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Did the federal government just blink?

According to a letter from Mark Kristmanson, chief executive of the National Capital Commission, the final design of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism won’t come before the NCC board for approval until its meeting in mid-November.

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The delay in NCC approval almost certainly means no work on the monument site will proceed until after the Oct. 19 federal election.

The board had been expected to deal with the controversial memorial’s design approval at its next scheduled meeting on Sept. 6.

On June 25, when the NCC board approved decontamination of soil on the memorial site on Wellington Street near the Supreme Court, Kristmanson even suggested the board might hold a special meeting in August to vote on the design.

Kristmanson eliminated both scenarios in his Aug. 5 letter, sent to people who had corresponded with the NCC about the memorial project.