Public floods NCC with views about site

There’s nothing like a deadline, it seems, to get people’s attention.

On Tuesday, the National Capital Commission tweeted that it had received more than 3,000 responses to its online survey soliciting public views on the location of The Ottawa Hospital’s planned new $2-billion Civic campus.

By the time the survey closed on Thursday, that had skyrocketed to 7,695 responses, the NCC said in an email. Coverage of the issue in the Citizen “certainly helped,” spokesman Nicholas Galletti said.

The survey sought the public’s guidance on the criteria an NCC evaluation committee should use to select the best site for the new hospital among 12 possible locations.

Though it didn’t directly ask respondents which of the 12 sites they favoured, it gave them the opportunity to express their views in a comments section.

The survey results will be considered by the evaluation committee as it develops a recommendation that will be considered by the NCC’s board at its meeting on Nov. 23.