Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson appeared on TSN 1200 to talk about the ongoing LeBreton process.
Over the weekend, there was a story about Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and Eugene Melnyk visiting with the Mayor of Ottawa to talk about the status of the ongoing efforts to develop LeBreton Flats. One Ottawa resident caught Eugene and Gary’s beard either on their way to or just leaving the meeting.
There really hasn’t been much in the way of an update on this process since November 2016 but that isn’t all that surprising. A project involving multiple levels of government is bound to be long and drawn out.
The Senators are still optimistically aiming to be in their new home to start the 2021/2022 season. And obviously there’s a lot of work to be done and hurdles to be cleared in the next four years. Right now, the RendezVous LeBreton group is still in negotiations with the National Capital Commission but they hope to have a formal agreement in place early next year.
Then the real work of developing the area (including the massive clean up) can begin.
The fact that both Gary Bettman and Bill Daly came to Ottawa to personally meet with the Mayor at this stage suggests that maybe they aren’t thrilled with the pace of the process to this point.
But listening to Watson this morning, it’s pretty obvious that there’s still a ton of ground left to cover.
Specifically, Watson is first expected to present a negotiation mandate to City Council. This will outline the city’s stance in the negotiations and get support from Council for that approach. That won’t even happen until October of this year. Until that happens, the part of the negotiation involving the city really can’t begin.
It sounds like part of the reason for Gary Bettman checking in at this early stage was to see how he could help the process along. And while his presence is nice, it’s clear that the City and the NCC are going to take their time. Obviously the Senators and the NHL would like to see the team downtown as soon as possible.
Watson also delicately addressed the idea of public money being directed towards this project. While his answer focused mainly on the infrastructure around the area (including the LRT) it does seem like the city is expecting to be a funding partner in this development, one way or another.
You can listen to the full interview here.
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