Adam: Ottawa's future tantalizing with library options

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The announcement of a potential partnership between the City of Ottawa and the federal government to build a new central library is perhaps the most exciting news about capital development since the city abandoned its small-town tendencies to embrace light rail two decades years ago.

Standout cities often use major projects such as museums, libraries and galleries to create a buzz and redefine themselves. Spanish regional city Bilbao stamped its mark on the world with its stunning Guggenheim museum. Canadian cities such as Halifax and Calgary have made splashes of their own, but it has never been clear whether Ottawa could do the same with its new central library.

Now we can dream.

With Library and Archives Canada looking to take a leading role in this partnership, we can envisage not just a grand central library and showcase for important historical documents, but a cultural hub of enormous appeal. What makes this partnership even more exciting is the mindset Library and Archives Canada brings to the table.

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While Tim Tierney, the city councillor who heads the library board, was looking at the partnership simply in terms of saving money for taxpayers, Canada’s chief librarian and archivist Guy Berthiaume was reaching for the sky.

“I can see something like the Guggenheim in Bilbao. People will come just to see the building,” he told the Citizen. “If we create something iconic in the heart of the city, people will come.”

Nice to hear someone in Ottawa think that big. We need more like him.

Obviously Ottawa is not going to build a Guggenheim. There is only one of its kind and it may well be impossible to replicate even if the city wanted to. Berthiaume is using Guggenheim as a metaphor for architectural excellence and we should applaud his daring. It is early days yet and no agreement has been reached.

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But as this potential partnership slowly becomes reality, we should not be afraid to let our imagination run free and see where it takes us. We can build our own version of the Guggenheim and we should resist the temptation to nickel and dime ourselves into something bland or mundane. That’s not a call for reckless spending.

Money obviously is scarce, especially now that the economy is stagnating, and we should not be so carried away we become wasteful. Keeping taxes low is a noble goal. Nobody likes paying taxes and it is good to have a city government that is focused on keeping them low. But we all realize that good services come at a price, and if we want to build a great capital, we have to understand that quality costs money. We just have to find the right balance.

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Cities like Halifax and Calgary did just that, building sumptuous libraries that are defining their cities. Imagination is becoming something of a four-letter word in Ottawa, but it shouldn’t. Great cities have it in abundance in their planning, and we should at least be able to do what the Halifaxes of this world are doing, if not better.

Ottawa is a nice city but it could be so much better. What’s frustrating is that it is not trying hard enough. Part of the problem may well be that over the past several years we didn’t have a government that was emotionally invested in the capital. The loss of the Domtar lands and the National Portrait Gallery have often been cited as examples of federal government neglect, but that’s behind us now. From now on we have to aim a little bit higher and stop thinking small.

To that end, let’s consider the new library our first big challenge. With a large contingent of local Liberal members of Parliament led by regional minister Catherine McKenna, the capital has enough clout to challenge the government to do more. Of course there is a long way between here to there. Finding the best location, working out the finances and engaging in public consultations will take time. But this partnership has tantalizing possibilities for the capital and we should seize the moment.

Mohammed Adam is an Ottawa writer.

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