The Poets’ Pathway is referenced in section 2.2.1.2 of the 2003 Ottawa 20/20 Arts and Heritage Plan:
“Work with the NCC … to ensure that on NCC lands and along recreational pathways commemoration of local individuals, places, events and structures are developed, maintained and improved, and additional themes introduced, e.g., Poets’ Pathway.”
And section 4.6.5 of Ottawa’s 2003 Official Plan states:
“The pathways are part of the Greenspace Network and provide connections among communities and major tourism, cultural heritage and greenspace features.”
One anchor of the Pathway, Poet’s Hill at Beechwood Cemetery, was inaugurated in September 2006. This was made possible thanks to the generous cooperation of the Beechwood Cemetery Foundation. Further construction is required. The Foundation accepts tax-receipted donations to support completion of the site; please mention “Poet’s Hill.”
Most of the remainder of the Pathway is on lands for which the National Capital Commission is responsible. The NCC has not yet offered its support for our proposal.
While much of the Pathway is along established recreational paths — so that realization of the Poets’ Pathway there would merely involve erection of appropriate plaques and signage — in some parts the pathway network is only in the planning stages (ever since at least the 1994 Recreational Pathway Plan developed by the NCC in cooperation with the municipalities) and there are some significant obstacles to connectivity. These obstacles include:
– the area around Ottawa General Hospital;
– from Kitchener Avenue to McCarthy Woods, across the Airport Parkway; and
– crossing the Rideau River.
In September 2006 the Community Foundation of Ottawa accepted the Poets’ Pathway project as eligible for donations, under the aegis of its Ottawa Sustainability Fund.
Under “NCC Renewal,” elsewhere on this web site, there is information about a new mandate for the NCC for so-called surplus lands. Read about the NCC’s appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board of Ottawa’s 2003 Official Plan, which designates certain lands in the Southern Corridor as Major Open Space, on the Canadian Poets’ Park page.