Article content

There is an unwelcome — indefensible, actually — cone of silence over the progress of planning for LeBreton Flats, possibly the biggest city-building exercise some of us will ever live through.

(Rivalled only by the communications Kremlin around LRT, or Long Rumoured Train, where the only real news is “not this year, stupid.”)

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Egan: 621 days later, NCC handed LeBreton developers 48-hour deadline to sign arena deal Back to video

So we’ll parse any LeBreton update we can find.

In a response to a request under access laws, the National Capital Commission has released an interesting letter sent to the RendezVous LeBreton Group — with Trinity Development Group boss John Ruddy and Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk — as principals.

Photo by Jean Levac / OTTwp

The timing here is important. RendezVous was announced as the preferred proponent on April 28, 2016. The letter from the NCC is written 621 days later.

In-between, the Crown corporation and private partnership were negotiating the terms of an agreement in principle for a massive $4-billion project. So, it was signed, sealed, delivered by January 2018, surely? Oh, bless your sunny optimism.