$60-million clean up at Zibi site gets committee approval

The city's finance committee wants to see the Zibi development get built on the Chaudière and Albert islands.

At Finance and Economic Development Committee Tuesday, the group voted unanimously in favor of cleaning up the contaminated site.

That comes with a $60-million price tag, which is funded through the Brownfields Redevelopment Program, a grant program in place to encourage developers to build in the core instead of the suburbs.

Windmill Development Group applied for the grant, and could soon get approval, if this motion passes through City Council.

This is not only good from an economic point of view – constructions jobs and pay back to the city of Ottawa – more importantly, it's very good for the environment,” said Mayor Jim Watson.

The project has become a hot topic at the committee level because of the record breaking value of the grant. There has also been similarities drawn between paying to clean up these lands and the land that will, one day, become the future home of the Ottawa Senators.

“The Zibi site is privately owned,” said Watson. “The federal government owns the land [Lebreton Flats] and will continue to own it – a long term lease with the Senators and the Rendenvous Lebreton group.”

“We're not in the business of subsidizing the federal government cleaning up their land. That should be their responsibility,” added the mayor.

At committee Tuesday, city staff labelled this project as a “poster child” for the Brownfield Grant.