Deachman: Is it time to unchain Ottawa’s stairs?

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“There isn’t any tourism in winter.”

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That’s what a Parliament Hill safety guard really stated to me this week after I tried to entry the now-closed-for-the-season staircase behind the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, close to the fenced-off statue of a probably unamused Queen Victoria. I presume he was not talking in any official capability, on the file, or for anybody however himself. And but I think that Ottawa Tourism would possibly maintain a differing opinion. Winterlude’s mascots, the Ice Hogs, have to be bristling of their burrows (or wherever it’s they dwell) on the considered their presumed seasonal uselessness.

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The tourism argument apart, although, it does appear unusual that in a metropolis the place it might probably — and does — snow any time between October and April, officers appear unable or unwilling to maintain public paths and stairs open year-round.

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Are we not hardy Ottawans who welcome our local weather and geography? We flip Canada geese into life-saving parkas. We sweep granite stones on frozen paths for enjoyable. We proudly put on beards of ice as we take selfies skating on the world’s largest rink in sub-arctic temperatures. We don’t capitulate to winter; we embrace it. We personal it. Are we going to let just a few snowflakes barricade our portals to the outside?

Oh… wait… We’re?

It’s not as if we don’t comprehend it’s going to be an extended, chilly winter. It’s all the time an extended, chilly winter in Ottawa. We’re the seventh-coldest capital metropolis on the earth.

Do you assume they’re cordoning off public staircases in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? I requested the Embassy of Mongolia right here in Ottawa. They don’t seem to be. Public staircases on the earth’s coldest capital, I used to be informed, stay open and accessible year-round. So why not ours?

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As a result of, actually, you’d assume that in a spot the place we’ve give you one million makes use of for winter, we would additionally discover a method to maintain our steps away from some snow and ice.

There’s a staircase that I really feel is emblematic of how the town bows right down to winter. It spirals up from Colonel By Drive to the Laurier Avenue Bridge over the Rideau Canal. It’s not maintained through the winter, so its fair-weather climbers will quickly have to search out an alternate route — maybe by means of each the Westin Resort and Rideau Centre to the Mackenzie King Bridge, then alongside Albert/Slater streets and thru Confederation Park to lastly get to Laurier.

I’m starting to wonder if the Franklin expedition was actually on the lookout for the Northwest Passage, or just making an attempt to navigate its method from Sparks Avenue to the Bytown Museum, and by some means bought significantly misdirected by all of the closures.

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Certain, I hear you say, what about legal responsibility? That’s all the time a danger. It’s why jurisdictions erect indicators all over the place telling you what to not do. But when we’re so danger averse, why dwell in Canada within the first place? Legal responsibility? How about liveability?

The NCC doesn’t point out legal responsibility in its reasoning to shutter stairs. Citing “restricted assets,” the federal company says it “maintains the pathways offering an vital hyperlink to the pedestrian system or servicing NCC winter packages through the winter season, in partnership with the 2 native municipalities.”

Relating to different paths and stairways, the NCC says it limits its snow elimination operations “since plowing, scraping, sanding and salting reduces their life cycle by half.” However that’s presumably true of roads, too. I’m not suggesting that roads go unmaintained, however someplace in all of the subtext one would possibly learn one thing like: “We simply don’t assume the staircases you’re speaking about are all that vital.”

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Even the Nationwide Warfare Memorial — which I hasten so as to add is accessible year-round — has a few routes to it blocked off through the winter.

The town offered some particulars of its snow-clearing protocols on paths and stairs, together with that it maintains “SOME (my emphasis) Metropolis-owned stairways the place there isn’t a ramp or various entry to the pathway inside an inexpensive distance,” in addition to this: “We don’t clear steps in parks besides in instances the place there’s a discipline home or facility that’s programmed through the winter months.”

It might as effectively learn, “There’s nothing organized occurring on this park, so take your little canine some place else.”

The town is even ready to advantageous you a minimal of $125 for utilizing a part of a park that’s closed or restricted. I’m okay with the advantageous, however provided that the town makes use of the cash to purchase a shovel and bag of salt from Canadian Tire.

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In the meantime, the town’s Winter High quality Upkeep Requirements—which units out the town’s priorities for such particulars as snow elimination, salting and connectivity—hasn’t been up to date since 2003, again when nobody even considered pedestrians, and thus doesn’t essentially replicate residents’ present preferences. It’s going to be up to date in 2023, I’m informed, so possibly by this time subsequent 12 months we’ll get to go to elements of the town we’ve by no means seen in winter earlier than. And maybe deliver alongside a vacationer or two.

Are you pissed off by related wintertime closures close to you? Inform us about it within the feedback under or, if in case you have photographs to share, ship them to bdeachman@postmedia.com.