HomeTwo Centuries of Planning in Canada’s Capital Region
No other region in Canada has been the focus of such long-term, persistent and strategic planning. Plans produced over the years for the NCC and its predecessors illustrate all the important themes from Canada’s planning history.
1800
First settlement on the north side of the Ottawa River.
1826
Bytown and Wright's Town are founded on the south and north sides of the Ottawa River, respectively, when the building of the Rideau Canal begins.
1857
Ottawa is chosen as Capital of the newly formed Province of Canada (created from Upper and Lower Canada, parts of today’s Ontario and Quebec).
1899
Formation of the Ottawa Improvement Commission (OIC) “to beautify” Ottawa. It clears industry from around the Rideau Canal and creates parks and Ottawa’s first scenic parkway.
1903
Frederick Todd prepares the Todd Report and lays the foundation of today’s “green Capital.” He claims “nature herself as partner” and pushes for a boulevard connecting the Parliament Buildings to Rideau Hall.
1915
Edward Bennett’s work forms the basis of the Holt Report, which recommends a master plan to guide the Capital’s development, a federal district planning authority and extending the park system, and explores the idea of a capital as a “work of art.”
1919
Thomas Adams plans the first federally subsidized housing project in Ottawa and helps define a new role for government in creating liveable cities.
1922
Noulan Cauchon delivers the Cauchon Report, which supports a new planning authority, recommends removing rail lines from the centre, building highways and extending the park system.
1927
The Federal District Commission is formed with the authority and budget to enact past recommendations and to mark the 60th anniversary of Confederation.
1950
French planner, Jacques Gréber releases the Gréber Plan (General Report on the Plan for the National Capital 1946–1950), which proposes the following:
- planning the region as an integrated system
- making the Capital symbolize the whole country
- relocating the rails from central Ottawa
- improving transportation
- decentralizing government offices
- creating a scenic parkway system and restoring shorelines
- creating the National Capital Greenbelt
- expanding Gatineau Park (formed in 1938)
1958
The National Capital Act sets the mandate for a new kind of planning authority.
1959
The National Capital Commission (NCC) is formed to carry out recommendations of the Gréber Plan.
1970s
Regional governments are formed, and region-wide plans — until then the sole expertise of the NCC — begin to be produced by another level of government.
1974
Tomorrow’s Capital: An Invitation to Dialogue is released by the NCC as a proposed regional planning concept.
1980s
A new emphasis on the form and dignity of cities gives rise to projects such as Confederation Boulevard (a ceremonial boulevard) in the Capital region.
1988
The mandate of the NCC expands to include public programming, as laid out in the Federal Land Use Plan.
1990s
A new consciousness of the environment is reflected in the Gatineau Park Master Plan (1990) — and the Greenbelt Master Plan (1996).
1998
A new Vision for the Core Area is conceived.
1999
The Plan for Canada’s Capital — successor to the Gréber Plan and Federal Land Use Plan — is approved as a guide for planning efforts in the first 50 years of the 21st century.
2000
The NCC prepares the Core Area Concept of Canada’s Capital.
2001
The NCC undertakes a review of the 1990 Gatineau Park Master Plan to ensure better protection of the Park’s natural and cultural resources and to define a long-term vision for the next decades.
2005
The Gatineau Park Master Plan (2005) is approved.
Canada’s Capital Core Area Sector Plan is completed and approved. It sets out a vision and high-level policies and strategies for federal lands in the core area of the Capital region.
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