‘If, as of now, the major public artwork or architectural components of Canada will be selected based on a survey, this is very, very worrisome,’ Renée Daoust says
Petty Officer First Class Charlotte McShane, left, and Sergeant Missy Deschenes unveil the winning design for the national monument to Canada's mission in Afghanistan in Ottawa on June 19.An architectural group that was chosen by a jury to build a monument to Canada’s mission in Afghanistan says the government’s decision to award the contract to a different group is outrageous and anti-democratic.
“They’re not respecting their own procurement rules that they have set up, and to us that’s really unacceptable,” she said Daoust was told she had 10 days to file a formal complaint with the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, which she did. The team also wrote letters to the federal government to no avail.
Daoust obtained a memo through an access-to-information request that shows the Department of Veterans Affairs asked the Heritage Department to overturn the jury’s choice. It notes that the heritage minister “is accountable for the implementation of the policy on national commemorative monuments for federal lands in Canada’s capital region,” and that Veterans Affairs would take the lead on communications with the public once the decision was approved.
The House veterans affairs committee has called for Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge and Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor to appear as witnesses to explain the decision.In an emailed statement, Petitpas Taylor’s office said the department determined the monument should reflect the preferences of the survey respondents.
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