Heritage Ottawa poised to announce Château Laurier lawsuit

OTTAWA, Ont. - Heritage Ottawa is expected to announce this week that it will launch a lawsuit in an attempt to protect the stately Château Laurier from an unsightly and incompatible addition.

Sources have told the Ottawa Citizen that the court challenge, and a related fundraising initiative, will be unveiled at a Tuesday news conference.

The lawsuit is expected to challenge the heritage permit that gives owner Larco Investments Ltd. the right to proceed with a boxy, seven-storey addition to the iconic hotel, a designated heritage building.

David Flemming, chair of Heritage Ottawa’s advocacy committee, confirmed Sunday there would be “some type of litigation,” but he refused to detail the legal foundation of the lawsuit until the official announcement was made.

“Challenges can be made to the city’s decision and we’re looking at the options available to us,” Flemming said in an interview.

“We’re a volunteer organization and there will be a fundraising announcement made at the same time.”

A registered charity, Heritage Ottawa is an advocacy group that seeks to protect and promote sites of historical, architectural and cultural importance in the city.

Earlier this month, Ottawa city council gave the green light to the proposed hotel expansion, which has drawn widespread condemnation for its design.

Critics say the imposing addition, built on the site of the former parking garage, is incompatible with the “romantic spirit” of the Château and will spoil views of the picturesque hotel from Major’s Hill Park.

In letters sent to several Ontario cabinet ministers, Heritage Ottawa has argued there are options under the Ontario Heritage Act and The Planning Act that would allow the province to intervene in the approvals process and protect an important heritage site. It is still waiting for a reply to those letters.

“There’s a lot going on in the background now to try to resolve this,” Flemming said.

Heritage Ottawa has also been trying to get the federal government — the National Capital Commission and Parks Canada — involved since the 107-year-old hotel has been officially designated as a National Historic Site.

The hotel received that designation in 1981. As its official designation notes , the style of the Château Laurier heavily influenced the architecture of Ottawa for the first half of the 20th century: “From 1916 to as late as the 1950s, the federal government insisted that all federal architecture in Ottawa conform in some way to this style.

This is demonstrated in buildings such as the Confederation Building and the roof structure of the Supreme Court Building.”

The Château controversy has exposed the fact that a national historic site designation comes with little or no legal protection.

Writing in Policy Options magazine, Carleton University architectural historian Peter Coffman said Canada was the only G8 nation that had no legislation to protect its national historic sites. “This is not a distinction to be proud of,” he wrote.

Coffman says the Château debacle — approving a design widely acknowledged as a mistake — has exposed Canada’s heritage regulations as “a tangle of procedural loopholes and toothless tigers.”

“If we can’t protect the Château Laurier, then what can we protect?” he asked.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said the issue needed to be examined by the federal government.