National Capital Commission

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is a corporation that was established by the federal government in 1959 to oversee federal buildings and land in the federally designated National Capital Region (NCR). Although the NCR is not a separate political jurisdiction, the NCC has a mandate and mission to build the NCR into a source of pride and unity for Canadians through involvement in political, cultural, and land use planning matters that are typically powers reserved for the provincial government under the Constitution of Canada. In the Supreme Court of Canada case of Munro v. National Capital Commission, it was decided the NCC had the power to be involved in matters relating to zoning in the NCR.

In 2006, the NCC completed work on the long-discussed Confederation Boulevard, a ceremonial route linking key attractions in the NCR on both sides of the Ottawa River.

Attractions

Further information: List of attractions in Ottawa Bluesfest in LeBreton Flats Ottawa. Scotiabank Place in Kanata in the western part of the City of Ottawa.

The NCR has numerous attractions, including world famous festivals, national museums, famous buildings and architecture, sports and entertainment. Ottawa has some of the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture in North America.

Festivals

The annual music festival Bluesfest, the world renowned winter festival Winterlude, the Canadian Tulip Festival, Capital Pride, RCMP musical ride, Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival, Buskers festival, the biggest Canada Day celebrations in the Nation.

Built heritage

Ottawa and Gatineau have a number of national museums. The most prominent museums are the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canadian War Museum, Canadian Museum of Nature, Canada Science and Technology Museum, National Art Gallery, National Arts Centre, Canada Aviation Museum.

Some of the region's most famous buildings are the Parliament Hill, the Prime Minister's home 24 Sussex Drive, the Governor General's home Rideau Hall, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mint, the American Embassy and the National Library.

There are 29 National Historic Sites of Canada within the National Capital Region: 25 sites are located in Ottawa, with the Former Almonte Post Office and Rosamond Woollen Mill in Almonte, the Gillies Grove and House in Arnprior, the Manoir Papineau in Montebello and the Symmes Hotel in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau.

Sports and entertainment

The National Capital Region has many sports teams. The Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League play in the City of Ottawa's western suburban community of Kanata. Ottawa is also home to a successful Ontario Hockey League club, the Ottawa 67's. Gatineau is home to the 2007-2008 QMJHL champions, the Gatineau Olympiques.

The Ottawa area has three universities, two of which, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, compete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The Carleton Ravens are nationally ranked #1 in basketball, and the Ottawa Gee-Gees are nationally-ranked in football and basketball. Algonquin College has also won numerous national championships.

Transportation

Ottawa's O-Train

The NCR has several major freeways including the 417, 416, 5, 50, 174, 7, and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.

The 417 is Ottawa's major east-west commuter expressway. It begins at the Ontario-Quebec border (continuing the route of Quebec Autoroute 40), reaches the urban portion of Ottawa at the 417-174 split, bisects the urban area, and continues westward to just beyond the city boundary where it gives way to Highway 17 in Renfrew County.

The 416 starts at the 401 near the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge and continues north for 75 km until it ends at the 417 in Ottawa's west end.

The freeway section of Highway 7 branches off the 417 in Ottawa's west end near Stittsville and is currently undergoing a 4-lane expansion to reach the eastern fringe of Carleton Place at McNeely Avenue. As of July 2011, the expansion was complete through to Ashton Station Road.

Public transportation is handled by OC Transpo on the Ontario side, and the STO on the Quebec side. Together they serve a population over 1,130,761 and have an estimated annual ridership of over 113.2 million.

OC Transpo operates a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system named the O-Train. The system uses Bombardier Talent Trains and has just over 2 million riders per year. A massive LRT expansion is currently in development to link the western suburbs and the eastern suburbs to downtown, as well as to continue southward expansion. The first phase will be a 12.5 km east-west lrt metro including 13 stations, 3 of which will be underground in downtown Ottawa while Gatineau is building a bus transitway, the Rapibus.

OC Transpo has about 1,050 buses which run on city streets and an expansive Transitway. The STO has around 300 buses that serve the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, some routes crossing into downtown Ottawa.

Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport is the main international airport serving the Capital Region. It handled over 4.2 million passengers in 2009, making it Canada's 6th busiest air facility and the 2nd busiest airport in Ontario. It offers non-stop flights to and from Canada, the United States, Caribbean and Europe. It is part of the three busiest air routes in the nation, with hourly flights to/from Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Area codes

The NCR uses the area codes 613 and 343 on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, and 819 for the Quebec side. A new area code, 873 overlaying area code 819 on the Quebec side, is set to begin operating in 2012.

Although located in different area codes, Ottawa and Gatineau have local dialing with each other. Previously, the two cities had exchange protection in place, meaning that a local exchange code in Ottawa could not also be assigned in Gatineau, although this is no longer the case as ten-digit local dialing has been in place since 2006.

Media

Main article: Media of Ottawa-Gatineau

There are three main daily local newspapers printed in Ottawa: two English newspapers, the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun, with 900,197 and 274,628 weekly circulation respectively, and one French newspaper, Le Droit with 215,579 weekly circulation.

Demographics

Most of the National Capital Region is recognized as a bilingual region for federal language-of-work purposes.

In addition, the City of Ottawa has a Bilingualism Policy, but is not declared "officially bilingual" (which would require amendments to the provincial law). About 19% of the population of the City of Ottawa has French as their first language, while 40% of the total population of the city declares itself fluent in both languages.

The National Capital Region includes the English-speaking (Ottawa) and French-speaking (Gatineau) cores. The metro region has a bilingual population of 496,025, an English-only population of 507,175, and a French-only population of 102,375.

Ottawa-Gatineau CMA

Source: 2011 Census of Canada

Downtown Ottawa. Hull sector of Gatineau. City or Town Population Ontario Ottawa 883,391 Clarence-Rockland 23,185 Russell 15,247 Quebec Gatineau 265,349 Val-des-Monts 10,420 Cantley 9,888 La Pêche 7,619 Chelsea 6,977 Pontiac 5,681 L'Ange-Gardien 5,051 Other municipalities within National Capital Region Municipality Population Ontario Alfred and Plantagenet 8,654 Arnprior 7,158 Beckwith 6,387 Carleton Place 9,453 Casselman 3,294 Mississippi Mills 11,734 North Dundas 11,095 North Grenville 14,198 North Stormont 6,769 The Nation 10,643 Quebec Lochaber 456 Lochaber-Partie-Ouest 477 Low 852 Montebello 1,039 Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette 706 Papineauville 2,247 Plaisance 1,004 Thurso 2,436

Capital district proposals

Proposals have sometimes been made to separate the National Capital Region from its two respective provinces, and transform it into a separate capital district, like the District of Columbia in the United States or the Australian Capital Territory. Such proposals have never come close to passage, and there does not currently appear to be any significant political will or necessity to pursue this option.