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The Greenbelt Coalition encourages members of the public to attend one of the following meetings to provide the NCC with input on their proposals:

• Tuesday May 24th, 2011 from 6 pm until 9:30 pm
  National Arts Centre, Panorama room
  53 Elgin St., Ottawa
• Thursday May 26th, 2011 from 6 pm until 9:30 pm
  Nepean Sportsplex, room B
  1701 Woodroffe Ave., Ottawa
• Wednesday June 1st, 2011 from 6 pm until 9:30 pm
  Chimo Hotel, Mackenzie room
  1199 Joseph Cyr Rd, Ottawa

Agenda for the public consultations

• 6 pm to 7 pm – Open House
• 7 pm – 7:30 pm – Presentation
• 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Question and comment period
• 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Workshops in subgroups (RSVP)

Please confirm your participation at the workshop by sending an email before May 23rd to:info@ncc-ccn.ca

Related documents:

• 1996 Concept Plans (pdf – 6.5 Mb)
• 2011 Strategic Statement (pdf – 360k)
• Capital Context (pdf – 340 Kb)
• Concept 1 : Strengthening Roles within the Greenbelt (pdf 4.3 Mb)
• Concept 2 : Enhancing the Natural Environment (pdf – 5.1 Mb)
• Concept 3 : Creating Opportunities for Limited Diversified Land Uses & Improved Environment (pdf – 5.1 Mb)

If you are unable to attend, you can also send the NCC your comments before June 24th, 2011 via:

• Email to info@ncc-ccn.ca
• Phone 613-239-5000 • 613-239-5090 (TTY)
• Fax 613-239-5274

This report reviews results of the Lester Road Wetland Complex Evaluation and SAR Survey Project, submitted by Ron Huizer of Beacon Environmental, for the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission, dated June 30, 2010. The purpose of the Project was twofold – whether the area under study, between Uplands Drive and Conroy Road, is a Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW) and if so, what its boundaries are; and whether the study area contained Species At Risk (SAR).

Mr. Huizer’s evaluation was reviewed by Albert Dugal (botanist), Clarke Topp (soil physicist) and Cheryl Doran on behalf of the Greenbelt Coalition of Canada’s Capital Region. Their comments form the basis of this Review.

The full 63 page report is available here (2.6M pdf).

October 22, 2010

Dear Minister Strahl,

Operations have begun to fill a 33-acre wooded wetland in the National Capital Greenbelt for the construction of an exhibition hall and trade centre. I urge you to suspend the current operation until an environmental assessment study of the project has been completed.

As you know, the land is currently leased to the Ottawa Airport Authority by Transport Canada. The Airport Authority has subleased the land to Shenkman Corporation for the construction of the exhibition hall and trade centre, along with parking spaces.

The Airport Authority’s 2008 Land Use Plan committed that any development on wooded or wetland areas would be subjected to detailed environmental studies. Although the current operation is taking place on wooded and wetland areas, it has not been subjected to studies under the Environmental Assessment Act, the Species at Risk Act and the Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation.

Your action is urgently needed to ensure a significant piece of green space in our capital region is not developed in violation of legal requirements for a full environmental assessment.

Sincerely,
Paul Dewar, MP
Ottawa Centre

1. There were no other bidders beside Shenkman. This is a warning sign that it is a lousy business proposition. If it were a good opportunity it would have attracted more bidders.
2. The city has to finance the deal to induce it. So does the Airport Authority. Another warning sign that it is uneconomic.
3. Financing is only available for 50% of the deal ($20.7 M with interest payments of $1.463 M/yr = 7% which is a typical cap rate for real estate developments). Another warning sign that lenders don’t think it is economic
either.
4. Shenkman doesn’t risk more money than the City in the deal as both but in $8.5 M. Another warning sign that Shenkman is not really bullish on the opportunity either.
5. Shenkman’s equity of $8.5 M is actually less than the City’s if they bring the $39.2 M construction in under budget. Any cost savings accrue to Shenkman’s benefit alone. If the facility ends up costing only $35 M, Shenkman will only need to put in $4.3 M and the City still puts in $8.5 M. The city may argue that Shenkman is on the hook for any overage in costs, but realistically Shenkman can simply not construct part of the facility to reduce costs to avoid that situation. E.G. not build the hotel or not pave the parking lot (just as Bryden did to reduce the cost of the Corel Centre).
6. Shenkman furthermore gets a tax holiday by avoiding normal development charges, property and school taxes! Why is it that developers never get to pay property taxes in this city?
7. The City’s participation is funded as a 30-year balloon loan of $8.5 M. Yet as a lender, if they want to call the loan and terminate the agreement, they are on the hook for $12.3 M to buy out Shenkman. This is unheard of in banking.
8. Furthermore the City enters into a lease so that they can pay rent for a building that they financing and be on the hook for the bank that is putting up the $20.7M financing. Otherwise the bank won’t finance the deal because it is too risky!
9. Meanwhile Shenkman gets to charge $1.50 per head for all users to create a Reserve Fund that ensures that they can pay the $1.5 M/year in debt payments. If they make money, so that they don’t need to dip into the reserve fund, they get to use 100% of the Reserve Fund to increase their profits further. But if they don’t make enough money such that the head tax doesn’t over the $1.5 M /year, Shenkman only has to cover 50% of the downside and the City eats the other half by adding onto the loan that can’t be paid off. Asymmetric deals are another huge red flag.
10. If Shenkman defaults, the City is stuck with the whole deal without penalty to Shenkman. The city will have financed 3⁄4 of the deal with no collateral from Shenkman other than the $8.5 M initially invested by Shenkman (less incentive for lower construction costs).
11. In 30 years, the free cash flow from the facility will only be $3.25 M per year. If we assume the 7% cap rate as a discount factor, this future cash flow that is 30 years out is worth only $427K in current dollars. Shenkman estimates that $650 K per year is needed for ongoing capital improvements (in current dollars). So on an earned value basis, the facility loses money within 30 years.
12. The city’s financial analyst agrees that the project loses money, showing that the NPV for the city is a negative $2.7 M after expending $23 M in a best case scenario.
13. Futhermore, there is a high likelihood that the City may not recover any of its original $8.5 M “investment” with a NPV of negative $13.5 M!
14. All this is “justified” on the basis of generating $13 M in annual economic benefit in Ottawa – of which very little actually flows directly back to the City. Evidently the taxpayers in Ottawa are supposed to feel good about making merchants rich off of the $7 M in annual spending by visitors and $5 M in operational spending by the facility (e.g. buying toilet paper).
15. The staff solution is to enter into a longer loan period and to hope to sell the city’s half of this boondoggle to Shenkman in 30 years. As if Shenkman would want to buy something that by then will have a negative cash flow.

Paul Renaud
16 October 2010

Ottawa, October 13, 2010 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Français PDF ci-dessous)

In 1958, a Conservative Government, under John Diefenbaker, set out to create a greenbelt around inner city Ottawa, in accord with the Gréber Plan. Today this legacy is in danger of being lost, through lack of effective action by the current government to protect the Greenbelt.

The Airport Authority, which claims to be “environmentally responsible,” is in the process of sub-leasing 33 acres to the Shenkman Corporation, land that the Airport Authority has on long term lease from Transport Canada. Development of this 220,000 sq. ft. facility will result in the destruction of a treed wetland.

At the same time, the Province will be determining, probably by early November, whether this area qualifies to be part of what will likely be a Provincially Significant Wetland. But no-one is waiting, as the Shenkman Corporation is poised to destroy this Greenbelt wetland.

The Greenbelt Coalition has sent a letter to the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, urging him not to approve the Airport Authority’s sublease to the Shenkman Corporation. The letter calls for the Minister to refer the matter to the NCC for review under the conditions of the Airport Authority’s 2008 Land Use Plan.

“Over the years, sightings and roadkilled specimens of Blanding’s Turtles in the area have been reported to the authorities,” says Cheryl Doran, a Coalition member. Blanding’s Turtles are a Threatened species on both Provincial and Federal lists.

The Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Species at Risk Act all apply to this Shenkman/Airport Authority/City project. “The Airport’s Land Use Plan as approved by the NCC and Transport Canada explicitly calls for “detailed environmental studies” if any development is proposed on this land. Unfortunately, the Airport Authority has chosen to ignore this requirement and the NCC is not enforcing the provision”, says Sol Shuster, Coalition Chair.

Furthermore, no other federal authority, including Environment Canada, has intervened. The NCC is reduced to begging the City and Shenkman for attention to the long list of deficiencies in the Site Plan. (Ottawa City Council approved the Plan on October 6 anyway, requiring only that shoulders of the adjacent roads be paved for bikepaths.)

“So who is protecting the Greenbelt?” asks Nicole Desroches, Vice –Chair of the Coalition. “The bulldozers could be out there any day to prepare the ground for foundations before the frost sets in.”

The Greenbelt Coalition is taking a stand. The public has spoken repeatedly and clearly: Hands off the Greenbelt! Residents are encouraged to contact their MP and Ministers Prentice (Environment), Baird (House Leader), Strahl (Transport) and Cannon (with Strahl jointly responsible for the NCC).

Greenbelt Coalition web site:

http://www.greenbeltcoalition.ca/2010/10/who-is-protecting-the-greenbelt/

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For further information, please contact:

Sol Shuster, Chair, Greenbelt Coalition – phone 613 – 276-7496

Nicole Desroches, Vice-Chair – phone 819 – 772-4925 (French)

Cheryl Doran – phone 613 – 290-9968 (English)

Background

Coalition Letter to Minister Strahl, 12 October 2010 (PDF click here)

Results of the NCC’s consultations about a Vision for the Greenbelt:

http://canadascapital.gc.ca/data/2/rec_docs/24759_2010-P41e_Greenbelt_Final_combined.pdf

Report by Albert Dugal and Dr. G. Clarke Topp on plant and soil conditions

and

Letter from the NCC with comments on the Site Plan

and

Coalition’s media release of 3 October 2010

are available at:

http://www.greenbeltcoalition.ca/2010/10/who-is-protecting-the-greenbelt/

Information on Blanding’s Turtles by Prof. Gabriel Blouin-Demers:

http://greenspace-alliance.ca/node/318

Greenbelt Coalition member profiles:

http://www.greenbeltcoalition.ca/member-profiles/

PDF of this news release – Le gouvernement fédéral néglige le legs du Plan Gréber – Pour diffusion immédiate

Oct 14, 2010 Environmental Advisory Committee Motion (PDF)

Qui protège la Ceinture de verdure -3 octobre 2010. (PDF)

Also see the supporting documents:

Plant and Soil Analysis Revised Sept-24-2010 (PDF)

AirportExhibitionCentre_NCC_Letter_Planning_Committee (PDF)