LeBreton update, Civic hospital site selection top NCC meeting agenda

What the National Capital Commission's Thursday board meeting agenda lacks in length, it more than makes up for in heft.

In addition to CEO Mark Kristmanson's usual update on what the NCC has been up to since the previous board meeting, the agenda lists just three items.

But two of them are major NCC files: the LeBreton Flats redevelopment negotiations and the recommended site for a new Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital.

While the specifics of what the NCC will announce will be kept secret until the meeting, here's what to expect on Thursday, in the order the items will be discussed.

1. LeBreton Flats update

Back in April, the NCC board gave the green light to begin negotiations with the Senators-backed RendezVous LeBreton Group, the preferred of the two bids entered to redevelop LeBreton Flats.

RendezVous's vision includes a plan to cover the LRT with an east-west road called Canada Drive, a restored aqueduct, an Abilities Centre (a recreation and activities facility with services for people with disabilities) and more than 4.000 residential units, which would include affordable housing and a number of high-rise buildings dotting the southern side of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.

Of course, the RendezVous plan's centrepiece is a new hockey arena, or as the group likes to describe it, a "major events centre."

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said at the time that he "can't wait to build that stadium — very quick" and indicated he'd like to see his hockey team playing in a new arena in the 2020-21 season.

Thursday will give the public the first glimpse into how realistic that timeline might be.

Kristmanson will give the board an update on how the negotiations have been progressing for the last six months, which issues have been discussed and whether there are any significant problems.

The board has a lot of latitude to decide what to do next, from changing the direction of the negotiations to halting them altogether. In fact, the board can even direct NCC staff to continue negotiating with RendezVous LeBreton while starting talks with rival bidder Devcore Canderel DLS Group at the same time. It's not a likely outcome, but under the rules it is possible.

2. Barn rehabilitation strategy

It turns out that there are about 80 barns in the NCC-controlled Greenbelt. They're in varying states of disrepair, but some have heritage value. This is classic NCC work: cataloguing, assessing and devising a strategy for restoring old barns. The barn presentation to the board will take about 30 minutes, giving everyone a chance to recover from the LeBreton discussion before moving on to the major announcement of the morning.

3. Recommended site for new hospital

The recommendation for where to put a new Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital will be the main event at Thursday's board meeting.

There's been nothing but controversy since former Conservative cabinet minister John Baird made the surprise announcement two years ago that he was forking over 24 hectares of the Central Experimental Farm to the hospital.

Opponents of the plan have panned it for taking over historical agricultural research land, for the amount of surface parking, for its distance from rapid transit and for being hatched behind closed doors.

Supporters of the original site — including many in the medical community — argue that 24 hectares is optimal for a modern hospital, and say the site across Carling Avenue from the current Civic is the perfect location from a patient-access point of view. They also argue that the parcel of land Baird offered up would provide the ideal transition from the current Civic to a new building.

Last May, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly asked the NCC to review all federally owned land in the capital region to determine a location for the Civic. The NCC came up with a list of 12 possible locations — although many believe that some are so far from the core of the city that they aren't seriously in the running. Included in the dozen sites are the four original locations considered by the hospital, three of them on the Farm and Tunney's Pasture.

The NCC's five-member review panel looked at everything from the hospital's requirements, to transportation, to parking needs. There was a public meeting about the site selection in September attended by more than 400 people, and more than 7,600 people responded to a survey about a possible new location for the Civic.

The results of all this consultation will be discussed at Thursday's meetings. More to the point, the NCC will announce its top choice, and the board will then decide whether to pass along that recommendation to the minister.

"Key stakeholders," including the hospital, will be told of the recommended site ahead of time.