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“I think of it as the official plan for the precincts,” says Dewar of the long-term vision plan, last updated in 2007 after years of study.

He’s dead set against summarily changing the plan on a partisan whim (more on that in a minute), but at the very least, the government is supposed to apply to the NCC to alter the plan — and it hasn’t done so.

In 2013, the minister for public works asked the NCC’s board of directors to change the land-use in the judicial precinct to allow the Memorial to the Victims of Communism to be built there. The NCC board complied but, according to a letter from Kristmanson to Dewar, the NCC advised public works at the time that the long-term plan would have to be updated.

“This amendment is necessary in order to account for the presence of the … monument at the approved location,” the NCC chief executive wrote in his letter, dated April 22. “No request for an update has yet been presented to the NCC.”

In answering a question from Dewar, Kristmanson writes: “The NCC shares your commitment to stakeholder consultation. It is one of the many perspectives we ensure are addressed through our approval process for major new installations on federal lands.”

The Citizen asked Public Works and Government Services Canada on Wednesday morning when the department would request a change to the long-term plan and vision, and what the amendment process would mean for the project’s timeline — it was supposed to be finished this fall, ahead of the October federal election. No one from public works responded by the end of the workday.