Uncovering the Secretive Plan to Sell Land at Lansdowne

Is Ottawa Repeating the Mistakes of the LRT?

Governance matters

I spoke to council on Lansdowne 2.0, as one of about 80 delegates.

My message: do not repeat the mistakes of the LRT.

Which, it turns out, is what the City appears to have done. We had both the Mayor and the City Manager make incorrect statements to Council.

I doubt they were lying or deliberately misleading Council. But that would mean they were kept in the dark on a critical issue. Whatever the case, it sounds like the LRT playbook all over again.

Let’s talk about what was said, and what it means for the way forward for Lansdowne.

Hourigan predicted this would happen

Justice Hourigan, who led the LRT Public Inquiry, wrote a mere 12 months ago:

the conduct of senior City staff and Mayor Watson in not sharing information … prevented councillors from fulfilling their statutory duties to the people of Ottawa.

Moreover, it is part of a concerning approach taken by senior City officials to control the narrative by the nondisclosure of vital information or outright misrepresentation.

Worse, because the conduct was wilful and deliberate, it leads to serious concerns about the good faith of senior City staff and raises questions about where their loyalties lie.

It is difficult to imagine the successful completion of any significant project while these attitudes prevail within the municipal government.”

During my presentation, I focused on two of Horigan’s observations:

• controlling the narrative, such as how hard the city is trying to sell people on a $5m/year price tag, when they will be locking taxpayers in for $16.4m/year in debt servicing; and,

• the non-disclosure of vital information, including an item buried on page 82 of the staff report around changing the sale of “air rights” to the sale of “property rights”, and whether this meant we would be selling off parcels of Lansdowne land.

What I didn’t expect was to see the City caught engaging in Horgan’s third and most serious observation, outright misrepresentation.

Are we selling land at Lansdowne Park?

Mayor Sutcliffe was evidently concerned with the possibility of selling Lansdowne land, and had staff issue a statement that afternoon disputing the claim.

He went out of his way to restate the point, “There won’t be any land sold to the private sector as a result of this." (See around 8:27:02 of the Nov 2 YouTube recording)

And later asked City Manager Wendy Stephenson to provide her assurance. Stephenson: “The City owns the land and will continue to own the land unless Council directs us otherwise." (10:09:57)

Caught in a “misrepresentation”

But that narrative fell apart at the very end of the second day. After Councillor Menard had to ask the same question twice, we got a clear answer: there will be a period of time during which the City no longer has ownership of a parcel of Lansdowne land. (The exchange starts at 9:29:27 of the Nov 3 YouTube recording)

Shawn Menard: “In that in-between period, while the property rights have been sold off and the developer is building the towers, the retail podium and the subterranean, we wouldn’t have ownership of that entire piece of land.”

Don Herweyer, General Manager of Planning, Real Estate and Economic Development: “That’s correct.”

Herweyer and a colleague go on to explain that the City could have the right to buy back the land and that there would be effectively no risk to the city of re-acquiring those lands.

But do we have confidence that they are telling the full story?

To quote Justice Horrigan again,

“because the conduct was wilful and deliberate, it leads to serious concerns about the good faith of senior City staff and raises questions about where their loyalties lie.”

Even assuming Council directs staff to reacquire the land in the future, there would be significant concerns around what we are getting into. If staff are provided delegated authority to enter into the transaction, it may be that neither Councillors nor the public get the chance to see the paperwork, on the premise of commercial confidentiality.

Council could find itself in a position where it has sold off land at Lansdowne for a number of years, and with little insight into the terms of the transaction.

Unanswered questions

Lansdowne is the largest spending item of this term of Council, and yet Councillors are not being provided with sufficient transparency on the deal.

On this “property rights” issue alone, we should know:

• How long would the City NOT own the land in question (along the main Exhibition Way in Lansdowne)?

• Under what circumstances might the City NOT re-acquire the land or be subject to new costs — such as the developer going bankrupt and another party taking over ownership?

• Why did the city appear to obscure the fact that it is selling off public lands to private developers, if the City is guaranteed to re-acquire those lands later?

• If staff have been obscuring critical information on this issue, what else are they not telling us?

• Did the City Manager mislead Council?

• Will the Mayor apologize for making a false statement to Council and will he correct the record?

Enough is enough

The revelation that City staff tried to obscure from Councillors and the public that they were planning to sell land at Lansdowne — albeit for a limited period of time — should cause Councillors to hit the pause button on this file.

What else are staff not telling us as they work “to control the narrative by the nondisclosure of vital information or outright misrepresentation”?

Unfortunately, it appears many on this Council will try to ignore this bombshell.

From a governance perspective, that’s a dangerous strategy.

At some point, the people of Ottawa will say enough is enough. Lansdowne may be the last straw.

The sensible course of action at this point is for Council to put this decision on hold, bring alternative options to the table, and allow the community to engage in a meaningful way.

Anything less is a failure of leadership and a violation of public trust.