HomeIn 1899, when urban planning began in Canada’s Capital, the profession was a new one. Many of the people who worked with the NCC and its predecessors to plan the Capital region over the past century were leaders and pioneers in the field.
Pioneers in the Profession
There is no other community in Canada and no other organization where such long-term and large-scale planning has been carried out. Planners working at the NCC have been doing cutting-edge work over the past half-century, and many over the years have been pioneers in the field of urban planning.
The Leaders
Lady Aberdeen
Early feminist and social activist, the wife of Lord Aberdeen (Governor General, 1893–1898) pushed for a planned Capital.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Prime Minister Laurier (1896–1911) introduced an act to Parliament in 1899 to found the Ottawa Improvement Commission (predecessor to the NCC).
Earl Grey
Governor General from 1904 to 1911, he was an advocate of the “garden city” and sponsored visits of British planners to the Canadian Capital.
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Prime Minister King (1921–1930 and 1935–1948), an advocate of urban planning, commissioned French urban planner Jacques Gréber to help prepare the historic master plan of 1950.
The Planners
Frederick Todd
American Frederick Todd was the first landscape architect to live and work in Canada. In the Todd Report (1903), he was the first to treat the Capital as a “region” and to lay the groundwork for a broad system of parks.
Edward Bennett
An American architect and advocate of the “City Beautiful Movement,” Bennett was the key mind behind the early planning of Chicago (1909) and the Holt Report of 1915.
Thomas Adams
Planning advocate and first president of the Town Planning Institute of Canada (1920–1921), Adams planned in Halifax (1919), Lindenlea (Ottawa), Kitchener and New York (1920s).
Noulan Cauchon
Surveyor, engineer and president of the Town Planning Institute of Canada (1924–1925), Cauchon was Chairman of the Ottawa Town Planning Commission and author of the Cauchon Report (1922). He was the first to push for a “federal district”
Jacques Gréber
French urban planner Gréber met Prime Minister King of Canada during preparations for the Paris Exhibition of 1937 and was invited to work on a master plan for the Canadian Capital (the Gréber Plan, 1950).
John Kitchen
Architect-planner Kitchen helped Cauchon at the Ottawa Town Planning Commission in the 1920s and Jacques Gréber at the Federal District Commission (predecessor to the NCC) in the 1940s. He was secretary of the Town Planning Institute of Canada from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Edouard Fiset
Architect-planner Fiset assisted Gréber in developing the 1950 Gréber Plan and later went on to plan the City of Quebec (1956).
Eric Thrift
Architect-planner Thrift helped to design Winnipeg (1950s) and was general manager of the NCC in the 1960s and president of the Town Planning Institute of Canada (1953–1954 and 1961–1962).
NCC Leaders
Douglas H. Fullerton (NCC Chair, 1969–1973)
Douglas Fullerton worked to integrate Quebec into the Capital region and to bring the region to life with outdoor recreation (notably, the Rideau Canal Skateway and recreational pathways).
Edgar Gallant (NCC Chair, 1973–1976)
Under Edgar Gallant, the NCC published Tomorrow’s Capital: An Invitation to Dialogue, which identified three themes for the future: better balance between Quebec and Ontario, a bilingual Capital and a lively core area.
Charles M. Drury (NCC Chair, 1978–1984)
“Bud” Drury presided over a period of great creativity marked by the emergence of many national festivals and events in the Capital region.
Jean Pigott (NCC Chair, 1985–1992)
Jean Pigott sponsored the Federal Land Use Plan (1988), which emphasized using the Capital region to create pride and unity. Under her direction, the NCC received a new mandate for programming, interpretation and national celebrations.
Marcel Beaudry (NCC Chair, 1992–present)
Marcel Beaudry reshaped the NCC to make it a more effective corporation for the 21st century and ushered in the new Plan for Canada’s Capital (1999) to guide development over the next 50 years.
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