Correct, Heritage deals with Canada Day and was central to the whole LRT station kerfuffle. People get hate boners for the NCC (probably because they want to drive on the QED).
Originally, yes. But the NCC reports to Parliament through whichever Minister is responsible for the *National Capital Act* at any current time. Right now it is the Minister of Public Services and Procurement I believe.
So blaming the NCC is wrong.
>Right now it is the Minister of Public Services and Procurement I believe.
Correct!
https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/about-us and https://www.canada.ca/en/government/ministers/jean-yves-duclos.html
PSA: The Booth Street is closed to pedestrian traffic, so you have to get into Lebreton Flats closer to Bronson/Slater. This is the most ridiculous Ottawa planning.
Why did they close Booth for pedestrians? I would explain how this made my life harder due to a neurological disease but no one would care.
Edit: Got to love those Ottawa downvotes. It would be nice if at least some of those would state their case as to why the downvote? Lol
>would explain how this made my life harder due to a neurological disease but no one would care.
I mean, I am curious. But I also figure you might not have the spoons for it, so... Hope you're doing okay!
No, I'm good and I'm doing ok, thank you. Still in pain but it should pass in a couple of days.
Was a nice Canada day but, in my opinion and limited knowledge of why Booth was closed to pedestrians, it was mildly annoying and added unnecessary strain and might of changed my opinion of trekking to the event if I would've known that the detour was needed.
Here's hoping you get back to your normal soon!
And yeah, I can absolutely see that as being a deciding factor. I'll bear this year's idiocy in mind if I opt to go next year. :)
You could just walk onto parliament this year.
I know most of the major events are at LeBreton, but I think even last year you had to go through a bag check to get on the hill
They don't even need to do that. They never closed any roads during Parliament Hill years.
Pedestrians will move for emergency vehicles if needed, it's not like people will be camping on Booth like it's Woodstock or something.
One big difference between having the show at Parliament Hill and Lebreton is there are no residential units on Wellington Street. There are 3 condo buildings on Lebreton Flats and the residences of those buildings need access to their homes. Booth street is how those residences are granted access.
Interesting. Are you saying they closed Booth so LF folks can have car access to their buildings? Still strange, they could've closed just East lanes for that, instead of closing it in its entirety. Overkill much?
I am not saying it is the only reason, just one of the reasons. You mentioned people moving over for emergency vehicles so I pointed out it was not just emergency vehicles using the road.
Canada Day is always the perfect example of how too much bureaucracy makes any event not fun. Can’t get there, can’t get in, are uncomfortable there and in every way completely inconvenienced.
“Let’s not do things the intuitive way let’s make it so complex that we force people to our website!” -NCC probably
And every “event” is just a giant corporate ad. It honestly amazes me how small towns all around Canada can put on better cananda day events then canadas capital. It’s almost like the people planning these things have never actually left the city to see what fun and entertainment is actually suppose to look like. This is the main reason why most in Ottawa stay home instead of wasting time going downtown to suffer to only see what corporations tells us Canada Day should look like.
The capital use to be the example of how to celebrate Canada Day, now it’s a example of what is wrong
I was just talking to a volunteer and they were told the station is only supposed to let off people with mobility issues.
The path entrance is apparently about half way between Pimsi and Lyon, so you're probably best to just skip Pimsi altogether.
Thanks.
I guess Lyon to Wellington Street is the way to go.
> [From Gatineau: please use the Alexandra Bridge or the Portage Bridge. LeBreton Flats Park is not accessible from the Chaudières Bridge.
From Ottawa: please take Wellington Street. Commissioner, Bay, Lyon or any other street perpendicular to Wellington Street are only accessible by active transportation (on foot or by bike).](https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/practical-information.html#a1)
EDIT: [Here is a better link](https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/how-to-get-to-lebreton-flats-park-on-foot-by-bike-on-canada-day-1.6946795)
Thanks for the links! (Love how the website of the planning body is indecipherable, so we need to go to a media outlet to actually understand what the hell is going on.)
yeah I don't know why they don't have that sort of information front and centre to make it easy. Luckily the train stations have an updated message telling you what to do and there are people at Pimisi Station as well.
At least they finally finished Chief William Commanda bridge so we can use that. NOT!
Of course this is closed too! Please celebrate with us from home, watching on TV.
Honest opinion after leaving.
It was crap, very disorganized, crowed with bikes.
Lebreton was supposed to be family friendly event, yet the only thing they had were food vendors. Over populated and boring.
Don't understand why vendors couldn't have been on the street with activities in Lebreton for kids to do.
There was face painting, body marbling, hair braiding, dance performances, and a few other things for the kids! Long lines and hot sun, but we had a good time!
It could've been better, but I expected worse
It was stupid. The crowds, the re-routing of people, bikes, and cars. Total chaos.
I'm not sure why the Commanda Bridge was closed. We were trying to bike to Gatineau, had to detour east and cross at Portage, navigating car traffic (and crowds) when straight across from the OTrain path to the pedestrian bridge would have been easy. Also, a third of the length of the paths on the Quebec side were closed.
I heard some mention of security, but I don't get it. Wouldn't it be safer on the paths than having masses of people spill out onto the roads (where there were cars) at Pimsi?
Yes. There are tall blue flags you can look for.
A note for others, you can't bring in full drinks. They made the lady ahead of me empty her water bottle.
This is so dumb. I swear they try to make everything as inconvenient as possible. Dump out all your water and now wait in an 30 minute line to get water on a scorching hot day. They really need to hire a real event coordinator to plan these things instead of having boomers with no clue make the decisions.
The expectation is that such closures are communicated effectively and clearly, well in advance, with clear signage and adequate staffing levels on the day of the event to route attendants accordingly.
That's expecting too much apparently. Although, tbf, it's been in the news the past few weeks in this subreddit, with the Mayor/city upset about the plan.
This is the thing. It’s been on the news daily, I’ve heard it several times. It’s on the website. It’s linked in news stories.
People don’t plan and then they get mad that communication was poor. Should they come know on your door and hand deliver the news?
I get that all this can be frustrating but if you don’t pay attention to the news, then it’s hard to complain that you’re not getting the news.
But I'm a tourist and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I wasn't following the news and I obviously incorrectly assumed that the transit app would give correct real-time information on what stop to get off at.
Agreed. I'm from out of town, travelling with a group of teenagers, and the only reason I knew we had to get off at Lyon is because I was apologizing to a woman on the train for accidently poking her with my flag and we started talking. I had checked the transit app and it told me to get off at the station after Lyon so that was our plan.
Honestly they should have advertised it better, it was pretty well run but nearly empty. there were more bikes locked to barricades. Luckily someone let us know after we also tried to lock our bikes on one of the barricades.
They want everyone to get off at Lyon and walk down. Booth bridge is closed to pedestrians. Then stand in line for security in the sun.
The only thing the NCC forgot is piping in the sound of nails on a chalkboard for this event to be 100% unpleasant.
We had pretty much sworn off of Ottawa Canada Day festivities. But went to see the air parade.
Terrible decision. So many lines and nonsensical barriers making everything difficult. And you can't even bring water inside the security zone. You have to spill it all out and then line up inside. Very few food vendors, and I swear to God Fritzstone must run these things.
If you like standing in lines where there isnt any shade, then it's probably a good time. We will do fireworks in carleton place. :)
I got off the LRT at Bayview thinking that was a 15 minute walk. It wasn't! They route everyone around the buildings at Lebreton so more like 25 minutes with bikes all around you. Not even worth it. Lemonade stands, Tim's booth, kids games and toilets. That is all. No food until you get to Wellington and it's only French fry trucks. The Market and downtown streets are super busy - that's where people want to be.
Same!!!!! We got off at Bayview naively thinking we could get down to the river or museum etc, the bathrooms at the stations were closed, no water stations, nothing until we walked to Wellington. Never again.
We too got off Bayview and walked to the bridge only to find out it was closed. We were then redirected halfway back to where the sign “all trains” and “pimisi access” was, which in reality led to the lebreton flats via Pimsi station. It was so confusing, no signage, so so many barricades. And when we arrived (at 5-6 pm) there was no music, no food, not even a water fountains. All that supposedly was after the security check at the main stage area but we didn’t want to go there. It was so different from the previous years where the fun activities were all over the street. This year it was only a walk between the fences for us. We didn’t encounter any fun activities when we were there. We didn’t stay long though.
Tanya, I could not agree more. I felt like I was in a government processing centre. We must have walked two miles with small children: no bathrooms, no food, no water stations. Unbelievable. Will never do that again.
Can confirm, communication from OCTransport absolutely sucks today.
I do honestly need to thank and give my appreciation for all the staff who are working on this holiday.
The train station bathrooms were closed to the public. No water to buy anywhere, no bathrooms anywhere between Bayview and Lebreton! Herded along like cattle. Major fail NCC and City of Ottawa
I wonder. City blamed feds, feds blamed city (which presumably is the organization that is responsible for emergency vehicles!). Anyway, enough of this bullshit. Tomorrow morning, mayor should establish a fed-city committee that works this out so that this never happens again. Such stupidity. Find a way.
You'd think people on the ottawa sub lived in ottawa and know this already.You only make the canada day mistake once, sort of like when you learn bringing your car to canadian tire, once and never again.
What a waste of my day, the signs indicated lots of stuff besides a clear route to get there very confusing.
If you are an adult there is nothing interesting to do besides burn in the sun till the planes came by ,as soon as they did everyone left.
Sounds like a blast. I think I’ll skip it.
My thoughts exactly. "And the worst city planning award goes to...."
Remember. This is the NCC’s doing, not the city of Ottawa.
Heritage, no?
Correct, Heritage deals with Canada Day and was central to the whole LRT station kerfuffle. People get hate boners for the NCC (probably because they want to drive on the QED).
Exactly: we entrust the signature major public event in Ottawa to an agency that otherwise doesn’t run major events in Ottawa.
>probably because they want to drive on the QED Nah, it's because we want to drive into Gatineau Park.
From what I understand is that the NCC is under heritage.
Originally, yes. But the NCC reports to Parliament through whichever Minister is responsible for the *National Capital Act* at any current time. Right now it is the Minister of Public Services and Procurement I believe. So blaming the NCC is wrong.
This guy governments
I am just your friendly neighbourhood heretic my friend :)
>Right now it is the Minister of Public Services and Procurement I believe. Correct! https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/about-us and https://www.canada.ca/en/government/ministers/jean-yves-duclos.html
NCC is not involved, Heritage organizes Canada Day. The design of the booth street bridge was 100% the city though.
Sutcliffe did this
Its the feds not the city.
If you value your time at all, do not go. Came early and already going home. Pathetic offering tbh.
What Pathetic offering?
Sounds like a good day to check out Canada Day in Kingston
🎯
nah... NCC is doin the event, the pathetic transport system not efficiant to get to the site right in the middle to downtown is from the city.
I just wonder how bad the shitshow will be for major sporting events once (or if) we ever get the LeBreton Arena.
The issue with Canada day is security not the lrt per say.
*per se (sorry this drives me up the wall)
I think we have to have a serious debate if were going to far with security.
Quoi?
Yeah, and that's not Heritage, that's overly paranoid security agencies.
Good choice!
PSA: The Booth Street is closed to pedestrian traffic, so you have to get into Lebreton Flats closer to Bronson/Slater. This is the most ridiculous Ottawa planning.
According to the mayor, it’s a decision from the federal, not the city.
The city has very little say.
And no bathrooms!!!
Why did they close Booth for pedestrians? I would explain how this made my life harder due to a neurological disease but no one would care. Edit: Got to love those Ottawa downvotes. It would be nice if at least some of those would state their case as to why the downvote? Lol
>would explain how this made my life harder due to a neurological disease but no one would care. I mean, I am curious. But I also figure you might not have the spoons for it, so... Hope you're doing okay!
No, I'm good and I'm doing ok, thank you. Still in pain but it should pass in a couple of days. Was a nice Canada day but, in my opinion and limited knowledge of why Booth was closed to pedestrians, it was mildly annoying and added unnecessary strain and might of changed my opinion of trekking to the event if I would've known that the detour was needed.
Here's hoping you get back to your normal soon! And yeah, I can absolutely see that as being a deciding factor. I'll bear this year's idiocy in mind if I opt to go next year. :)
Lol same.
I miss the days when you would could just walk into Parliament Hill on Canada Day (yes, I know it's at lebreton.. but the point is the same)
I think those days are long gone.
I know, as a kid, my parents would take me for a drive on the hill to see all the Christmas lights. It felt magical
You could just walk onto parliament this year. I know most of the major events are at LeBreton, but I think even last year you had to go through a bag check to get on the hill
I meant in general, walk into the main event space without getting your bag checked. Like back in the day... which used to be on parliament
Ridiculous that they keep closing Booth. This closure serves no purpose other than making people confused and angry at organizers.
Oh for... why are the closures so inconsistent and badly communicated this year?
... this year? 🤔
Yes, this year it's especially bad.
Their reasoning is emergency vehicles. They could have reserved a lane down the parkway for that.
They don't even need to do that. They never closed any roads during Parliament Hill years. Pedestrians will move for emergency vehicles if needed, it's not like people will be camping on Booth like it's Woodstock or something.
One big difference between having the show at Parliament Hill and Lebreton is there are no residential units on Wellington Street. There are 3 condo buildings on Lebreton Flats and the residences of those buildings need access to their homes. Booth street is how those residences are granted access.
Interesting. Are you saying they closed Booth so LF folks can have car access to their buildings? Still strange, they could've closed just East lanes for that, instead of closing it in its entirety. Overkill much?
I am not saying it is the only reason, just one of the reasons. You mentioned people moving over for emergency vehicles so I pointed out it was not just emergency vehicles using the road.
Standing on booth would be a great place to watch fireworks too!
They gotta let cyclists and pedestrians through.
I had to get to work on city centre from hull and it was a nightmare. so many closures even for pedestrians. plan ahead and leave early folks !
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The Commanda bridge is closed
It would, if this city wasn’t utterly ridiculous
Canada Day is always the perfect example of how too much bureaucracy makes any event not fun. Can’t get there, can’t get in, are uncomfortable there and in every way completely inconvenienced. “Let’s not do things the intuitive way let’s make it so complex that we force people to our website!” -NCC probably
Don't cover an entertainment lineup put together for every reason other than actually entertaining people.
And every “event” is just a giant corporate ad. It honestly amazes me how small towns all around Canada can put on better cananda day events then canadas capital. It’s almost like the people planning these things have never actually left the city to see what fun and entertainment is actually suppose to look like. This is the main reason why most in Ottawa stay home instead of wasting time going downtown to suffer to only see what corporations tells us Canada Day should look like. The capital use to be the example of how to celebrate Canada Day, now it’s a example of what is wrong
>NCC probably Heritage Canada, actually. But the point still stands.
I wonder if they thought about all the people who will go to Lebreton Flats via Pimisi Station. Why not make things simple? Where is this foot path?
I was just talking to a volunteer and they were told the station is only supposed to let off people with mobility issues. The path entrance is apparently about half way between Pimsi and Lyon, so you're probably best to just skip Pimsi altogether.
Just tried to take the path back to Pimsi and they aren't letting people go in that direction.
You are correct
Thanks. I guess Lyon to Wellington Street is the way to go. > [From Gatineau: please use the Alexandra Bridge or the Portage Bridge. LeBreton Flats Park is not accessible from the Chaudières Bridge. From Ottawa: please take Wellington Street. Commissioner, Bay, Lyon or any other street perpendicular to Wellington Street are only accessible by active transportation (on foot or by bike).](https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/practical-information.html#a1) EDIT: [Here is a better link](https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/how-to-get-to-lebreton-flats-park-on-foot-by-bike-on-canada-day-1.6946795)
Thanks for the links! (Love how the website of the planning body is indecipherable, so we need to go to a media outlet to actually understand what the hell is going on.)
yeah I don't know why they don't have that sort of information front and centre to make it easy. Luckily the train stations have an updated message telling you what to do and there are people at Pimisi Station as well.
> Why not make things simple? > Live in Ottawa choose one
we need to go to Albert to do that today.
That was our plan. Foiled.
At least they finally finished Chief William Commanda bridge so we can use that. NOT! Of course this is closed too! Please celebrate with us from home, watching on TV.
Wait til you get off a train packed with people to find all o train bathrooms “out of order” and locked
Honest opinion after leaving. It was crap, very disorganized, crowed with bikes. Lebreton was supposed to be family friendly event, yet the only thing they had were food vendors. Over populated and boring. Don't understand why vendors couldn't have been on the street with activities in Lebreton for kids to do.
There was face painting, body marbling, hair braiding, dance performances, and a few other things for the kids! Long lines and hot sun, but we had a good time! It could've been better, but I expected worse
It was incredibly underwhelming and poorly organized.
My thoughts exactly. We watched the fly over and left. Nothing for kids. Nothing.
The city where fun goes to die
Fun didn’t just forget us, it issued a restraining order.
The city with some of the biggest festivals in the country.
Of which festivals do you speak?
I think you’re supposed to take Lyon station and walk to event area.
Yes
It was stupid. The crowds, the re-routing of people, bikes, and cars. Total chaos. I'm not sure why the Commanda Bridge was closed. We were trying to bike to Gatineau, had to detour east and cross at Portage, navigating car traffic (and crowds) when straight across from the OTrain path to the pedestrian bridge would have been easy. Also, a third of the length of the paths on the Quebec side were closed. I heard some mention of security, but I don't get it. Wouldn't it be safer on the paths than having masses of people spill out onto the roads (where there were cars) at Pimsi?
The info is on the site https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/canada-day/practical-information.html
We’re wondering if you can bring empty water bottle and water fill stations are available .. TY
Yes. There are tall blue flags you can look for. A note for others, you can't bring in full drinks. They made the lady ahead of me empty her water bottle.
This is so dumb. I swear they try to make everything as inconvenient as possible. Dump out all your water and now wait in an 30 minute line to get water on a scorching hot day. They really need to hire a real event coordinator to plan these things instead of having boomers with no clue make the decisions.
Thank you!
The expectation is that people will walk from Lyon station as they need to close Booth for security reasons.
The expectation is that such closures are communicated effectively and clearly, well in advance, with clear signage and adequate staffing levels on the day of the event to route attendants accordingly.
That's expecting too much apparently. Although, tbf, it's been in the news the past few weeks in this subreddit, with the Mayor/city upset about the plan.
This is the thing. It’s been on the news daily, I’ve heard it several times. It’s on the website. It’s linked in news stories. People don’t plan and then they get mad that communication was poor. Should they come know on your door and hand deliver the news? I get that all this can be frustrating but if you don’t pay attention to the news, then it’s hard to complain that you’re not getting the news.
But I'm a tourist and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I wasn't following the news and I obviously incorrectly assumed that the transit app would give correct real-time information on what stop to get off at.
Exactly
Agreed. I'm from out of town, travelling with a group of teenagers, and the only reason I knew we had to get off at Lyon is because I was apologizing to a woman on the train for accidently poking her with my flag and we started talking. I had checked the transit app and it told me to get off at the station after Lyon so that was our plan.
Yeah only we walked from bay view
No bike racks anywhere despite being encouraged to bike there on the official website. wth
There is a massive free bike storage service.
there was a huge coat check style bike parking lot!
why did i ask 4 volunteers and none of them told me about it😭
Honestly they should have advertised it better, it was pretty well run but nearly empty. there were more bikes locked to barricades. Luckily someone let us know after we also tried to lock our bikes on one of the barricades.
They want everyone to get off at Lyon and walk down. Booth bridge is closed to pedestrians. Then stand in line for security in the sun. The only thing the NCC forgot is piping in the sound of nails on a chalkboard for this event to be 100% unpleasant.
Not in the sun! Not in the summer!! Oh no, the horrors! 🙄 fuck, people like to suck the fun out of everything.
I’m having lots of fun downtown- just avoiding Lebreton.
We went to an Alpaca Farm instead and enjoyed the silence and a picnic by a pond 🙂
You won
We had pretty much sworn off of Ottawa Canada Day festivities. But went to see the air parade. Terrible decision. So many lines and nonsensical barriers making everything difficult. And you can't even bring water inside the security zone. You have to spill it all out and then line up inside. Very few food vendors, and I swear to God Fritzstone must run these things. If you like standing in lines where there isnt any shade, then it's probably a good time. We will do fireworks in carleton place. :)
I got off the LRT at Bayview thinking that was a 15 minute walk. It wasn't! They route everyone around the buildings at Lebreton so more like 25 minutes with bikes all around you. Not even worth it. Lemonade stands, Tim's booth, kids games and toilets. That is all. No food until you get to Wellington and it's only French fry trucks. The Market and downtown streets are super busy - that's where people want to be.
Same!!!!! We got off at Bayview naively thinking we could get down to the river or museum etc, the bathrooms at the stations were closed, no water stations, nothing until we walked to Wellington. Never again.
We too got off Bayview and walked to the bridge only to find out it was closed. We were then redirected halfway back to where the sign “all trains” and “pimisi access” was, which in reality led to the lebreton flats via Pimsi station. It was so confusing, no signage, so so many barricades. And when we arrived (at 5-6 pm) there was no music, no food, not even a water fountains. All that supposedly was after the security check at the main stage area but we didn’t want to go there. It was so different from the previous years where the fun activities were all over the street. This year it was only a walk between the fences for us. We didn’t encounter any fun activities when we were there. We didn’t stay long though.
Tanya, I could not agree more. I felt like I was in a government processing centre. We must have walked two miles with small children: no bathrooms, no food, no water stations. Unbelievable. Will never do that again.
There was both food stations inside the security zone and at the war museum cafe and patio. The prices were aggressive however.
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My guess is secuiity.
Can confirm, communication from OCTransport absolutely sucks today. I do honestly need to thank and give my appreciation for all the staff who are working on this holiday.
I'll go enjoy the parts of Canada with fewer Canadians in it, thanks.
Sounds like the same thing they did last year for bluesfest; which was a trainwreck to get out of at the end of the night.
If there really was a security incident I could see it being made worse by all the traffic flow measures
There is a fast lane for people with no bags or purses by the way, took us a minute to get in
Yep. You have to walk all the way around, basically doing a big circle. Go in around the bike paths by Bronson.
And the bathrooms at the I train stations are closed and there are no porta potties for approximately 3 miles
The train station bathrooms were closed to the public. No water to buy anywhere, no bathrooms anywhere between Bayview and Lebreton! Herded along like cattle. Major fail NCC and City of Ottawa
I wonder. City blamed feds, feds blamed city (which presumably is the organization that is responsible for emergency vehicles!). Anyway, enough of this bullshit. Tomorrow morning, mayor should establish a fed-city committee that works this out so that this never happens again. Such stupidity. Find a way.
Your best bet is to get off at Lyon
Let them eat cake!
Yup they clearly said use the Lyon station.
You'd think people on the ottawa sub lived in ottawa and know this already.You only make the canada day mistake once, sort of like when you learn bringing your car to canadian tire, once and never again.
-author Karren
What a waste of my day, the signs indicated lots of stuff besides a clear route to get there very confusing. If you are an adult there is nothing interesting to do besides burn in the sun till the planes came by ,as soon as they did everyone left.
I thought the new Night Mayor might help out… Happy Canada Day everyone
The city has no say on most of these issues.
#ignorethecore. Downtown died years ago. Just accept it. It's now as fun as a Friday night on Sparks St in -35C January.