Like a dormant volcano that suddenly comes to life, the long-standing debate over a proposed extension linking Brian Coburn Boulevard to Renaud Road with a bus rapid transitway alongside erupted last week in a war of words between local city councillors and the NCC.

The first salvo was fired by local councillors Laura Dudas, Tim Tierney, Catherine Kitts and Matt Luloff during last week’s city council meeting.

Council was debating a proposed Official Plan amendment which would have paved the way for a future embassy row along the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway backing on to Mechanicsville. The application, which would have allowed for up to five embassies was put forward by the NCC.

That didn’t sit well with Dudas, Tierney Kitts and Luloff, who have been pushing for the Brian Coburn extension and bus rapid transitway to no avail, thanks to the intransigent position of the NCC which has been against the extension ever since it was first proposed in 2012.

In his remarks on the matter, Tierney said that the federal agency has not been honest brokers in either matter and therefore he would be voting against the proposal.

“We want to send a strong message that (the NCC) has to learn to work with our city and work together collectively so that we can accomplish things and I don’t see that,” said Tierney.

Kitts echoed Tierney’s comments, calling the NCC’s proposal to create an embassy row in an existing greenspace while refusing to discuss the possibility of extending Brian Coburn Boulevard through a small portion of the Greenbelt as duplicitous and hypocritical.

“In the east end we have spent years at an impasse with the NCC on the location of critical infrastructure with their resistance hinged on protecting greenspace. Coun. Tierney and I have worked together to try and defer this item to allow for further discussion in negotiations on a path forward, but as those have continued to fail I cannot support this application,” said Kitts.

Luloff added his voice to the opposition, claiming the application was a clear example of the NCC speaking out of both sides of their mouth.

“What’s good for downtown is good for the suburbs as well. At the same time they’re speaking out of both sides of their mouth they won’t come and sit down with us,” said Luloff, pointing out that the city has offered the NCC a significant land swap in order to pave the way for the proposed extension which the NCC has thus far refused to consider.

Coun. Dudas has been involved in trying to get the NCC to come to the table to discuss the proposed extension since before she was elected to council.

“It’s been exhausting about how long they’ve put up walls and have been unable and unwilling to even discuss this,” said Dudas.“We have found over many, many years of trying to bring the NCC to the table to merely discuss the extension of Brian Coburn and the Cumberland transitway... they’ve been unwilling to even talk, and to stonewall about that is a disservice to not just the east end but our city’s transportation network.”

It didn’t take long for the NCC to respond to the councillors’ comments.

In an email to the Ottawa Citizen, NCC spokesperson Valérie Dufour said the city’s desire to build a four-lane road and a bus rapid transitway through the Greenbelt beside the Mer Bleue Bog contravened their own planning principles.

“By linking the rezoning application of lands identified in both federal and municipal plans as a site for future diplomatic missions, and supported by City planning staff, to the NCC’s unwillingness to cede environmentally sensitive lands in the Greenbelt near the protected Mer Bleu Bog to allow the City to build additional lanes for road infrastructure, city council has contravened the planning principles,” Dufour wrote.

The proposed Brian Coburn Boulevard extension and bus rapid transitway, known as Option 7, would see Brian Coburn extended to Anderson Road along Renaud Road and then on to Innes Road. It would consist of four lanes with a bus rapid transitway running along side.

In her email to the Ottawa Citizen, Dufour, took the opportunity to remind the city councillors that the city had proposed an earlier alignment for the bus rapid transitway next to Blackburn Bypass, but it was withdrawn.

“Unfortunately, the city decided not to proceed with the agreed alignment and undertook an assessment of new road options through NCC lands that were not the subject of any prior agreement with us,” Dufour wrote. “The NCC clearly communicated its concerns about the city’s preferred option, but, in the spirit of partnership and flexibility, offered to discuss ways in which two of the city’s alignment options could be considered. That offer was refused by the city.”

The extension was first proposed in 2013 by the Bradley Estates Community Association which was looking for ways to reduce the increasing level of commuter traffic through the community along Renaud.

At the time, the City was considering the possibility of adding bus only lanes to the Blackburn Bypass, but with the growth in housing south of Innes Road and accompanying traffic over the past eight years, the need for an increase in road capacity as well as a bus transitway has become glaringly apparent..