The National Capital Commission says it will consult the public the next time it plans a history exhibit.

It's a move the NCC is hoping will help it avoid a repeat of a controversy that  erupted after a francophone group complained about a poster depicting 19th century governor Lord Durham.

Durham is known in English Canada as the aristocrat who championed responsible government. But he also recommended that French-Canadians be assimilated into English-Canadian life.

The venue was the Sparks Street Mall, where eight panels gave a snippet of information on why Ottawa was chosen as the capital.

But after complaints from francophones the poster of Lord Durham was removed.

An embarrassed Micheline Dube, CEO of the NCC, acknowledges the organization missed an important piece of the Durham puzzle.

She promises steps will be take to avoid a similar affair in the future.

"Perhaps the next time we have an exhibit we also want to have a little bit of public consultation, testing of the panels to see if there are issues that we haven't identified," she said.

Del Muise, who teaches history at Carleton University, says allowing the public to have input is part of getting it right.

"Essentially what the focus group is, I assume in this particular instance, trying to do is to present a group of people from a variety of different backgrounds with a draft text and say, 'How do you think about this?'"

The NCC is re-writing the Lord Durham poster.