Ottawa's central library project is not in good hands
David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: February 10, 2016 | Last Updated: February 10, 2016 8:01 PM EST
Within three weeks, the plans to build a new central library have gone from chugging along quite nicely to a confused mess, capped off with an unhinged attack by the library board chair on a group that wants to keep a central library central.
A couple of years ago, there was little hope of building a central library to replace the decrepit hulk at Laurier Avenue and Metcalfe Street because there was no land around that the city could afford. Now we’re spoiled:
- Both groups that want to redevelop LeBreton Flats are happy to include libraries in their plans;
- There’s talk of a possible deal with a private developer to include a library on the same west-downtown block the city once eyed as a library site;
- The library people themselves have had multiple confidential submissions from potential partners;
- Meanwhile, they’re treating a city property right between the Flats and Centretown — at the north end of Bronson Avenue — as an “exemplar site” where they’ll plan an imaginary library for discussion purposes, and;
- Library and Archives Canada wants in, potentially adding ambition, money and clout.
So many threads it’s hard to guess how best to knit them all together. The chair of the library board, Coun. Tim Tierney, has responded by all but dismissing the LeBreton bids as unwelcome noise. And then he cancelled a scheduled board meeting Tuesday night where a group called Bookmark the Core,” which wants a central library to be built in Centretown because that’s where downtown’s population centre is these days, wanted to object to all the secrecy.
When Bookmark the Core spokeswoman Emilie Taman complained on Tuesday, Tierney literally ran to CFRA’s studio to deliver a
12-minute tirade on how irrelevant she and her group are.
Tierney called Taman a loser (twice), complained she doesn’t live in Centretown, pointed out she’s a lawyer so she’s “a very scripted individual,” and said she speaks for basically no one so she shouldn’t be given airtime.
It’s true that forming a group doesn’t entitle you to equal time in any public discussion you choose to join. And it’s not obvious that a new library, potentially built free to taxpayers next to a light-rail station at LeBreton Flats, is unacceptable because it’s west of Bronson Avenue.
But Tierney’s sneering, his patronizing, his sheer viciousness, was jaw-dropping. Even he seemed to realize it — or had someone realize it for him — and called in again later to apologize for having been such an arse. Though he included weaselly parts about how maybe he’d been “misconstrued.”
Taman ran for the New Democrats in Ottawa-Vanier in the last federal election, losing to Liberal Mauril Bélanger. (That makes her officially a loser, you see.) Bélanger has since been diagnosed with a deadly degenerative disease. Tierney is a Liberal who’d be among the possible candidates to succeed Bélanger when the time comes.
Tierney dodged questions Wednesday about whether he imagines he and Taman might run against each other for Parliament: “We have an MP, an MP I support, and I’m a municipal councillor,” he said.
He also dodged questions about all the absences that prompted him, as chair, to scrap the Tuesday night library-board meeting, though he did clarify it wasn’t that he was certain they couldn’t have a meeting, it was that he wasn’t sure.
You need five of nine board members to do anything. Four had told him they couldn’t attend and Tierney had been unable to reach two others, so he called the meeting off. It’s a completely plausible account of what can happen with volunteer groups like the library board. But Tierney wouldn’t say which board members told him they wouldn’t attend, citing their privacy.
Had there been a meeting, whoever was absent would have been a matter of public record in the minutes, so it’s bizarre to argue that if so many people are away that they can’t hold a meeting at all, we don’t get to find out who’s bailed.
A preliminary study has estimated the cost of a new central library at $86 million, but that’s before the federal library and archives got involved. It’s a very large project, and one that’s become much more complex than when it started. It cannot be in the hands of a board that can’t gather enough members to hold a proper meeting, led by a chairman who can’t keep his temper.
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** Hopefully , with more efficiency and less cost than doing all three projects separately, and end up with a magnificent facility.
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