Confederation Heights: Realize the Potential

Since the launch of the collaboration project, Canada Lands Company and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) have been working towards a new vision for the site by engaging stakeholders, Indigenous communities and the public to realize its potential. Part of this work included PSPC determining its future at Confederation Heights as part of the government’s portfolio reduction strategy. After careful analysis, the government has decided to significantly reduce the federal employment footprint at Confederation Heights resulting in additional land available for housing.

With these decisions made, Canada Lands will now take the lead in finalizing the Master Plan for the site. The Company is using various tools to expedite housing development, including collaborating with the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission on the Master Plan and Secondary Plan approval processes in parallel.

Looking ahead, Canada Lands’ priority at Confederation Heights is to enable housing and other uses as quickly as possible. The first phase of development will focus on parcels that are most easily developed for housing. For more information, the Frequently Asked Questions page has been updated. Canada Lands looks forward to continuing community engagement this spring and summer as the project progresses.

Welcome to the Confederation Heights newsletter. We hope you are enjoying the summer sun with friends and family.

As work continues to create a preferred Master Plan concept option for Confederation Heights, the project team would like to provide you with some updates since presenting the three draft concept options to the public late last year. Here is a summary of activities.

Optimizing the Federal Real Property Portfolio

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is developing a long-term plan to optimize the space under its responsibility, lower operating costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The aim is to reduce the PSPC-administered office portfolio by 50% over the next 10 years.

PSPC already declared two federal buildings at Confederation Heights as surplus to the Government’s needs: the Sir Charles Tupper Building and 1500 Bronson Avenue. Recently, 875 Heron Road, another federal building at the site, was added to the list of surplus buildings for disposal.

PSPC continues this work with the expectation that additional buildings will be identified as surplus in future, which may include other properties within Confederation Heights. The project team will keep you updated.

You can visit PSPC's Optimizing our real property portfolio website to learn more about the department's portfolio plans and the building disposal process.

Status of the Three Master Plan Concept Options

The feedback that the project team has and continues to receive is incredibly valuable and informs much of the work that is being done towards a preferred Master Plan concept option. This feedback comes from the public, the consulting team, the Public Advisory Committee, the Technical Advisory Committee, stakeholders and approval authorities.

Since the fall, the team has completed technical analysis on the three concept options in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team. This analysis considers urban planning and design best practices, landscape architecture, ecology, heritage, sustainability, transportation, accessibility, and wayfinding among others. The analysis conducted is done through the lens of the project’s vision and guiding principles, with a goal of identifying which elements from each option best achieve the overall Master Plan vision.

Following the workshops last fall, the team has been engaged further with various stakeholders, including Carleton University, the RA Centre, Health Canada, National Capital Commission, and the City of Ottawa. Additionally, as we consider social equity within the Master Plan, we are pleased to be integrating our consultant retained to establish a social equity strategy for Confederation Heights.

With the Federal Budget 2024 highlighting CLC’s important role in helping to provide much-needed housing in Ottawa by getting federal lands such as Confederation Heights ready for development, the project team anticipates being able to present a preferred Master Plan concept option to the public in late fall 2024 or early 2025.

We look forward to seeing you later this year, and hope you have an enjoyable rest of your summer.

The Confederation Heights Team

On behalf of Canada Lands Company, Public Services and Procurement Canada, and our entire consulting team, I am pleased to advise that the As We Heard It Report from the November 23, 2023 Public Engagement Sessions and the Self-guided Virtual Tour is now available in the Document Library of the Confederation Heights Project Website (https://engage.clc-sic.ca/25963/widgets/108831/documents/128521).

All of the input received will be extremely helpful in guiding us to the next phase of the Master Plan exercise. We thank you for your time and dedication to the master planning process and look forward to keeping you updated on next steps.

If you didn't get a chance to join us in person during the master planning workshop, or would like to add to what you may have already contributed, the project team is pleased to offer you an additional opportunity to provide feedback. This interactive activity can be completed at your leisure and at your own pace until January 15, 2024, at which time an ‘As We Heard It’ report will be compiled highlighting the engagement findings and published thereafter.

These public workshop style meetings specifically focused on the Confederation Heights Master Plan potential concept options for redevelopment of the approximately 188 hectares (465 acres) of federal lands.

What to expect about this interactive activity?

After viewing the presentation and the video on this page, the project team is seeking your perspective through a questionnaire on the three concept options entitled:

Concept Theme 1: Gateway to the Capital

Concept Theme 2: Recreational District

Concept Theme 3: Intensify and Urbanize

Although each concept is different, the presentation will assist you in understanding the unique features of each approach. We are seeking your input which will be added to the voices of those who already took part during our public and stakeholder engagement exercises.

Many thanks and we look forward to hearing your ideas!

The Confederation Heights Team

Canada Lands Company and Public Services and Procurement Canada would like to thank those who participated in our November 23 Concept Options workshop sessions. Your valued input is greatly appreciated.

If you were unable to attend or wish to provide additional input, we have an interactive activity for you to take part in, coming soon on our project website platform.

You will be notified once the information is uploaded.

In the meantime, we appreciate your interest and participation and look forward to seeing you at our next engagement event.

Confederation Heights Project Team

About this event

After completing two years of study, conversations, consultations and engagement, Canada Lands Company and Public Services and Procurement Canada are now ready to present three draft master plan concept options for Confederation Heights. The partners are hosting an in-person workshop for the community and the public to review and discuss the three options.

Space is limited, register early.

To accommodate your schedule, this in-person meeting will be held twice in one day:

• Register here for the Afternoon Session: Thursday, November 23, 2023 from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm
• Register here for the Evening Session: Thursday, November 23, 2023 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm

LOCATION: St. Elias Centre at 750 Ridgewood Avenue

Please indicate in advance of the meeting if you wish to sit at a French-speaking table.

Pre-recorded Presentation and Interactive Activity

If you can’t join us in person, you can go to our website and provide your input though an online activity, which will be available shortly after the workshop.

What to expect

The project team will present three draft concept plan options that have been developed over the last two (2) years with input from many stakeholders.

The purpose of the in-person workshop is to get input on the three options. All input received from you and other stakeholders will inform a preferred final draft concept.

Working towards a final Master Plan

Next steps for the Confederation Heights project team will be to piece together the draft final master plan that will be presented at a follow up public information meeting anticipated for mid-2024.

We are pleased to launch a self-directed, on-site tour of Confederation Heights. This tour will provide an opportunity for you to explore the site online or in person and learn more about its many landmarks.

After the tour, we are seeking your perspective through a questionnaire. The input you provide will assist our team in the planning process. This interactive activity can be completed at your leisure and at your own pace until the end of November.

Here is how it works:

1. Go to our specially created application: http://chvirtualtour.ca/.
2. Read the welcome message.
3. Click on a pin to learn more information about that area of the map.
4. Fill out our questionnaire: https://engage.clc-sic.ca/realize-the-potential/survey_tools/virtual-site-tour-questions.

We hope you find this tour informative and fun, and we look forward to getting your input. Should you have any questions, please send us an email at confederationheights@clc-sic.ca and we will respond to you during normal business hours.

Canada Lands Company and Public Services and Procurement Canada would like to thank those who participated in our June 7 and June 9 “Big Ideas” workshop sessions. Your valued input is greatly appreciated.

If you were unable to attend or wish to provide additional input, we have two interactive activities for you to take part in. Click on the “Places” and/or “Ideas” tab on the main page to begin.

We also have a recording of the workshop presentation as well as a PDF copy of the presentation available in our Resource Library.

A summary of this phase of our engagement process will be available soon on this website.

Once again, we appreciate your interest and participation and look forward to seeing you at our next engagement event. At this time our team is anticipating hosting an in-person walking tour of the site early this fall! Stay tuned for more details.

Have a great summer!
Confederation Heights Project Team

About this event

Canada Lands Company and Public Services and Procurement Canada have been working hard on the next steps of the Confederation Heights master planning process. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

We’ve created our Public Advisory Committee.

We received many excellent submissions last fall to participate in our Public Advisory Committee — thank you to everyone and every organization that applied!

We are pleased to advise that we’ve completed our selection process for our Public Advisory Committee. The group includes diverse members with a range of knowledge and expertise. We look forward to working with them and benefitting from their perspectives as we move forward toward a new vision for Confederation Heights. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the PAC Members List.

Our As We Heard It report is now available.

Our first As We Heard It report is now available in the Resource Library.

The report is a summary of all the feedback and input we’ve received so far from you and other stakeholders.

Your comments will help us develop a vision and guiding principles for the site, and shape the emerging ideas for the master plan.

We’ve set dates for our next public meeting.

We're getting ready for our next public event, which will be a workshop. So, get ready to roll up your sleeves! During this workshop, we'll present our vision and guiding principles for this site, and we'll be asking for your feedback on emerging ideas we’ve been working on.

We’ll be hosting two bilingual sessions and the same information will be shared at both meetings.

You will be able to register for the workshop here. We'll send you a note when registration opens. To allow as many people as possible to participate, please register for one session only. Space will be limited, so be sure to register early. If you can’t make either workshop, not to worry – you’ll have the opportunity to participate online.

In the meantime...

Read about the goals of the Confederation Heights Master Plan.

View our public meeting materials from our first meeting in November 2021.

Discover the history and how the site has evolved.

Learn about the project timeline and next steps.

Tell us your story about the site and how you foresee the future of Confederation Heights evolving over the coming decades.

Subscribe to our newsletter so that we can notify you when registration opens! We look forward to seeing you soon!

Confederation Heights Master Plan Team

PAC Members List