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Clearly, the development of those buildings never happened, and the land has sat vacant to this day, a monument to the NCC’s epically poor planning decisions. So here we are, more than 50 years later, trying to decide what to do with land that was once part of the community, but is now owned by the government.

How could we design a process that recognized the importance of the land as a national asset but still respected the fact that it was once privately owned by Ottawans?

Oh wait, we did! Whether intentional or not, the NCC’s decision to welcome private bids on the land, with the mandate that it feature a mix of private and public uses, is a perfect way to respect the history of the site.

If the federal government wants to develop the land exclusively for a national purpose then it should put up the money itself. However, once you invite private bidders into the mix, the expectation must be that in exchange for whatever public uses are developed, there will be private ones as well. In this context, an arena is as legitimate an option as any other. In fact, although the Ottawa Senators may play there, an arena has a broad range of uses that can be leveraged by national institutions, arts groups and amateur sports.

An arena is just a stage.

In fact, the NCC’s mandate allows for such considerations to be made. In a 2006 NCC Mandate Review, “a renewed emphasis on the planning function and a greater coordinating role for celebrating and promoting the capital” was specifically identified as a core transformation. That co-ordinating role alludes to not making decisions in a vacuum.