Ottawa architect Watson Balharrie had opinions about the National Capital Plan’s vision for architecture in Ottawa. Images: (left) Ottawa Citizen, February 19, 1946, 12; (right) Community Planning Review, 2, no. 2 (May 1952).
Although it was indisputably popular among many of Ottawa’s citizens, the National Capital Plan was not without its detractors. Both the concept and implementationof theGreen Belt, for example, were a problem for many and the plan was sometimes used by locals to oppose necessary infrastructure projects. Criticisms of the Plan were not limited to their urban planning aspects. As it would turn out, even the fairly basic prescriptions for architecture raised a few hackles.
McDonald called for a National Capital Region to be pried from the hands of those in Quebec City and in Toronto. Image: By DPenner1 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58019866.
I’m sure that, if you’ve been following along with these entries from the Jones Commission that I’ve been transcribing, you’ve likely found that they’ve been, in the main, stunningly repetitive in what they have stated. If so, you’re hardly the only one. Reporters charged with following the testimonies offered up at the Commission noticed too, and were perhaps a little bored with the assignment.
Although the rural Township of North Gower had a list of things that needed improvement, an expanded role for the County government was envisioned. Image: Hellmut W. Schade / National Capital Commission / Library and Archives Canada RG 34 R1181 Acc. 1986-004 NPC Box 302 Item 5066298.
The Township of North Gower, which in 1965 remained chiefly rural in nature, knew that growth was inevitable and had already implemented some planning functions.
Having been organized in 1873, the Collegiate Institute Board had established a system and series of agreements with the Townships that it was anxious to protect. Image: Basketball game at Lisgar Collegiate, February 1956. City of Ottawa Archives, Item CA037169.
When officials of the Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa appeared in front of the Jones Commission, they took the time to carefully explain the system they had worked to establish, why any dramatic changes to the administration of secondary education that might come with a regional government are, at best, unnecessary, and that the existing system may be extended.
The advertising campaign for Minto’s Parkwood Hills began in September 1959. Image: Ottawa Citizen, September 24, 1959, National Home Week Supplement, 3.
Much like Lynwood Village, Crystal Beach, and other new subdivisions in the Township of Nepean, the Parkwood Hills was also by-and-large satisfied with the foregoing arrangement in 1965. No representative of the Parkwood Hills Community Association appeared before Jones.
In 1954, Constance Bay residents hatched a plan to turn a portion of the township into a beaver sanctuary that would rival Quebec’s “Beaver Town” Image: City of Ottawa Archives, Item CA004327. May 20, 1954.
Murray Jones heard from the Township of Torbolton that regional government it something that may be supported and that any Regional Council should be elected at-large.
The Eastview (Vanier) Public School Board declined to send a representative for the in-person hearing portion of the Jones Commission, but did submit its views in writing. The written submission indicated that it was supportive of some form of regional government.
The Village of Rockcliffe Park considered itself to be well-provisioned, but was not against cooperation with the region. Image: City of Ottawa Archives, CA034238.
The Village of Rockcliffe Park was next to offer up its testimony to the Jones Commission after Ottawa Mayor Charlotte Whitton. Struggles over the naming of streets aside, for the most part, in 1965, the small affluent municipality appeared somewhat calm relative to its township neighbours on the topic of regional government.
Murton A. Seymour was appointed Special Commissioner for the Ottawa Land Inquiry. Image: Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.
During the Summer of 1953, after some back-and-forth with the Province of Ontario, the backup requested by Ottawa Mayor Charlotte Whitton arrived. On April 23, decorated aviation pioneer and lawyer Murton Adams Seymour was appointed as Commissioner for what became known as the Ottawa Land Inquiry.
Charlotte Whitton sought new rights from the province to manage postwar growth in Ottawa. Image: Ted Grant / Library and Archives Canada. Accession 1981-181 NPC, Item 61-1180, fr. 25-30.
It wasn’t quite clear in 1952 how City of Ottawa could manage the rapid growth that took place after the Second World War, or if it even had the power to do so. A number of housing projects, in particular those at Manor Park and Mann Avenue (Strathcona Heights), had presented significant political and functional challenges to the city and exposed the shortcomings of an civic administration unaccustomed to managing large-scale development projects.
The Department of Planning and Development was one of the earlier tenants in the Bay-Grovesnor Building at 880 Bay. The early modern office’s main tenant was Bell Canada, but in addition to Planning and Development, its builder, Soules Construction, occupied an office on the top floor along with its architect, Charles B. Dolphin. Image: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 2032, Series 841, File 59, Item 17.
Picking up from the last one, it’s worth noting that it is not been entirely frequent that a planning, development, or housing issue particular to Ottawa has been considered to merit much more than the cursory attention of Ontario’s policymakers at Queen’s Park and its environs. To be certain, while these are absolutely within the Province’s purview, Ottawa has tended to be treated as something of a peripheral concern. Or at least to a greater degree than most of Ontario’s other municipalities, a bit of a self-governing colony, and even if not, it was normally easier to leave most issues to the City and the Dominion.
