more than a sports arena, condos for the better off and dismal government building complexes.

And Canada and its capital skyline and psyche will be a better and more united place.

We should start real consultations in our 150th year, and so, for Canada 2067 we have a better and more mature capital.

Many more changes downtown would greatly improve our city and skyline.