NCC vote on final design of victims of communism memorial won't happen until after election

The final design of a proposed memorial to the victims of communism won't be voted on by the National Capital Commission until after the October federal election, the NCC says.

Canadian Heritage is continuing its work on the final design, "which will be submitted to the NCC for its approval in due course, but not before its November board meeting," the NCC said in an emailed statement Thursday.

The NCC had earlier announced that it planned to hold a special meeting later this summer to finalize the design.

In late June, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, local group Heritage Ottawa and two architects filed a lawsuit against the NCC in an effort to stop the project.

The groups claim the NCC violated its own public consultation procedures, as well as the National Capital Act, in its "hasty" decision to begin preparations to decontaminate the memorial's site despite not having a finalized design in place.

Since unveiling the original design, Canadian Heritage has submitted several revisions to the NCC.

The latest design, unveiled in late June, would take up only 37 per cent of the approved site between the Supreme Court of Canada and Library and Archives Canada instead of the previous 60 per cent. The height also shrank from 14.35 metres to eight metres.