Following up on the GCA Parks Committee recommendation made in June 2021 to the city’s public consultation on the parkette at 635 O’Connor Street at Fifth Avenue next to Fire Station Number 12 in the Glebe, along with efforts to proceed with such engagement at the community level (see October, 2022 Parks Committee Report below), the GCA Board passed the following motion in October 2022:

Whereas the City of Ottawa Reconciliation Action Plan seeks to encourage the use and visibility of Indigenous languages, support initiatives from the public which contribute to the reconciliation process, and engage Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation, First Nations, Inuit and Métis representatives in the commemoration and naming of public spaces to honour Algonquin Anishinaabe Host Nation, First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and languages;

Therefore be it resolved that the GCA recommends that the city does not proceed with naming and signage at the new park at 635 O’Connor until it has completed a process that adheres with the City of Ottawa Reconciliation Action Plan.

Liz McKeen, Editorial, “The park with no name, Glebe Report, November 11, 2022, pg. 4
2022 October 25 GCA Board Motion: 635 O’Connor Park Naming
2022 October 2022 GCA Parks Committee Report to GCA Board
2022 March 22 GCA Board Motion: Healing Gardens
GCA Parks Committee Consultation Feedback: 635 O’Connor, June 2021

The committee’s view, held and communicated to the City since June 2021, continues to be that the name for the 635 O’Connor park should not come from us but rather be the product of a broader consultative process consistent with the City of Ottawa Reconciliation Action Plan (which our committee would be happy to be a part of).

In the sixteen months between the committee’s original recommendation in June 2021 and the City’s decision in October 2022 to proceed with a landmark-based name and signage with a utilitarian value (signaling where the park is located) (“Fire Hall Park”), it became evident that the City may lack the necessarily resourced staffing and framework to fully implement its Reconciliation Action Plan in the naming (and, for the future, the development) of such new parks.

To what extent is the City sufficiently resourcing its own staff and/or its stakeholder groups with the means to do any kind of due diligence (or to even reply to) any such recommendations from community groups, consistent with its own City of Ottawa Reconciliation Action Plan?

Imagine what such a broader City process could look like: the necessary city staffing, engaged with a standing body where qualified, Indigenous members are modestly but appropriately compensated by the City, as is the convention, to air such ideas on a regular basis and to provide assistance for further community connections. Much of this already exists to some extent:

  • the city positions of Indigenous Relations Specialist; and Indigenous and New Immigrant Community Cultural Developer. Do such city positions have the capacity to move forward with such initiatives from the community?
  • the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition is the City’s starting point for requesting a consultation on the naming of a park. Does the City provide it with the necessary resources to deal with such requests? According to Capital Ward Councillor Menard’s office, the City compiles such requests and submits them as a whole as there are so many of them, to the point where the OAC is inundated with them.

As our June 2021 recommendation to the City pointed out, planning and development of the 635 O’Connor park began before the City enacted its 2018 City of Ottawa Reconciliation Action Plan. However, moving forward, engagement on this park at this point in its story would provide for a meaningful starting point for all future park developments to be aligned with the Reconciliation Action Plan. Such engagement could be just the start of people connecting, for example, over the local species/gardens/healing forest ideas that many envision for this and other community spaces (see March 22, 2022 GCA Motion linked above).

Ideally, such engagement would occur before the City goes ahead with expending valuable tax dollars / environmental resources on signage for a name inconsistent with the GCA Board’s October 2022 motion. It is a name which, in addition, has not received any ratification from the GCA and community at large, in conjunction with any other suggestions received by the Ward Councillor’s Office from the neighbourhood as part of its own “Name that Park” consultation in December, 2021.

The GCA Parks Committee urges the City of Ottawa to move forward with a more supported protocol for such community-based initiatives, and stands at the ready to re-engage in this park naming process, engagement from which we can all learn, for this and all future park developments.