Say what you will about 2016, but our city thrived

It’s been a year of progress, from LeBreton to the Civic

It has kind of crept up on us, but 2016 has been a year of remarkable progress for Ottawa. Several long-standing problems that have been on the inaction list have suddenly moved to the get-itdone phase.

Who would have thought we would see movement on LeBreton Flats, a new library and a new Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital, all in one year? Not that we are acting hastily — that’s just not Ottawa’s style. We like to toss an idea around for a decade or six before we make a move.

The biggest gain of the year was real progress, at last, on developing the long-derelict Flats. The plan for a new NHL rink, plus housing and commercial development, stops short of original or exciting, but at least it’s a plan, and a realistic one. Government has no interest in the site and any other private sector proposal would only be a variant on the same theme. We have long passed the point where almost anything would be better than the undeveloped mess than has existed there since the 1960s.

The new central library, assuming it is built, will remove a major item from Ottawa’s list of civic embarrassments. Our main library branch would be inadequate in a city half our size. The plan to build a joint facility with Library and Archives Canada is the sort of sensible intergovernmental co-operation taxpayers would like to see more often. It’s hard to say what epiphany turned Mayor Jim Watson into a supporter of a new library, but let’s just be grateful that it happened. Of course, there has been the standard fussing about the site, notwithstanding the fact that there is no better alternative.

For a while, it looked like site-fussing would delay or even derail our badly needed new hospital. The fact that a site on the holy ground of the Central Experimental Farm could be endorsed by Ottawa politicians in short order is progress indeed.

In Ottawa, we like to toss an idea around for a decade or six before we make a move.

And those were not the only seemingly intractable problems that moved closer to resolution this year. Plans have finally been made to develop the former CFB Rockcliffe as a residential community for 10,000 people. That one involved co-operation between the federal government, Algonquins and developers.

And let’s not forget the new Ottawa Art Gallery, expected to be open next fall. The downtown library might be an outdated bunker, but it’s a palace compared to the place where Ottawa’s important, city-owned art collection is housed.

Despite all the progress, we won’t run out of well-established problems any time soon. When Tunney’s Pasture was briefly considered as a home for the new Civic, it highlighted what an underused piece of land it is. The federal government is working on a plan to redevelop and intensify the site, but don’t hold your breath waiting for results.

While it is encouraging to see the art gallery and the library moving toward respectability, the Bytown Museum falls far short of what one would expect in a city of our size. Ottawa has a fascinating story, but the museum is simply too small to tell it well, despite the excellent efforts of its staff. Its 100th anniversary next year would be a good time for Ottawans to think bigger.

Most of the progress noted here falls under the heading of government building things. That’s fine, but Ottawa also needs a thriving private sector to support our civic ambitions. Local entrepreneur John Ruddy’s $1.5-million donation to the new art gallery is an example of the public benefit that comes from private sector success.

There are many challenges of both imagination and execution ahead, but the good news is that Ottawa finally has some civic ambitions. Even better, it is starting to make them tangible.

In 2017, all the talk will be about Canada’s 150th celebrations, but the changes we are making to our city will last long after the parties are done. It took 150 years, but Ottawa is finally starting to grow up.