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The National Capital Commission‘s board has signed off on a new site for the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism. But the NCC will have to relocate an existing piece of public art to accommodate it.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to approve a site on the western edge of parkland adjacent to the Garden of the Provinces and Territories for the memorial.

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But before the memorial can be built, the board will have to give two more approvals: one for site-specific urban design guidelines, and another for the final design itself, once it has been chosen by a jury following a new national design competition.

The previous Conservative government wanted to build the memorial on a 5,000-square-metre site near the Supreme Court of Canada, much to the dismay of planning advocates and municipal politicians. The land had previously been earmarked for a new federal court building.

The project was put on hold through the fall election and, after the Liberals won a majority government, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly announced that a smaller, less expensive version of the memorial would be built at the Garden of the Provinces site.

The Liberals reduced the project budget to $3 million from $5.5 million, with half funded by the public and the rest to be raised by the non-profit group Tribute to Liberty, the project’s sponsor. Ludwik Klimkowski, Tribute to Liberty’s chair, said last week the organization has raised $1.1 million in cash – $1.4 million including pledges tied to the actual construction.