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The Salvation Army says a purpose-built complex will be much better able to help people who need its services and will be neatly integrated into the neighbourhood in a way its Booth Centre never could be. The planning department agrees.

Final reports, with their recommendations and explanations, ordinarily get released to the public a week before a vote. The document is dated Oct. 16, well in advance of the committee meeting scheduled for Nov. 14, and has placeholder text in some sections. It’s obviously not finished. But the thrust is clear.

“The proposed development is a relocation of an existing facility from an area with a high concentration of shelters, to a site that will contain accessible supports, and is not a net increase in the number of shelters,” says the draft report’s conclusion.

That rationale, expressed just that simply, is repeated in several places.

Photo by Pat McGrath / Ottawa Citizen

“The outcome is tragic,” said Coun. Mathieu Fleury, who represents Rideau-Vanier. His ward includes both the ByWard Market, where the Salvation Army is now, and its Montreal Road destination. He’s opposed the move.

The city has a big official land-use plan and a specific one for Vanier, which have come from massive consultations and city council votes.

“All of these plans basically mean nothing when they can just be amended, site-specific, at any time. That’s what I find tragic in this case. Communities want certainty, The planning department and planning committee have talked a lot about how that’s what we want to give them,” Fleury said.