Peace and Environment News* March 1991
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Peace and Environment News * March 1991 |
by Ann Coffey
Wake up, Ottawa!
Federal, regional and municipal plans to develop LeBreton Flats will soon deprive us of our last opportunity to keep a substantial area of inner city greenspace. Ottawa has no real city park. We have nowhere but LeBreton left to create one.
The planner's goals are to "establish a district on LeBreton with cultural, institutional, residential, commercial and recreational dimensions which will attract Canadians, reflect Canadian values and explore themes that will be important in the future."
The National Capital Commission's LeBreton agenda includes completing a grand Confederation Boulevard design, which will provide for hotels and national institutions. Hotel revenue would fund future developments.
The Region's concern is improving transitways and interprovincial connections, which may include a new interprovincial link by Lemieux Island to be spliced into the Queensway with a cloverleaf configuration.
The City is involved with housing and active parks.
Where is our vision for Ottawa?
Federal and regional goals fail to consider the environmental implications of building 2,500 to 4,000 dwellings and offices on LeBreton Flats. Estimate one car per dwelling plus several per office, include traffic from hotels and national institutions, stir in heavy service vehicles, add three interprovincial commuter and trucking arteries and the diesel-belching Transitway, blend in traffic increases of 40% to 87% by the year 2000, and you have the perfect recipe for wrecking Ottawa's air quality and for creating a less-habitable urban environment.
Planners questioned about the LeBreton development's potential for creating more urban smog shrug and agree that conditions will worsen. How will such worsening conditions "attract Canadians"?
Try inhaling rush-hour "air" around the Albert-Booth-Transitway vicinity. Then walk 200 yards to the endangered LeBreton Campground to smell the difference trees make. Think about the effects of vehicle emissions on health. Already government data show that half of Canada's population is routinely exposed to ground-level ozone in excess of maximum acceptable levels.
New roads will sever ski-paths, cycleways and wildlife corridors connecting the Experimental Farm, Rideau Canada and Dow's Lake with Ottawa shorelines, the aqueduct and Gatineau Park.
Now, raccoons, skunks, groundhogs, chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels frequent LeBreton. Beavers play in its waterways. Aqueduct greenery shelters small mammals and a wide variety of birds. The natural shoreline bordered by wildflowers provides waterfowl habitat.
Environmental concerns not addressed
Critics of the LeBreton plan discuss social and economic issues, but environmental concerns are not adequately addressed. The environment should be given top priority.
Canadians worry about global issues—ozone depletion, acid rain, greenhouse gases, overpopulation, soil erosion and deforestation. We adopt beleaguered belugas and buy acres of rainforest. We support environmental organizations and point fingers at the pollution problems of other people.
Problems from pollution
Certainly we should think globally. But we must think locally too. We need to act locally now to reduce Ottawa's worsening air, noise and water pollution so that we will keep the city habitable for future populations.
The LeBreton site has its own pollution problems. The development plans include a triangular lawn right on the current snow dump. Lead from numerous known and unknown snow dumps contaminates LeBreton. Fourteen known former industrial sites in the area have varying degrees of contamination and two old landfills still leak methane gas.
If decontamination is needed before the land can be built on, it will be very costly. "Decommissioning" costs $1,000,000 per acre and involves removing the top six to eight feet of contaminated land and transporting it elsewhere. How will this affect local groundwater? Will toxins leach out of landfills and into an already overburdened Ottawa River?
British researchers show that clean-up attempts in contaminated industrial areas pollute local waterways and groundwater. Decontamination and building operations destabilize contaminants, adding to the run-off and increasing pressure on sewers.
Examples set by other municipalities
Planners continue to ignore drastic measures introduced by other cities in the world to counter pollution.
What could LeBreton be like?
Sensitively restored as wooded parkland, this remarkably well-located site would benefit our health as well as boosting Ottawa's third-largest industry, tourism. Consider the benefits of Stanley Park in Vancouver, Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Hyde Park in London, and Boston Commons. Stanley Park is one of Vancouver's greatest attractions.
All federal, provincial, regional and municipal land ultimately belongs to us, the taxpaying public. Shall we let these levels of government sell off publicly-owned land to private developers?
The prospect of "wasting" such prime real estate on greenspace horrifies planners. NCC chair Jean Pigott warns "Woe betide anybody who stops this process now."
Woe betide us if we don't!
Planners should scrap irresponsible "cross-that-bridge-later" approaches and explore innovative greenspace concepts to ensure Ottawa's future health. Overdevelopment has already ruined thousands of cities. Why should we follow suit?
Converted October 28, 2001 - Lg
To follow up on this article, contact the author or the organizations/individuals mentioned; do not contact the Peace and Environment Resource Centre - we cannot provide follow up or contact information. This article is an archival copy of the printed one in the Peace and Environment News (PEN). Viewpoints expressed should not be taken to represent the opinions of the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, the PEN, or our supporters.
