Kìwekì Point (formerly Nepean Point) Redevelopment [NCC]

[rocketphish]

Kìwekì Point damage caused by school bus driving along pathway
The NCC confirmed that a rogue school bus driver drove on the path illegally causing damage to the wooden panels of the structure at Kìwekì Point.

By Matteo Cimellaro, Ottawa Citizen
Published Dec 26, 2025 | Last updated 2 hours ago

Not even a year after the National Capital Commission (NCC) opened Kìwekì Point, significant damage to the new structure caused by a school bus driving “illegally” on a lookout pathway has left residents surprised.

The damage was found on Whispering Point, the lookout section over the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills, which provides an “architectural shelter with deep-seated nooks,” according to the NCC’s website.

Colin Churcher is an octogenarian who regularly walks the point from his home neighbourhood of the ByWard Market. It was his first time seeing the damage since the Ottawa Citizen pointed it out to him.

“It’s a wonderful lookout, even today, when it’s pretty cold, but that’s kind of bothersome,” Churcher said of the damage.

“It’s a pity because it’s taken a long time to get this whole thing done … and it’s a great shame that somebody has damaged it,” he added.

The Ottawa Citizen found more than 64 wooden panels were damaged in total, with indents, split wood and school-bus yellow paint scratched across the top of the structure.

Valérie Dufour, spokesperson for the NCC, confirmed with the Ottawa Citizen that there was “significant damage” on Whispering Point on Dec. 3.

Dufour said that the NCC was in contact with the police and had shared surveillance camera video showing “a school bus illegally driving on the Kìwekì Point Pathway.”

“We are in touch with the Kìwekì Point designer and fabricator teams in order to repair the structure as soon as we can,” Dufour added. “We will seek full monetary compensation for the damage caused.”

Todd Plaskacz was another local resident who saw that damage on his Boxing Day walk. He was hopeful that the fix could be easy to accomplish, as it was a wooden structure.

“You can clean it up and make it look pretty much the way it was, with minimal recognition by a tourist that anything bad had happened,” he said.

“But, obviously, an additional cost.”

Kìwekì Point was opened in May 2025 after five years of construction. The development cost a total of $45 million.

When it was opened, NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum heralded the point in an Ottawa Citizen op-ed as a “confluence of the Ottawa, Gatinaeu and Rideau Rivers,” all of which were “trade routes, sites of diplomacy, and gathering places of the Algonquin Anishinabeg and neighbouring nations.”

In the op-ed, Nussbaum wrote that the newly redesigned point placed Algonquin history alongside that of Samuel de Champlain, whose statue used to be the site’s apex.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/kiweki-point-damage-school-bus

[ponyboycurtis]

It's amazing what you can get away with (seemingly) as long as you have 4 wheels underneath you. How do you end up there to begin with thinking that its all good? I suppose if your dumb enough to get as far as the top of the point to begin with you won't have the skillset to reverse back down.

MIGHT AS WELL TAKE HER FOR A LAP EH!

Can we name and shame the company/operator and driver please?

At this point I don't see how this is any different from intentional vandalism. Surely there is a limit on stupidity allowance right? Somebody who isn't the taxpayer needs to go completely out of pocket for this.

P.S Happy Holidays everyone! Hope everything is going awesome with you all.

[urbanforest]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

It's amazing what you can get away with (seemingly) as long as you have 4 wheels underneath you. How do you end up there to begin with thinking that its all good? I suppose if your dumb enough to get as far as the top of the point to begin with you won't have the skillset to reverse back down.

MIGHT AS WELL TAKE HER FOR A LAP EH!

Can we name and shame the company/operator and driver please?

At this point I don't see how this is any different from intentional vandalism. Surely there is a limit on stupidity allowance right? Somebody who isn't the taxpayer needs to go completely out of pocket for this.

P.S Happy Holidays everyone! Hope everything is going awesome with you all.

With you all the way on this.

Happy holidays!!

[FrostyMug]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

Can we name and shame the company/operator and driver please?

At this point I don't see how this is any different from intentional vandalism. Surely there is a limit on stupidity allowance right? Somebody who isn't the taxpayer needs to go completely out of pocket for this.

We don't need to name and shame the operator. I have to imagine that their unreported accident will be enough to cost them their job. Name the company, sure.

Bus company has to have insurance. Insurance will pay. Taxpayers should not be on the hook.

[zzptichka]

Wonder if one can get the footage through ATIP request. The cameras are right there.

[zzptichka]

That's pretty cool. Good to see NCC taking the damage seriously. I'm pretty sure it happened much later than December 3rd though.

[zzptichka]

Fixed it btw

[J.OT13]

Noticed a few weeks back. They did some fast work of it and it looks decent. Should blend in well with time.

[SL123]

Yesterday was my first time visiting Kiweki Point in early spring, and I was struck by the beautiful daffodils blooming across the grass. I had no idea the NCC had planted so many bulbs beneath the surface.

[SL123]

Originally Posted by SL123

Yesterday was my first time visiting Kiweki Point in early spring, and I was struck by the beautiful daffodils blooming across the grass. I had no idea the NCC had planted so many bulbs beneath the surface.

[ponyboycurtis]

Ahhh.. thats what those were. I knew they weren't tulips last week when I saw the sprouts.

[zzptichka]

Noticed today that most of the trees are dead unfortunately. I hope they come with warranty.

[Uhuniau]

Same thing with a lot of the new planting at Westboro

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Same thing with a lot of the new planting at Westboro

Combination of last summer's lack of rain and the cold winter was hard on vegetation. We have a few things at home that died or in very bad shape this spring.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Combination of last summer's lack of rain and the cold winter was hard on vegetation. We have a few things at home that died or in very bad shape this spring.

A lack of adequate watering is always hard on newly planted trees, leaving them stressed and vulnerable to Ottawa winters. Don't blame the weather or the climate, blame the landscaping maintenance planners.

[ponyboycurtis]

Some dingleberry spray painted a tag on the east facing side of the dome. As you can imagine it is around skill level -17

Perhaps 3x5 feet or so.

That's a bit disappointing but given the materials painted over I don't imagine it will be much trouble to clean.

I firmly believe we should stop clearing underpasses of graffiti unless its hate speech or something otherwise offensive. The underpass at the start of William Commanda bridge for exampled was just cleared. Seems like a waste of city resources. Funny enough if you just go down the way the next underpass by the pedestrian bridge over the aquaduct outlet it is fully painted and has been for a while.

Maybe it was cleaned up as a matter of cause along with that garbage dump, I mean homeless camp towards Bayview station. BTW that entire stretch was clear cut of all the scrub, they just left the trees obviously.

I suppose there are obvious safety and trespassing concerns. In this instance you would be painting next to an occupied and used path, possibly blocking part of it or at least emitting fumes while people are using it if it was "allowed".

I'm not sure what the middle ground is. Would it even take away the random scribbles on the exterior of home owners fences or sides of businesses? Probably not entirely but having some areas more open to painting could actually allow people to practice and get good at it and move beyond that monochromatic scribble stage. This could lead to the confidence and skill and go paint at the Tech Wall and maybe have a career or side gig as a mural painter.

I remember road tripping through Germany and good percentage of Autobahn overpasses were painted. Rural ones even which was surprising.

I dont mind going down Line 2 northbound and seeing the back of the businesses on the left painted up. Makes me feel like I am in fact in an urban area. But that's just me. There is nothing public or even employee facing about those walls.

What do you guys think? What is an acceptable place to paint, letter of the law as it stands now aside?

Edit.. I'll expand on that last sentence. What is an acceptable place to paint.... what could be.. and what should be? There is probably room for more than one Tech Wall.

[Richard Eade]

Street Art has a larger following than many realize. While I was sitting in the Leake Street Arches in London Eng., watching some amazing works being created, there were scores of other tourists around. They, too, search out street art locations in places that they visit.



Leake Street Arches is a fabulous spot. It is open to all, and they even give organized workshops on how to paint graffiti.

Some of the work is excellent – some not so much. The really good stuff lasts for quite a while – while the rest gets painted over pretty regularly. As shown in my photo above, the work can be anything (non-offensive), from simple tagging to comic characters, to portraits.

I encourage anyone passing through London to stop by and see the creativity: https://www.leakestreetarches.london/
Oh, and I can recommend the Mamuśka! Restaurant and Bar - Southbank Waterloo.

Ottawa doesn’t have the ‘abandoned’ rail tunnels London has, but it should be able to find some underpasses where street art could be allowed – without having to be submitted and approved by a committee before being painted.

I wonder how many tourists include a visit to the Carleton U. tunnels when they visit Ottawa? How many know about the tunnels? Is it something that Ottawa Tourism promotes? (It seems not.)

Ottawa Tourism: https://ottawatourism.ca/en/ottawa-insider/ottawas-vibrant-urban-arts-scene
Street Art Cities: https://streetartcities.com/cities/ottawa

[ponyboycurtis]

We definitely aren't hurting for commissioned murals I'll say that. Probably one of my favourite things about Ottawa.