wprager
Administrator
Number of posts : 52818
Age : 62
Location : Kanata
Favorite Team : Ottawa
Registration date : 2008-08-05
In case anyone (like me) does not know the history of LeBreton Flats:
http://www.pastottawa.com/quartier/lebreton/
The area was decimated in the Great Fire of 1900. It was a working class and light industrial area back then.
60 years later (1962, to be exact) the NCC expropriated the area and demolished all buildings in order to make room for some grandiose project. Not sure who they expropriated if from, or whether there was any compensation given.
After the expropriation it just sat there for 50 years collecting dust. The main reason given was the amount of soil contamination present and the cost to rehabilitate it. Then in 2012 they finally spent $5M (2% of their *annual* budget) to scrape off the top layer. Why they waited so long when it was such a small fraction of their budget? A better question might be how the Diddle do they have/deserve a budget of of a *QUARTER BILLION DOLLARS*???! Anyhow, back in the early days there was no concept/awareness of soil contamination so, really, they had no good reason as to why they sat on this site for so long without doing anything.
Fascinating reading.
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Hey, I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I've failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.
- Dicky Fox