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The Parliament Buildings from the air (above); on the right, the way planner Jacques Greber visualized the new buildings to grace Ottawa. Face-Lifting For Ottawa Capital Planners Look To 1967 BY PATRICK NICHOLSON HE planning of "Ottawa, our National Capital", to replace "Bytown, a sub-arctic lumbering village", is now being speeded up, co- ordinated, and fitted into a long-range program. This development has been drifting along very half-heartedly for 60 years, but has now swung into a gait where sensational progress will be apparent by our 100th birthday in 1967. As long ago as 1899 the Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier, deplored the haphazard growth of the capital city of the country which he foresaw as The Nation of the 20th Century. He determined that over-all planning was ur- gently required, and that federal government assistance must be given to help pay for the costly beautification, well beyond the means of a small city. So he established in that year the Ottawa Improvement Commission, and Parliament voted it the modest annual budget of $60,000. That body has now passed through two changes of name, first to the Federal District Commission, and now to the National Capital Commission. Over the years, it has also gone through many more changes, expanding its powers and amplifying its budget. Today, the NCC is laying plans for a city with an ultimate population of 1,000,000 within 40 or 50 years. The present population of 359,000 is expected to reach 675,000 by 1980. The National Capital Region, cver which the NCC has planning powers, consists of 1,800 square miles. This makes ours the largest comprehensively planned capital in the world. It reaches from the Mississippi River on the west, to the Lievre River on the east; it stretches southwards to the village of Manotick, and northwards to include the beautiful 80,000 acre Gatineau National Park. This park is intended to provide picnic sites and recreational facilities for Ottawans, while showing visitors what Canada looked like in its natural state before the White Man came. The City of Ottawa itself will not be per- mitted to sprawl beyond its present limits. The National Capital Commission is now in process of buying up a strip of land averaging 2 miles wide all round the city. This is to be preserved for all time as a Green Belt. The City of Ottawa will ultimately be home to something less than half the population of the whole community, perhaps 450,000 persons. The remainder will live in outlying villages and towns beyond the Green Belt, some of which will be dormitory cities for people who work in Ottawa. The first of these is now be- SATURDAY, APRIL 30 ing planned on 1,500 acres of land six miles south of the city limits, where the Jock River runs into the Rideau River. Named "Heart's Desire", this will be a self-contained community of some 25.000 people, with everything from single homes to high-rise apartment buildings, and its own schools, shopping centres, and churches. The greatest single change between now and . the 100th birthday of Confederation will be seen right in the heart of Ottawa. At a cost of $15,000,000 the NCC will remove the Union