OTTAWA DEVELOPMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16375, 24 June 1927, Page 12

OTTAWA DEVELOPMENT

GREAT NATIONAL PARK SCHKMP ... UKDFUAL DISTRICT. OTTAWA, April 17. Canada and the United States are continually borrowing ideas from one another. The Canadian Government has decided to emulate the American plan followed in connection with the capital of the United States and constitute Ottawa and its environs into a Federal district which will be under the direct wardship of the Dominion Government. The ordinary municipal administration will be retained for most purposes, but for the. Federal district full authority in regard to improvements, roads, town-planning, etc., will be vested in a, body to be known as the Federal District Commission. It will be given a subsidy of £50,000 per annum from the Federal Treasury, and endowed with drastic powers in regard to expropriation and other matters. A tentative programme of improvements, which will bo spread over a period of 16 years, has already been drawn up, ami one of its settled features is tbe demolition of the Post Office and other buildings in the centre of the city to permit the erection of a magnificent central square. The territory which is to come under the control of the Commission will include ibe lower part of tbe valley of the flat menu, which is one of the acknowledged beauty spots of Fasten) Canada, and attracts thousands of visitors in .summer. Tho Gatineau itself is a. dark, swift-flowing river, which joins the Ottawa just north of the capital, but (lie. main valley, which is deeply wooded, is intersected by a series of lovely little glens, and there are a number of high forest-clad bills in the vieini'tv. The' Premier, Mr. Mackenzie King, has for years had a summer residence at Kingsmere. in the Gatineau Valley, and he is lending his enthusiastic support to a scheme for the creation of a magnificent national park in this quarter. For such a development it is admirably suited, and the expenditure, which would 1 be chiefly devoted to building new roads, need not be h.rgo to endow the Canadian capital with an asset of unparalleled beauty.