The National Capital Commission is using Canadian tax dollars to take the City of Ottawa to Court
In Spring 2026 city council voted NOT to rezone the McCarthy Wilderness as “development reserve.” In June 2026, we learned that the NCC is now taking the city to the Ottawa Land Tribunal! The NCC threatened that if the City did not agree to their proposed “development reserve” zoning that the NCC would take things further and they were not bluffing. We would expect this type of behaviour from developers, not from a crown corporation whose mandate is stewardship and conservation. And indeed, if you look at who else is working with the NCC on this appeal, you will see a long list of developers.
The top photo is the zoning of the McCarthy wilderness that city council approved as part of Zoning By-law 2026-50, thanks to the motion put forth by Councillor Brockington to protect the wilderness.
The bottom photo shows all the areas that the NCC is appealing for development (hatched areas).
Continued Lack of Transparency:
Why this is even more troubling. When the NCC originally proposed changing these areas to “development reserve” they claimed they had no plans for any future development. And yet, three months later, multiple developers are appealing this protective zoning.
On July 2nd, a case conference appealing
Ottawa zoning was held. SEVEN developers and the NCC were the listed as Appellants (the groups appealing the zoning) and the contact for the appellants was Ursula Melinz, a Solicitor for the National Capital Commission. The Notice of the Case Conference (where these images were taken) can be found here.
National Capital Commission
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Land Tribunal
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Case Conference July 2026
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Development Reserve?
National Capital Commission ✳︎ Land Tribunal ✳︎ Case Conference July 2026 ✳︎ Development Reserve?
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