LeBreton Flats becomes Tobi Nussbaum's problem
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: December 14, 2018
LeBreton Flats, and all the baggage weighing down the redevelopment project, is now Tobi Nussbaum’s problem.
The Ottawa city councillor, who will take over as CEO of the National Capital Commission on Feb. 4, says the historic transformation of the decrepit federal land will be at the top of the briefing pile as he moves offices four blocks up Elgin Street.
“Clearly we’re at a point now where decisions have to be made about the future of that site. It’s going to be very, very important for me to get briefed up on those details,” Nussbaum said in an interview Friday.
“I share the objective that everybody has in the City of Ottawa, that we want this file to move forward as expeditiously as possible and whatever that process allows. I don’t enter into it with some preconceived idea of what should happen.”
The NCC’s development partner, RendezVous LeBreton Group, is imploding as Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk sues Trinity Developments founder John Ruddy over a LeBreton-area, Trinity-involved residential development.
Meanwhile, Devcore Canderel DLS, the runner-up bid in the NCC’s LeBreton Flats design competition, has confirmed all of its business partners are unified and their financing is rock solid, should the NCC call.
DCDLS, however, is still waiting by the phone.
The executive transition between current CEO Mark Kristmanson and Nussbaum comes at a sensitive time since the NCC board is scheduled to make a critical decision on LeBreton Flats during a meeting in January, just days before Nussbaum takes over the agency. It’s at that meeting where the board is expected to decide if the NCC should cut ties with RendezVous.
Nussbaum, the councillor for Rideau-Rockcliffe ward, doesn’t plan to file his formal resignation notice with the city clerk until later in January but he hasn’t picked a specific date. He wants to spend a lot of time at city hall making sure his office constituency files are in order before leaving for the NCC.
“I’m focused over the next few weeks on just really working on a smooth transition plan, making sure I’m ensuring service to residents, making sure we know how we’re going to be managing these types of files moving forward,” Nussbaum said.
The municipal election was Oct. 22 and Dec. 1 marked the start of the four-year council term. A byelection will need to be organized to fill Nussbaum’s seat. The clerk’s office has estimated a byelection for a mid-sized ward like Rideau-Rockcliffe would cost as much as $500,000.
Ontario cabinet minister and Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod criticized Nussbaum for taking the NCC job and “sending the wrong message in politics” to residents.
“I don’t think people expect you are going to put your name on a ballot and then within two weeks of being sworn in that you are going to resign for a job – a plum political post,” MacLeod said.
Nussbaum said he applied for the NCC job after he was re-elected. He said he was focused on winning the election and he knocked on thousands of doors during the campaign, but after the election, at the end of November, residents referred him to the NCC job posting when it was clear the government hadn’t decided what to do about the CEO position.
“People who encouraged me in my ward, who felt my unique blend of federal public service and municipal experience could make a positive contribution to the organization, felt that was a position that could fit well with my experience,” Nussbaum said.
Before he was first elected in 2014, Nussbaum was a diplomat and a senior bureaucrat, climbing the ranks of the federal government, working at Global Affairs and the Privy Council Office.
He’ll begin a four-year term at the NCC, just two months after being sworn in as councillor for a four-year term.
“There’s no question the timing is unfortunate and I wish I could have done something about that,” Nussbaum said.
“There was an opportunity to potentially play an important role in contributing to the future of our region in a leadership position and I took that potential responsibility very seriously. Of course, Rideau-Rockcliffe residents are also residents of the National Capital Region, so I’m absolutely grateful that the job I will be moving into is continuing to have that role, to advance the public good.”
Come February, Nussbaum and Mayor Jim Watson will have a much different working relationship, both as advocates for different organizations, while both steering the future of the NCC, since Watson is a non-voting member of the NCC board.
Nussbaum said his relationship with Watson is overblown as being acrimonious. There were times when they voted differently but it’s been a respectful relationship, he said.
“I can work very, very well with Mayor Watson and look forward to doing that,” Nussbaum said.
Nussbaum was left off almost all of city council’s standing committees in Watson’s recent membership selections, but the councillor said it wasn’t a factor this week in deciding to leave city hall.
What really knocked him off kilter was news leaking about his pending appointment to the NCC.
“It caught me totally off guard,” Nussbaum said. “This isn’t the first time there’s been a leak in the public service, but it certainly put me in an awkward position because in that situation you want to communicate clearly to residents about what’s happening, and that, of course, made it difficult for me to communicate with residents as to what was happening.”
— with files from Elizabeth Payne
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