Photo: The Canadian Press
An Ottawa thoroughfare currently named after Canada’s first prime minister is expected to get a new local name later this year, the National Capital Commission announced Thursday.
“I fully support this decision,” Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said Thursday after the commission’s board of directors unanimously approved a recommendation to move forward with renaming the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.
“I think this is something that Canadians and the people of Ottawa can be proud of once this process is over,” Sutcliffe said.
In June 2021, three Ottawa city councilors sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging the federal government to facilitate an Indigenous-led consultation process to rename the park, which is named after Canada’s first prime minister.
They wrote the letter after ground-based radar located about 200 suspected unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia, saying there is an “urgent need” for Canada to engage in reconciliation projects.
MacDonald authorized the establishment of a boarding school system while in power in 1880. It is estimated that more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend government-funded, church-run schools, where many suffered abuse and some died. The last such school was closed in 1996.
On Thursday, the National Capital Commission, a federal Crown corporation, said it would engage with local communities and the public to discuss a new name and encourage storytelling and community sharing.
It will propose a new local name for the road by June 2023.
The parkway’s new name will be shared at a ceremony and public event on Sept. 30, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
Count. Teresa Kavanagh, who was one of three city councilors who wrote the letter to Trudeau, called the discovery in Kamloops “an absolute turning point” and a “reality check.”
“It’s moving at a snail’s pace, but I’ll take it as a sign of hope,” Cavanagh said before Thursday’s update. “I hope that means they consulted with the local First Nations communities.”
Executive Director Toby Nussbaum had told the commission’s board last October that the renaming project was “underway.”
And last April, the commission said in a press release that it provided its board of directors with an updated policy on toponymy — or the study of place names — to provide “a more transparent decision-making process for naming and renaming NCC-managed assets.” “
He announced that a new toponymy advisory committee is being formed that includes members of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and Algonquins from the Pikwakanagan First Nations, along with other local experts.
“The commission’s first order of business will be to consider an existing request to rename the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway,” the press release said.
The park is named after the first prime minister in just over a decade.
The Ottawa River Parkway was renamed in his honor in 2012 under the government of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. At the time, the NCC said it cost $60,000 to change the four major signs along the road.
Add Comment