CONFEDERATION HEIGHTS REDEVELOPMENT: FINAL DRAFT MASTER PLAN

HERITAGE OTTAWA

Canada Lands Company and the City of Ottawa are hosting a drop-in Open House to review the Final Draft Master Plan for Confederation Heights, a mixed-use redevelopment project. 

Date of Open House: January 22, 2026 | 6 - 9 pm | Hellenic Event Centre, 1315 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa

Heritage Ottawa has been an active participant in the public engagement process, which began in 2021. Heritage Ottawa supports the vision and guiding/heritage conservation principles and goals of the Master Plan, but we have emphasized that the preservation and adaptive reuse of the Modernist federal buildings be integral components of the development of the new Confederation Heights community. 

In written comments submitted to the Canada Lands Company on August 25, 2025, Heritage Ottawa stressed that "urbanization and the pressing need for housing and economic development do not have to result in the degradation of the area's heritage."

The Confederation Heights federal government campus is the result of the early foresight of the Ottawa Improvement Commission and Federal District Commission through the Holt Plan (1915) and the National Capital Plan (1950) of Jacques Gréber. The current buildings and green spaces are the result of decades of federal planning that saw the decentralization of the federal footprint from the downtown core.

Most of the buildings and their corresponding landscape settings of today were built in the 1950s and 1960s. The site boasts three 'Recognized' and one 'Classified' Federal Heritage Buildings in recognition of their contribution to the Modernist movement in Canada.

Heritage Ottawa's written submission concurred with the Plan's theme that Confederation Heights serve as an important gateway to Canada's capital. Our comments emphasized that the redevelopment needs to ensure visual and physical compatibility with the existing site, and respect the key views to modernist heritage buildings. Heritage Ottawa concluded that "any building-specific site development should take its inspiration from the Modernist movement yet in a manner that reflects current thinking."

The Open House on January 22nd is an opportunity to share comments/concerns with Canada Lands Company who is overseeing the redevelopment of the site and the creation of a new residential community.