History of Northwest Territories capital cities to conduct meetings with such as the speakers chair and mace. Both are traditional artifacts common to Westminster style parliaments. Legislative sessions held in Ottawa were conducted in an office building on Sparks Street. The Northwest Territories government continues to hold an office in Ottawa on Sparks Street to this day. In 1965, a federal government commission was set up to determine a new home for the government and the future of the territory. The seat of government was moved back inside the territories to Yellowknife, after it was selected capital in 1967. Fort Smith became the official administration and
Garden of the Provinces and Territories of Public Works and Government Services Canada, officially renamed the park. In December 2015, the federal government requested that the National Capital Commission approve the garden as the site of the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism rather than its previously approved site, a plot of land by the Supreme Court of Canada building. One quarter of the site is composed of formal terraces, with the flags of the provinces and territories in the order of their entry to Confederation. Bronze plaques include the floral emblems for each of the provinces and territories. A tall fountain symbolizes a tree.