from Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

Ottawans woke up Thursday morning to the coldest Nov. 22 in recorded history: -15.

As if the chill wasn’t already on as the National Capital Commission (NCC) met in an open board meeting to discuss where matters lie with the much-anticipated move downtown by the struggling, and seemingly cursed, Ottawa Senators.

To no one’s surprise, the conclusion was, as former Ottawa Citizen sports reporter Wayne Scanlan so adeptly put it, “…stalled, like an old car in frigid weather.”

The NCC, which controls the federal lands along the Ottawa River where the new rink was to be the centrepiece of a $3.5-billion residential and retail development, had demanded that the two key partners in the RendezVous LeBreton plan – Trinity Development Group and Senators owner Eugene Melnyk – have an agreed-upon master plan by November. When they failed to do so, they were given a week’s extension. They still have not come to the required agreement.

“We are disappointed,” said Mark Kristmanson, the NCC’s chief executive. “Our attempts through the fall … to reach a resolution with those partners have not borne fruit.”

continued