Can Canada Day in Ottawa Be Improved?

[rocketphish]

Sutcliffe rails against federal government's Canada Day traffic plans
Heritage Canada officials asking O-Line users to use Lyon Station, a 15-20 minute walk from LeBreton Flats.

Ken Warren, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 20, 2024 • Last updated 1 minute ago • 3 minute read

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is seeing red about how the federal government is choosing to control pedestrian and train traffic for the Canada Day celebrations at LeBreton Flats on July 1.

On Wednesday, Heritage Canada officials detailed plans that include limited pedestrian access to Booth Street, which connects Pimisi Station on OC Transpo’s O-Line to LeBreton Flats.

It’s typically a three-to-five-minute walk, but access on Canada Day will be restricted to local residents and those with reduced mobility only.

Instead, Canada Day planning officials are asking O-Line riders to use the Lyon Station stop to the east. It’s a 15-20 minute walk from that station to LeBreton Flats.

It sets up a potential repeat of the headaches of last Canada Day, when riders planning on attending the fireworks display were not allowed to get off at Pimisi Station in the evening.

“It doesn’t make intuitive sense to have a transit station near LeBreton and an event at LeBreton and not use it,” Sutcliffe said in a telephone interview with Postmedia Thursday morning.

Sutcliffe doesn’t typically use social media to express his opinions, but took to X — formerly Twitter — late Wednesday to express his frustration at Heritage Canada.

“I’m disappointed with the federal government’s plans for traffic flow,” he wrote. “Despite the efforts of city officials to propose alternatives, the government’s security officials have decided once again this year to discourage public transit users from exiting at Pimisi Station on July 1,” Sutcliffe wrote.

“I want to be abundantly clear: this is not an issue of the capacity of the station, but the result of passengers not being allowed to use the entire Booth Street Bridge when they exit.”

Heritage Canada officials recognize it’s not an ideal solution, but say the decisions are not theirs alone, but rather made it consultation with all the partners involved, including the city’s emergency teams, the Ottawa Police Service, the RCMP and OC Transpo.

Ultimately, it’s vital to keep open an available path for potential emergency vehicles to access Booth Street while large crowds are coming and going from the fireworks display. Pedestrian entry and exit to LeBreton Flats for Canada Day is on the east side of the corner at Booth Street and the Kichi Zibi Mikan Parkway.

“We share the frustration around having easy access to the Pimisi LRT station on Canada Day, knowing that it is open,” said Ariane Joazard-Bélizaire, senior communication advisor and press secretary to Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge. “The security of attendees is our top priority and the priority of all partners, including the City of Ottawa, who approved the plans put in place. We are working on alternative solutions for next year and the future.”

Sutcliffe acknowledges that there are plenty of moving parts for major events, that security must be a priority and that all the pieces of the puzzle have to fit together properly.

Ultimately, though, he says it’s Heritage Canada’s event and they have the final decision making power.

“I was hoping for a solution,” Sutcliffe said in his interview with Postmedia. “Yes, the decision is made by a group of people, but Heritage Canada was not willing to change the (original) plan.”

Part of Sutcliffe’s rationale in going public with his disappointment is to emphasize that the issue isn’t about problems with OC Transpo or that Pimisi Station isn’t capable of handling the influx of people.

The Mayor says the success of large crowds of pedestrians coming in and out of Pimisi on Booth Street, en route to Bluesfest, is an indication that there isn’t an issue.

“(Last year), a lot of people misinterpreted it as a case of Pimisi not being able to handle traffic, but that’s absolutely not the case,” he said.

“The station can handle the traffic. We’ve seen it at Bluesfest. If the Senators move to LeBreton Flats, (Pimisi) will be able to handle the traffic.”

After Canada Day festivities wrap up, Bluesfest takes over at LeBreton Flats from July 4-14.

kwarren@postmedia.com

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-traffic-plans

[zzptichka]

Finally, a populist take from our populist Mayor I can get behind.

[Kitchissippi]

Compared to the way it was before 2014, Canada Day is really terrible now. I haven't gone to the event since they moved it to LeBreton.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Compared to the way it was before 2014, Canada Day is really terrible now. I haven't gone to the event since they moved it to LeBreton.

It became even worse. Kinda sums it up:

[zzptichka]

Looking at the map, I'm just baffled, why do they need to close Chaudiere Crossing?

I've already accepted the stupidity of closing Booth South of the Parkway but closing the bridge for pedestrians? Why???

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Looking at the map, I'm just baffled, why do they need to close Chaudiere Crossing?

So the Zibians will be trapped on their island all day?

[urbanforest]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Looking at the map, I'm just baffled, why do they need to close Chaudiere Crossing?

I've already accepted the stupidity of closing Booth South of the Parkway but closing the bridge for pedestrians? Why???

Even more confounding is why they need to close Commanda Bridge? Sure, close it during the fireworks if you must, but starting on June 30?? Make it make sense!

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by urbanforest

Even more confounding is why they need to close Commanda Bridge? Sure, close it during the fireworks if you must, but starting on June 30?? Make it make sense!

Didn't even notice it. Incredible. Happy Canada Day y'all! Enjoy the long weekend!

Edit: it would only make sense if they were setting up bridge fireworks Sydney-style, although I highly doubt that is the case.

[Kitchissippi]

Can't take transit directly, made as difficult as possible to walk or bike in, and definitely can't drive in. It's like they don't want anybody to come.

I do not understand why they've put all the eggs into the Lebreton basket and turned it into a dead end with a couple of choke points to get in and out. It seems downright unsafe to me. They need to put the fireworks back into the centre. It was way better when crowds were dispersed between Major's Hill Park, Confederation Park and Jacques Cartier Park. I understand Lebreton replaces the Parliament Hill stage, but we have the O-Train that can shuttle people between these sites.

[zzptichka]

And I don't remember them closing entire streets "for emergency access" when the celebrations were on the Hill. What gives?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Can't take transit directly, made as difficult as possible to walk or bike in, and definitely can't drive in. It's like they don't want anybody to come.

I do not understand why they've put all the eggs into the Lebreton basket and turned it into a dead end with a couple of choke points to get in and out. It seems downright unsafe to me. They need to put the fireworks back into the centre. It was way better when crowds were dispersed between Major's Hill Park, Confederation Park and Jacques Cartier Park. I understand Lebreton replaces the Parliament Hill stage, but we have the O-Train that can shuttle people between these sites.

This way they can charge extra fees for food trucks on Lebreton. Why would we ever want to support downtown restaurants and bars as was the case for Canada Day in the past. They don't pay fees to the organizers.

I haven't gone to Canada Day since before the 2017 fiasco.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

And I don't remember them closing entire streets "for emergency access" when the celebrations were on the Hill. What gives?

Some of it is the new site is more constrained. There aren't alternative places to watch. I usually always had a drink in the market and watched from the street there.

The other thing is we are crazy risk adverse now. It was impossible to enter LeBreton last year unless you wanted to sit through the hours of medicore Candiana music.

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Some of it is the new site is more constrained. There aren't alternative places to watch. I usually always had a drink in the market and watched from the street there.

The other thing is we are crazy risk adverse now. It was impossible to enter LeBreton last year unless you wanted to sit through the hours of medicore Candiana music.

Why close Booth for the entire day starting at 6AM though.

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

And I don't remember them closing entire streets "for emergency access" when the celebrations were on the Hill. What gives?

I suspect they close the entire back of LeBreton to sneak the politicians (especially Trudeau) off the site. Let's call it "Post Trucker Convoy Measures"

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I suspect they close the entire back of LeBreton to sneak the politicians (especially Trudeau) off the site. Let's call it "Post Trucker Convoy Measures"

I think you might be right.

[OTSkyline]

Took free transit yesterday for Canada Day activities. Bus from my home to Lincoln Fields, then LRT downtown to Pimisi. Pimisi station was open during the day and we were able to get off there around 1pm (which was surprising since we had heard about closures). Everything worked like a charm, reliable, fast, free. Didn't hear of any major hiccups so hopefully lots of people gave transit a chance yesterday and were pleasantly surprised.

After the events though, at 10pm Booth St and Pimisi were both closed which was unfortunate. Police or security were telling people to just walk back downtown and use Lyon station. Is it just me or is a crushload of users congregating in a small underground station MUCH LESS safe than having Pimisi open and having crowds disperse to multiple stations instead? Even worst, people couldn't walk north to Gatineau or south. And they had also closed Wellington so we couldn't even walk west to Bayview. I was really confused. Again, it would seem much better and safer to have crowds disperse in multiple directions rather than force everyone in the same space.

[lrt's friend]

The good old days when the Transitway buses went to every major suburb on Canada Day. Now it looks like one big hassle. I used to go downtown every year. Not any more.

[DTcrawler]

Again the idiotic federal officials with Heritage Canada and their partners made an overly complicated plan which led to confusion and frustration. The info on OC Transpo’s website as well as Heritage Canada’s very clearly stated Pimisi station would be open for disabled people only, with everyone else having to use Lyon station. I told this to the large group I was travelling with, so we were all very confused when nearly the entire train emptied at Pimisi.

Later in the day, we were trying to walk from Little Italy back to Lebreton Flats Park via Booth St., but were turned away and told we had to use Commissioner’s Street despite Booth St being used by people going to/from Pimisi station. At least this aligned with the plan however it just seemed so unnecessary to have Booth St closed to through-traffic in the middle of the day (around 3pm).

As far as Line 1 itself, everything was great, they were running two car trains all day and frequency was at 5min from the first train I took (around 11am) to the last one (around 12:30am).

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

The good old days when the Transitway buses went to every major suburb on Canada Day. Now it looks like one big hassle. I used to go downtown every year. Not any more.

Well that's your loss.

You're the first person I've seen describe a one-transfer trip for Canada Day as a hassle, and across Reddit and Twitter I think that says a lot!

(Nevermind the fact that westbound buses were still running direct to the suburbs...)

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

Well that's your loss.

You're the first person I've seen describe a one-transfer trip for Canada Day as a hassle, and across Reddit and Twitter I think that says a lot!

(Nevermind the fact that westbound buses were still running direct to the suburbs...)

If you thinking getting in and out of the evening events wasn't a hassle you weren't there. Sure there are huge crowds so nothing will be perfect but it's absolutely crazy they funnelled everyone to one route regardless of their destination. Meanwhile breaking the rule of crowds it also narrowed at some points causing dangerous pinch points. People pushed apart the fence at one point and wandered south through the gap.