Earth Day 2021: Trees not Embassies

On Earth Day 2021, the weather and a nasty pandemic cramped our style.

It was impossible to call for crowds to occupy the greenspace under threat from the National Capital Commission. There was to be no kite flying, no decorating of trees, no noisy children underfoot, no fiery speeches.

Instead, 4 masked people wearing parkas and mitts stood apart from each other on the SJAM roadway at Slidell Street at 8 a.m. on Earth Day, holding signs that shouted our demand—TREES NOT EMBASSIES. Thank you for your gallant effort!

A lot is happening…

Support for Mechanicsville residents and its community association is growing in Kitchissippi Ward. When Mechanicsville resident, Patricia Turk, set up an online petition last weekend, more than 1200 people signed it before Earth Day. Who is it aimed at? The list is long and includes our city councillor, Jeff Leiper; head of the NCC, Tobi Nussbaum; Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Catherine McKenna, and more. You can still sign it today, and if you are inclined to let your wallet talk, you can also donate to the community’s Go Fund Me page, to help cover legal costs. Want to record a short video message to tell politicians what you think they need to hear so they can act as though Ottawa and Canada are in a climate crisis? Please add your voice. And tell your neighbours.

You might also want to read Ms. Turk’s informative opinion piece from the local newspaper, or watch this TV news interview with another Mechanicsville resident, Roy Atkinson.

Is your community association publicly supporting Mechanicsville's fight for greenspace? Wellington West Community Association and Hintonburg Community Association have done so. If you care about this issue, please let your CA's executive know, and please urge them to write a letter to Councillor Leiper, to the head of the NCC, to Minister McKenna, etc.

You deserve an update

Support and awareness are growing, and an update to tree lovers in this ward is overdue. This is a big fight and it will play out, eventually, at planning committee when city councillors vote whether to support or reject the NCC’s rezoning application for the open space and treed site at the northern edge of Mechanicsville neighbourhood. It is likely that this issue will be dealt with at planning committee in May. The issues are complex, and here is a summary of main points.

1) April 21 letter from Mechanicsville to NCC's Chair and Board of Directors:

What is Mechanicsville Community Association asking the NCC to do?

• withdraw its zoning application to the City of Ottawa;

• incorporate this greenspace into the adjacent Ottawa River South Shore Riverfront Park where it will be connected to the National Pathway thereby enabling all Canadian to enjoy this beautiful site with elevated views to Lazy Bay;

• work with the local communities on the design of the greenspace and explore the Mechanicsville Community Association’s offer to work together to secure the resources needed to plant and maintain trees on this site.

The letter says, “As a minimum the Board should require that an Area Plan be developed that addresses, as a minimum, all of the above matters and be approved by the federal government before the City is requested to amend its planning documents and zoning.“

2) Kitchissippi needs MORE Greenspace in a densely populated neighbourhood

Loss of this treed and green land to buildings and/or parking lots translates into loss of valuable greenspace along the Ottawa River that thousands of people enjoy. The NCC’s recreational pathway along the Ottawa River depends on this 3.7-hectare site as a buffer between the river and the high-rise towers/dense low-rise buildings of Mechanicsville. Residents believe this piece of land is contiguous with the NCC’s riverside pathway, and have conveyed this message to the NCC.

Laroche Park, operated by the city of Ottawa, is sports activity park with no trees. It also serves greater Ottawa as a rented-out sports field. Local residents have a long history of using and loving the NCC’s green/treed site at the north end of Mechanicsville neighbourhood. These 3.7 hectares of NCC land are home to wildlife (like a pair of nesting owls in the spring of 2020) that bring nature close to urban residents.

The City of Ottawa Official Plan says there should be 4 hectares of greenspace/parks per 1000 people. A recent report describes the City average at 4.5 ha/1000 people. Yet the communities of Mechanicsville and Hintonburg each have less than 1 ha/1000 residents. With rapid densification, this will decrease significantly. The NCC lands in question add a significant amount of greenspace to these 2 communities. That’s why it’s important to maintain the land as greenspace.

3) Trees and the desire for community stewardship

The NCC document Forest Strategy 2021-2026 says all the right things. Page 24 states: By 2026 1. The NCC will maintain 2017 levels of canopy cover. 2. The NCC could potentially plant 100,000 trees.

Community groups support the strategy outlined in this NCC document, and have urged the NCC to apply it to this piece of land.

Mechanicsville Community Association is willing to work with the NCC to plant more trees in this space. Over the last 5 years, the NCC has entered into land access agreements with the Champlain Park Community Association and with Westboro Beach Community Association, whereby the communities assume a level of stewardship for NCC forested areas adjacent to their neighbourhoods. These pieces of land, like the 3.7 hectares north of Mechanicsville, are located on the south side of the SJAM roadway.

Over the past decade, the NCC has not invested in any way in maintaining trees on the 3.7 hectares of land. Some large multi-stemmed trees have blown down in windstorms, and remain sprawled on the ground. There are at least 75 large diameter native species trees on the site. These must be retained and cared for, and the NCC, if it entered a land access agreement with Mechanicsville (and possibly Hintonburg) community association(s), could be actively supporting existing tree canopy, as well as allowing tree planting to build a forest for tomorrow--a forest that reduces the impact of climate crisis, a forest for future generations.

4) Security Concerns re: the City of Ottawa's water system

These embassy-building plans cited by the NCC will exist within about 25 metres of Ottawa’s critical drinking water infrastructure.

The Lemieux Water Filtration plant provides half of the water to the City of Ottawa. This amounts to approximately 135 million litres of drinking water per day. A 6-metre diameter high pressure transmission line from the filtration plant supplies half of the city with water. It is located about 25 metres from the proposed embassy precinct.

On Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the United States, access to Lemieux Island was immediately restricted. Clearly the emergency plan in place within Ottawa identified the water supply as a possible target if the bombings were extended to Canada. Armed guards were posted at the entrance to Lemieux island for quite some time that day.

Ottawa is no stranger to violence related to diplomatic missions: the bombing of the Cuban Embassy in 1966 on Chapel St.; the bombing of the Cuban Embassy in 1974 on Echo Dr. (as well as several incidents in Montreal); the bombing, shooting and hostage taking at the Turkish Embassy in 1985 on Wurtemburg Street in Sandy Hill.

If a bombing occurred at any of these proposed embassies Ottawa could lose the ability to provide half of its daily drinking water for an indefinite amount of time. The city needs to do an analysis on this potential threat before it can even consider rezoning the land.

5) General security concerns re: embassy precinct next to densely populated urban enclave

The Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital has published a security risk analysis re: the NCC’s rezoning application. It did so because the NCC offered the city of Ottawa NO security risk analysis in its rezoning application for an embassy precinct.

The GA has written to the City of Ottawa’s planning department, urging it to investigate the security concerns that exist re: the rezoning of NCC greenspace for use by foreign embassies.

It is working on many fronts on this issue, and has raised security concerns with Global Affairs Canada, which would be involved in finding embassy space for countries seeking to build embassies--a possibility that may not even exist. Neither the NCC nor Global Affairs Canada has developed any business case for why embassy space is needed in Ottawa.