Climate Emergency

One of the first issues championed at City Hall this term was the climate emergency declaration. Working with staff and citizen groups, I presented a motion to the Environment Committee and City Council recognizing the need to fight climate change and environmental degradation.

Climate change is the greatest threat that we face in this city. With the passing of this motion, new actions are taking place, with a full suite of changes to be tabled in December 2019. Staff are now mandated to look at decisions and how they will affect our sustainability. The new Official Plan has embedded this concept for the next 30 years. A new Councillor Sponsors group has formed, looking at emissions and cost-benefit to reductions across all categories and what we can do to meet the IPCC goal of no more than a 1.5-degree temperature change. As a result of this motion, Ottawa is beginning to take much needed steps to protect residents and our environment from the devastating effects of climate change. 

$1 Million Added to Climate Change Master Plan

As demonstrated by the City of Ottawa’s Climate Emergency declaration, championed by our office in 2019, the climate crisis represents an existential threat to Ottawa residents, with negative impacts already affecting quality of life in our city. While some progress has been made at the city in years since, it’s indisputable that more resources are required to face this unprecedented challenge. For that reason, in 2025, We had an additional $1 million dollars added to the annual Climate Change Master Plan budget.

This change increases annual funding for the plan from $5 million to $6 million. It’s a step in the right direction which, though a far cry from the resources required, should be celebrated.

Idling By-Law

Thanks to advocacy from our office, City Council passed a new idling bylaw in October 2024. It replaces the old bylaw which hadn't been updated since 2007. The new by-law means a maximum idling time of three minutes for temperature ranges between 0 to 27 degrees Celsius and a maximum of 10 minutes for temperature ranges outside of 0 to 27 degrees Celsius.

The by-law had been under review after successful advocacy from community members and environmental organizations, and stemmed from a motion that our team brought to Environment Committee in 2022, following the so-called “freedom convoy” occupation.

Bus Stop Re-instatements

In 2020, we were able to have the westbound route 7 re-installed on Sunnyside Avenue at Rosedale Avenue. This stop had been removed years earlier when the street had been re-constructed.

In 2025, we will see the re-instatement of bus stops in both directions on Main Street south of Riverdale. Like the stop on Sunnyside, these had been removed a few years earlier when Main Street was re-constructed.

Electric Bus Fleet

Electric buses are coming to Ottawa. In 2022, we were happy to work with then Somerset Councillor Catherine McKenney and city staff to have OC Transpo launch an electric bus pilot. We have since scaled up this program with federal support, with the purchase of 74 battery electric buses and charging infrastructure in 2022.  The City has since signed agreements with New Flyer and Nova Bus to secure 51 zero-emission buses from each supplier to be delivered by early 2026. OC Transpo is on track to receive a total of 350 Zero-Emission Buses by the end of 2027.

Bus Route Improvements

As part of OC Transpo’s Bus Route Review, a number of potential cuts to service in Capital Ward were proposed. Working with OC Transpo staff, we were able to preserve most service in the ward, and bring in expanded coverage and routes.

The changes we were able to achieve included:

• Maintaining access to Carleton via route 111.
• Replacing the service of route 5 from Billings Bridge to downtown with route 18.
• Keeping and extending service along route 10 all the way through downtown, to the Rideau Centre and to Greystone Village.
• Routes 41 and 292 will service Heron Park via Clementine.

This work follows previous successes on increasing bus service in Capital Ward:

• Adding additional runs on routes 6 and 7.
• Adding articulated buses to route 7 to hold more passengers.
• Restoring transit service to the Ottawa Hospital General Campus from Old Ottawa East via route 55.
• Expanding service hours on route 56.

Bank Street Canal Bridge Safety Enhancements

The Bank Street Canal Bridge is an iconic structure for Capital Ward and for the city, and it serves as an important link between the communities on each side of the Rideau Canal. In 2019, there was a plan to re-surface the roadway on the bridge. Our office pushed to get proper separated bicycle lanes added to the bridge to provide a safe route for bicyclists and an added buffer between pedestrians and cars.

We were able to pass revised designs at city council, implementing a three-lane model for the bridge with half-height bicycle lanes on either side separated from both motor vehicle traffic and the pedestrian sidewalk.

The full re-design was completed in September 2022. Since its implementation, the bridge has been enjoyed by many bicyclists without creating traffic congestion for drivers.

New Rideau River Pedestrian Bridge

Working with River Ward Councillor Riley Brockington, we saw the opening of a pedestrian bridge spanning the Rideau River between Carleton University and Vincent Massey Park. Completed as part of the ongoing LRT Stage 2 project, our offices were able to get this important link opened before the final completion of LRT Stage 2, in June 2024

The new bridge will enhance connectivity to the Rideau River Eastern Pathway and a host of local amenities, including Vincent Massey Park, the RA Centre, Hog’s Back Falls, the Billing’s Bridge Shopping Centre and Mooney’s Bay. While Bronson and Riverside are also used by pedestrians and cyclists, this bridge will provide a safe, segregated pathway, making it a highly anticipated addition by surrounding communities.

We continue to work with staff and Councillor Brockington’s office to prepare the bridge for year-round usage.

Billings Bridge Improvements

Billings Bridge has long been a serious safety hazard for bicyclists and pedestrians, especially the intersection with Riverside Drive. During consultations on the re-construction of Bank Street, south of the river, we raised the issue of the bridge. Originally, the bridge was considered out-of-scope for the project, but working with staff and Alta Vista Councillor Marty Carr, we were able to get the bridge included and get some much-needed improvements to the design of the lanes on the bridge deck.

The new plans—still to be finalized—will include bicycle lanes on each side of the bridge, as well as protected intersections at Riverside Drive and at Riverdale. A full re-design of the bridge will occur in a few years, and further improvements can be made at that point.

Bronson Avenue Improvements

Safety is a significant concern along Bronson Avenue. We have successfully reduced the speed limits along Bronson, adding additional traffic calming measures to slow down traffic. The light timing is being improved to prioritize pedestrian safety and active transportation. In 2025, we will see new “ladder-crossing” crosswalks painted on all side streets along Bronson Avenue to better signify pedestrian space to drivers.

In the coming years, Bronson Avenue will be re-designed. Upon coming into office, we held a public consultation to ask residents what they wanted to see out of a re-designed Bronson Avenue, and that information will help guide the planning of the new road.

We continue to consult with residents and community associations, as well as city staff, on improvements to Bronson Avenue.

Snow Clearing and Winter Road Maintenance

Ottawa is a winter city. If we are to be the most prosperous, sustainable city we can be during the winter months, we should enact policies that will let residents live full, rewarding lives during winter. We must remain devoted to mobility, health, and wellbeing, as well as the environment. Current city standards do not put a priority on winter mobility, or on mental health, safety, or economic activity during winter months.

In 2020, we fulfilled a campaign promise in hosting a public forum on winter maintenance. We produced a report, informed by that public forum, in February of 2020 titled Getting Around in the Winter.

The public forum and the subsequent report helped to spur immediate operational improvements to winter maintenance in Ottawa, and helped ensure that a review of the city's winter maintenance quality standards would be undertaken this term of council (for the first time since 2003).

In an effort to further inform the city's review of winter maintenance standards, our office undertook a survey of residents that focused on the experiences of pedestrians and bicyclists. We hen produced a report based on those results, titled Staying Active in the Snow, for city staff to consider.

Other important wins our office has made for winter maintenance include:

• Increased winter sidewalk maintenance
• Additional snow removal from narrow streets
• Maintenance of the stairs to the Flora Footbridge
• Maintenance of the stairs off Bank Street to both Central Park East and Central Park West

Greenfield-Main-Hawthorne Reconstruction

The Greenfield Avenue, Main Street, Hawthorne Avenue (GMH) et al. reconstruction project is a multi-year undertaking which began in summer 2021. More than just a routine road reconstruction project, the GMH project includes infrastructure upgrades and the separation of a combined sewer system. Prior to this project, sewers in this catchment—from Concord to Main—were combined, meaning that storm and sanitary sewers shared one pipe; a system which risks being overwhelmed by snow melt or rainfall.

As part of this work, we were able to ensure that hydro wires would be buried along Hawthorne Avenue, clearing up more space for pedestrians and others using the street.

We also worked with staff to improve active transportation connections, achieving—among other improvements—protected intersections at Hawthorne Avenue and Colonel By Drive, Greenfield and Main, and Mann and King Edward Avenue; a proper connection for vulnerable road users from Hawthorne Avenue to Immaculata High School; and getting an improved Pedestrian Crossover at Concord and Greenfield.

New Safe Crossing at Main Street and Colonel By Drive

While working on the Greenfield-Main-Hawthorne Reconstruction project, a need for safe crossing for pedestrians and bicyclists was identified, but was out-of-scope for the project. Working with city staff and the mayor’s office, we were able to secure federal funding to build this intersection. The crossing is now open for use.

New Crosswalk on Lycée Place

We had a new crosswalk installed on Lycée Place, connecting Lycée Claudel d’Ottawa to the Lycée Claudel Transitway Station. The community has been asking for this for years, and they brought it to our attention upon coming into office. At our request, a new pedestrian crossing was designed and implemented in time for the following school year.

Residential Speed Limits

Over the first four years in office, we successfully implemented 30 km/h speed limits on all residential streets in Capital Ward. Most neighbourhoods saw the implementation of Residential Area Speed Zones, where an entire section of a neighbourhood has a blanket 30 km/h limit, with signs at every entrance point notifying drivers.

Pedestrian Traffic Light Enhancements

At the beginning of our first term in office, we saw the elimination of “Beg Buttons” along Bank Street in Old Ottawa South. This was an extension of the program that had started on Bank Street in the Glebe. This means that from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, lights will automatically change for pedestrians looking to cross Bank Street, and they’ll no longer be forced to press the pedestrian button to get a walk signal.

From that initial achievement, we found other ways to improve the light signals for pedestrians throughout the ward.

We implemented pedestrian advance lights (known as “Leading Pedestrian Indicators” or LPI) on streets like Main Street, Bronson Avenue and Bank Street.

We shifted left-turn phases for traffic signals to the end of the green light cycle, so that the turning vehicles wouldn’t conflict with pedestrians crossing.

And we worked with staff to introduce the “amber-lock” traffic light function. This means that when a street changes from green to amber, it will then change to red, giving a green phase in the other direction. This eliminates the “revert-red” situation where, if a car was not on the sensors in the road to trigger a full signal change, a light would change from green to amber and back to green, never giving pedestrians in the other direction a chance to cross.

Traffic Calming

Traffic Calming measures are seasonal (and some non-seasonal) measures installed on our streets in trouble spots to encourage safer driving—getting people to slow down, respect stop lines, stay out of bicycle lanes, etc. Our office has worked hard to implement such changes throughout the ward and continues to add new traffic calming methods throughout our community.

Some of the traffic calming measures supported by our office include:

• Lowering Speed Limits to 30 km/h throughout the ward
• New Pedestrian Crossings and Traffic Stops
• The Glen St Patio
• Increased crossing times for Glashan Public Elementary School students at the Bronson and Powell, and Bank and Riverdale intersections.
• Speed humps on Sunnyside Drive and Broadway Avenue

Raised Crosswalks in Old Ottawa South

Raised crosswalks provide greater ease, comfort, and safety for pedestrians. They also help keep puddles, slush, and ice out of crosswalks, a concern in winter months. These measures also help to calm and slow down traffic, making the neighbourhood more enjoyable and safer for everyone.

Raised crosswalks were added at the following intersections:

• Riverdale and Belmont (North-South)
• Bellwood and Belmont (entire intersection)
• Fairbairn and Belmont (East-West)
• Willard and Belmont (East-West)
• Bank and Belmont (North-South)
• Willard and Sunnyside (East-West)

Lees Avenue Bicycle Lanes

As part of the re-surfacing project for Lees Avenue, we were able to implement a protected bicycle lane on the north side of the road and to make improvements to the existing bicycling lanes on the south side of Lees Avenue.

Smyth Road Bicycling Safety Improvements

This project provides formal bicycling facilities along Smyth Road from Riverside Drive to east of the Ottawa Hospital Riverside Campus. This work included a protected intersection at the entrance of the Riverside Drive, and a link to Frobisher Lane for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Secure Bicycle Parking Locker

Bicycling parking security is a concern in the ward. We were happy to work with city staff as they developed a pilot project to install bicycle parking lockers, one of with was installed outside the Glebe Parking Garage at 170 Second Avenue (at the Second Avenue entrance).

New Crossing Guards in Capital Ward

After advocating for improved standards for assigning crossing guards to intersections, staff conducted a review of the city’s process, identifying deficiencies and designing an improved system. From this advocacy, we were able to get new crossing guards in our ward, including at Bank and Fifth Avenue.

Improved Speed Hump Standards

After the installation of the speed humps built on Fairbairn, Belmont, Willard and Bellwood, our office was able to direct staff to conduct of speed hump standards to ensure that they were meeting their traffic calming goals.

While the speed humps installed in Old Ottawa South were considered to meet city standards, it was also determined that city standards needed to be adjusted, as some speed humps built to those standards were not achieving their intent. As a result of our intervention, the city’s standards for speed humps were improved in 2023 to provide proper traffic calming.

Sidewalk Standards Review

With all the construction projects that have been occurring in Capital Ward, there has been a lot of discussion regarding the design of sidewalks, and in what manner depressions should be built into the sidewalk to allow access to driveways.

Our office directed staff to consider a third style of sidewalk to be approved for use in Ottawa—a design where the sidewalk would remain flat for pedestrians, and a mountable curb is created for driveway access. Similar designs have been implemented in Ottawa in the past, but only under special circumstances. We are seeking to have the design considered a standard design for the city.

Fixing “Lake O’Connor”

At our office’s request, city staff dug up and rectified the long-standing flooding issues that would occur at the catch basin at O’Connor and Glebe Avenue, in 2021. This was a longstanding problem in the area, and we’re glad to see that the new drainage eliminated the extended pooling we used see after rainfall at this location.

Adding Benches and Public Amenities

We have worked with staff to identify areas that are lacking in public seating areas. We have expanded seating in city parks, we have added new benches on sidewalks, including on Main Street outside of Nu Grocery. We led an initiative at Lansdowne, working with parks staff to install new seating, with planters and umbrellas at Aberdeen Square.

Ward Council

The Ward Council serves as an advisory group that allows residents from each community to collaborate on important issues. The first Ward Council Meeting took place on January 31, 2019 and since then they have met several times to discuss important matters.

Return of the Mutchmor Rink

The return of the boarded rink at Mutchmor Public School in the Glebe has been an important topic in the neighbourhood, as there are no other facilities suitable for outdoor hockey, ringette, and other activities in the immediate area. The schoolyard, located between Fourth and Third Avenues, has been home to a rink since the 1930s, but the rink was removed in recent years as necessary work was completed on the school. In 2019, we were able to see the rink restored, and saw it revived again in 2024/25 when a lack of volunteers threatened its continued operation.

From 2025 onwards, the city is planning to install the rink at Sylvia Holden Park during the winter, removing it in the spring.

When we came into office in the winter of 2018-2019, one of the first issues we tackled was bringing back the boarded hockey rink to the Mutchmor schoolyard. It took a lot of work—and a lot of compromise and collaboration between the community, the school, the school board, and the city—but we were glad to be able to bring back this neighbourhood amenity.

With warmer winters and less use of the rink, the school has been reassessing whether installing the rink every year is the best use of the yard. With high enrollment, outdoor space during recess can be at a premium. But it would be a shame to lose the only boarded outdoor rink in the neighbourhood.

After discussions with the school principal, city staff, and representatives from the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group (GNAG), we settled on a path forward in 2024/25. The school agreed to have the rink in place one last time for the year, and thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers, the rink will operate for the 2024/25 season.

After a number of discussions with staff, and reviewing a number of potential sites, it was determined the most appropriate spot in the neighbourhood for the boarded rink would be Sylvia Holden Park. The space at Sylvia Holden Park would allow for a larger rink than had been installed at Mutchmor Rink in prior years.

The city will install a new winterized connection to the city’s waters supply for flooding. Three permanent rink lights (LED fixtures) would be installed on the west side of the rink, to face away from residences on O’Connor, while leaving the green space open for free play in the summer.

A trailer would be located on site during the winter. In the spring, the trailer and rink boards would be removed.

Springhurst Park Improvements

Between 2021 and 2024—and thanks to the support of community advocates through Vision Springhurst—we were able to make a number of improvements to Springhurst Park. In 2021, we put in a beach volleyball court, three new pieces of exercise equipment, a ping-pong table and a bench by the basketball court to this very popular park. We were able to use cash-in-lieu of parkland funds for these improvements, as well as coordinating the lifecycle replacement of the children’s play structure.

The basketball court was also in need of work, as the surface was cracked and damaged. In 2024, we had it re-surfaced to allow continued enjoyment and use of the space.

Springhurst and Brantwood Docks

We were happy to see Springhurst dock installed 2024. The project represents another mode of access to important recreation space along the Rideau River. Although city staff were unable to make the dock fully accessible, important changes were made to ensure that the dock is user-friendly, including the installation of a ramp, grab bars, and toe rails.

In 2024, we were also able to get an important commitment from city staff to make the pathway leading up to Brantwood dock compliant with accessibility standards. Thanks to community advocacy, staff plan to put in an accessible pathway to the dock at a 5% grade in the 2025 construction season. The nearby parking lot and relatively short distance between it and the existing dock will make this a convenient spot for residents using mobility aids and wheelchairs to access and enjoy the Rideau River.

Firehall Park

Starting in 2021, our office worked with staff and the community to support a redesigned Firehall Park at O’Connor and Fifth Ave, beside the fire station. As of 2022, the park was completed with new shade trees, benche, a winding pathway, pergola, and bike parking.

We would like to thank the Glebe Community Association’s Parks Committee and city staff for their hard work in bringing this vision to life. We were more than happy to provide some Cash-in-Lieu of Parkland funding to complete the project.

Portable Toilets and Continued Expansion of Bathroom Service Hours Across the City

In 2021, our office led efforts to bring a memorandum back to Council on the status of the Downtown Wayfinding strategy and consultation efforts being led by Ottawa Tourism, the city, Tourisme Outaouais, and the NCC, particularly as it relates to signage for restrooms in the core and two new self-cleaning stand-alone bathroom units.

In subsequent years, we have been able to champion the addition of two new portable washrooms in the ward. One at Linda Thom Park and another near the corner of Bank and First Avenue.

Most recently, in the 2025 city budget, our office led calls to allocate an additional $50,000 to increase public bathroom access across the city. This funding allows each Councillor to either extend hours at existing bathrooms in parks and recreation facilities or to install additional portable toilets, nearly doubling the funding available to each ward public bathroom access—from $2,400 to $4,500 per year.

Pool and Beach Hours

Outdoor pools and city beaches are very popular with residents in the summer, offering a free, accessible respite from the heat for many. Starting in 2023, we passed a motion to extend wading pool hours across the city, including opening on weekends earlier in June. In the 2025 budget, we advocated for $140,000 to extend the operating hours of wading pools, outdoor pools and beaches in the city.

Grand Allée Park

As part of the Greystone re-development in Old Ottawa East, we saw the opening of Grand Allée Park in spring 2024. The park will provide a community gathering space and restful central walkway lined by trees, and it will host the Ottawa Farmers’ Market from spring to fall.

Three-Stream Garbage Bins

As Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, we have worked with staff to improve waste management and waste diversion in our city parks, including launching a pilot project to get three-stream waste receptacles into parks—including Brantwood Park, which received three-stream bins in summer 2024 to help make for a cleaner park space.

Heron Park Community Center

Our office committed $2 million in Cash in Lieu of Parkland (CILP) funds toward the long-awaited community center at Heron Park. Construction began in spring 2024 and is set for completion in spring 2025, including the demolition of the existing fieldhouse and remediation of the soil. The community association participated extensively in the consultation for the optimal design and function of the community center, and we eagerly anticipate its completion.

Deschatelets Gym and Community Center at Greystone Village

When we came into office, Old Ottawa East residents had outgrown their community center at the Old Town Hall on Main Street. We worked with the City of Ottawa, the French Catholic School Board (CECCE), affordable housing providers, and developers to plan a new community center and gym in the refurbished Deschatelets building and the adjacent plot of land in Greystone Village. With the City lease for the community centre and gym now approved, we anxiously anticipate the progression of this project into 2025.

Bellwood Boulder

The Bellwood boulder, a large piece of granite schist that was unearthed during the construction on Bellwood Avenue in Old Ottawa South this summer, was moved to Windsor Park behind the bus shelter at Riverdale with support from our office. This glacial erratic, which weighs more than 15 tonnes and had been in the same spot for approximately 15,000 years, was a rallying point for neighbors.

The boulder was relocated nearby to Windsor Park, and a sign marking its significance will be installed.

Affordable Housing

Our city is not doing nearly enough to see affordable units built in Ottawa—but it is doing more than enough to facilitate the development industry’s profitable real estate investments. There’s a popular lie that what’s needed to solve the affordability crisis is to make development more profitable for real estate capital. We know, however, that this does not guarantee more housing supply, and, further, that supply alone does not ensure affordability. We have written at length about this in our submission on the Official plan, which can be found here. Despite the city falling short, especially on direct capital investment, we have made some progress.

In the 2018-2022 term of council, we worked closely with then Councillor McKenney, Ottawa's Liaison on Housing and Homelessness, on multiple campaigns: a campaign to have our city declare a housing and homelessness emergency, a campaign calling for vacant hotels to be converted into affordable housing, and a successful call to have the city invest capital dollars directly into the creation of affordable housing for the first time in years.

The city was slowly moving forward with introducing Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) in the 2018-2022 term of council but abandoned that path due to regulatory changes from the provincial government.

IZ would require developers to make a certain percentage of proposed residential units ‘affordable’ if they are building in proximity to ‘transit hubs’. The New Official Plan (OP), passed in 2021, is what enabled IZ to be implemented in Ottawa. Despite our critical view of IZ as an inadequate market solution to housing affordability, we were able to amend the OP to have a more ambitious target for affordable housing: upping it from 10-15% to 20% of all new residential development. We were also able to increase the ratio of affordable housing that will be realized through deeply affordable housing as compared to ‘market affordable’ housing.

A regulatory (permit) system for short term rentals or STRs (like AirBnB) took effect in 2022. One of the things driving up rent has been the spread of illegal STRs which eat up rental units meant to house long-term tenants (and zoned for that purpose), and turning them into de facto illegal hotels. This registration regime allows the city to enforce its longstanding residential zoning rules and will allow the city to have more consistent and enforceable rules for AirBnBs outside of residential zones. The regulations do, however, extend the legality of AirBnBs in residential zones by changing the zoning to allow for hosts to rent their principal residence through AirBnB even when they are not on site (currently this is also a breach of zoning, but not enforced). A more detailed update on this issue is available here.

In 2020, the city moved ahead with the development of a vacant property tax for residential units in Ottawa. You can read about that here. Such a tax is one way to address the speculative investments driving up prices in the housing market. We wrote in support of the adoption of this tax, and voted to approve it that year.

Given our city continues to fall short on investing in affordable housing, we have tried to make gains at a ward level. Since coming to office, we established an affordable housing fund for our Ward and have been able to either convince developers to voluntarily contribute or have otherwise secured developer contributions via section 37 of the planning act (with hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked or deposited so far). These funds will be used to create non-market housing in Capital Ward, so that our Ward can be a place for everyone to call home.

Reining in Developer Influence

The problem is more insidious than developer influence at City Hall; there is a political culture here that can make it hard to cleanly separate city government from the development industry. Beyond the revolving door in the professional world, there tends to be long-term personal friendships that come with it—where those charged with public oversight of industry, and the leaders and lobbyists of that industry, are friends, former colleagues, donors, campaign supporters, advisors, advertisers, confidantes, guests at your wedding, participants at politician’s golf tournaments, and so on. It's the degree of social integration between political authorities and power brokers in the industry that should concern all of us, not just the breach of integrity that came before council.

Our office released a report on the planning and development process in the City of Ottawa that calls for democratic reform to representation at City Hall. The primary recommendation is to split the Planning Committee in two, creating more representative decision-making. Read more here.

A bombshell report from the city appointed Integrity Commissioner (IC) found that Ottawa’s Planning Committee Chair, then Councillor Jan Harder, had an apparent conflict of interest with a developer family, and had chosen not to address it. The report put the revolving door between private and public sector at City Hall on full display. As part of council deliberations on the IC report, I introduced a motion, with the support of then Councillor McKenney, that will see city staff review regulations to address the revolving door at City Hall and make recommendations on a cooling off period for developers and their lobbyists. The motion was successful, and it can be read in full here.

The Greystone Development

As of 2024, the long-awaited Greystone development at 15-17 Oblats Avenue received site plan approval through City delegated authority.

Thanks to some excellent advocacy work from our office and the Old Ottawa East Community as a whole, the development will include:

• Two dedicate car-sharing spaces on Oblats Avenue
• Up to five of the 27 visitor parking spaces for car-share
• Notice to tenants that vehicle parking is not provided and is not a viable option on the local streets
• A bike parking rate that is aligned with one bicycle parking space per bedroom
• Pre-loaded Presto cards for the first occupants
• Ten bikes for rent provided on-site
• A property manager/concierge that will monitor the visitor parking spaces and provide information to residents on how to get around city using transit or active modes

This project is just one example of how development can be made to work for a community by serving the needs of residents and contributing to a more livable, less car dependent neighbourhood.

Affordable Housing at 185 Hawthorne

In October, our office learned that the city was moving ahead with a 10-unit affordable housing development at 185 Hawthorne. In the weeks following, we heard from many concerned residents about losing a site that has been used for decades as a community space in an area where greenspace has become increasingly limited.

Greenspace, tree canopy, and community space is vital to Old Ottawa East. At the same time, the need for real not-for-profit housing is at crisis levels in our city. In 2024, we tried to balance these priorities by getting support for a motion at Planning and Housing Committee which directs staff to do three things in the request for proposal which will be sent out to non-profit housing providers for this site. 

1. Include a condition requiring that the successful not-for-profit housing provider retain as many trees as possible and where trees are not able to be retained due to site design, the owner will be required to work with a city forester to develop a replanting plan; 
2. Include a requirement for the not-for-profit to provide publicly accessible greenspace on the site; and
3. That efforts be made to maintain the existing curbside parking capacity wherever possible.

We were happy to see the motion passed and we thank residents for their advocacy. It is so important to see the many important needs of our community balanced with the urgent need for deeply affordable housing.

Making small business patio user fees more affordable

During the pandemic, the city had eliminated the fee for restaurants to set up patios in the city right-of-way. This was seen as a way to support businesses and make our streets livelier. In 2023, fees had been 50% what they had been pre-pandemic and as part of the city’s 2024 budget, the intention was to bring the fees back up to the pre-pandemic level.

As part of the 2024 budget deliberations, I gave a direction to staff with the Mayor’s support to monitor city finances and look for ways to lower the patio fees and report back. That spring, we were able ease the increases on businesses. As a result of the direction to staff, patio fees only increased to 75% in 2024 to give a bit more breathing room to businesses.

New Official Plan

The City of Ottawa's Official Plan provides a vision for the future growth of the city and a policy framework to guide the city's physical development. In 2019, the City of Ottawa began a multi-year process to develop a new Official Plan. The plan was approved by Council in October of 2021.

The New Official Plan, especially the urban boundary expansion, is sure to please the development industry. That said, it also has some ambitious targets and policies that will improve the livability and health of our city.

We spoke about this in our submission to staff on the Official Plan. Together, we were able to make some significant changes to bolster that ambition for a better city (e.g. upping our affordable housing targets), and to mitigate those elements that favoured developers (e.g. strengthening language on development application oversight).

Early on in the process we were able to ensure Ottawa Public Health would play a role in this foundational document by passing a motion at the Board of Health.

Derelict Buildings and Vacant Residential Properties

For too long, absent property owners have been allowed to let derelict buildings sit vacant for years without penalty while their property values plumpen. We campaigned for a permit system to be established that would better police and penalize this behaviour, and are happy to report that, as of 2022, a vacant property permit system is in effect across Ottawa. We also supported the introduction of a Vacant Unit Tax on residential properties in 2022.

After twelve years of having a vacant building on our traditional main street in Old Ottawa South, we were able to see a demolition permit has been issued for the building at 1123-1125 Bank Street—the old West Coast Video building. We campaigned in 2018 on seeing the West Coast Video building removed. Once elected we began working with the city to remove incentives for vacant buildings which sit empty for too long. We also worked with the owner of the West Coast Video building to highlight the benefits of taking the building down.

Our office wrote in support of a Vacant Unit Tax (VUT) in Ottawa, and we supported its eventual adoption by City Council in 2022. We have people without houses and houses without people in Ottawa. We believe that a VUT is one way for us to start putting two and two together. We cannot afford not to.

Despite some initial struggles with implementation, the VUT has been a great success in Ottawa—more still needs to be done. In late 2024, Council adopted a staff report recommending that the owners of vacant units face an escalation in their taxes for every additional year they keep their units vacant after the first year (where a 1% tax is applied). This escalation was something we had surveyed residents on in 2023 and published the results shortly before Council's decision; we found residents were overwhelmingly in favour of this move.

The intention of the VUT is to return units to the market that are currently being held vacant (without good reason) during a housing crisis. The net revenues from this tax are directly invested in the building of non-profit affordable housing. What some do not realize, however, is that the current VUT only applies to residential properties with less than 7 dwelling units (the residential property tax class).

Properties with 7 or more units (the multi-residential property tax class), including every mid- or high-rise apartment building in the city, are currently not subjected to the VUT. To rectify this inherently unfair application of the VUT, we put forward a successful motion that calls on the provincial government to expand the VUT power to include the multi-residential property tax class. We should not be letting the largest corporate landlords off the hook while increasing penalties on smaller landlords.

Vehicle for Hire

Advocating for better regulation of ride sharing services was a key component of our 2018 election platform, and we have taken every opportunity thus far to do just that.

In August 2019, our office attempted to place a review of the Vehicle for Hire (VFH) regulatory framework on the city’s by-law review workplan. Ultimately, we were unsuccessful in that effort. One of the most emphasized reasons as to why a review of the VFH regulatory framework was not warranted at this time was that more research on the Ottawa context was needed and that much of that research would be best carried out as part of the process, now underway, to draft a new Transportation Master Plan. We released a robust position paper on this issue in the hopes that it will help ensure that the appropriate research is undertaken, and that it will help to frame the issue so that the problems and concerns are salient to those undertaking research and drafting city plans.

With then Councillor McKenney, we gave direction to staff in 2021 to review the possibility of increasing licensing fees for, and introducing an overall cap on, vehicles affiliated with Private Transportation Companies (PTCs), such as Uber and Lyft.

We also backed a motion from then Councillor McKenney directing the city to renegotiate a higher ‘accessibility surcharge’ from Ottawa PTCs. Unlike for traditional taxi companies, the city allows PTCs to pay their way out of providing accessible service to Ottawa residents via an ‘accessibility surcharge’. This paltry sum, 7-cents per ride, pales in comparison to other jurisdictions (e.g. it is $2.75 USD in New York City). Our own city-solicited report from KPMG on this subject in 2016 advised asking for 30-cents—a still paltry sum which we nonetheless fell well short of requiring. Two years later, city staff came back to Council and advised that the rate was negotiated to be just 3-cents higher for a total of 10-cents. The 3-cents was, in real terms, only 2-cents when factoring in inflation from 2016 to 2021. This increase, however, was apparently implemented in July 2020, but council was only on June 8, 2021. In any event, this miniscule increase is a slap in the face to accessible taxi drivers, to persons living with disabilities, and ultimately, to all Ottawa residents.

Paid Sick Days

It took two tries at the Council table (the second one after a successful intervention at the Ottawa Board of Health), but we were able to get a motion passed that saw Ottawa City Council finally add its voice to calls on the province for seamless access to five permanent employer paid sick days, extended to 10 paid sick days with financial support from the province during a declared infectious disease emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police Reform

The Ottawa Police Service budget is the fastest growing budget line in the city; its growth has far surpassed inflation rates, which has seen the budget triple in size over the last 20 years. The need for alternatives to police-led emergency responses in Ottawa is painfully clear. The brutal killing of Ottawa resident Abdirahman Abdi, declared a homicide following an inquest in 2024, is but one example of a situation where non-police led intervention would likely have led to a different outcome. Since coming into office, we have made concerted efforts to see money reallocated to fund both preventative measures that would better address the root causes of crime, as well as alternative models to emergency response.

There have been several attempts to address changes to policing and public health at the Ottawa City Council table.

In June 2020, Councillor King and I requested that city staff provide council with options for a public engagement process on police reform in Ottawa.

Unfortunately, city staff responded to this inquiry by advising against city-led public engagement on this subject, stating that the City of Ottawa has limited direct oversight of police services in Ottawa, and should therefore leave these matters to the Ottawa Police Services Board. City Council still indirectly oversees the police board, and can send back their budget proposals. Further, city council can also offer advice and recommendations to their police boards, as Toronto City Council recently did. The argument as to why changes to policing and public health should take place can and should be informed by council and the people they represent through a public engagement exercise.

In October 2020, then Councillor McKenney and I moved an amendment to the 2021 budget directions to reallocate a portion ($4.4 million) of the Ottawa Police Services projected budget increase ($13.1 million) to the Ottawa Public Health municipal budget increase for 2021 (forecast at only $920,000). This motion was a very modest attempt to act on the belief that the Ottawa Police Services budget should not be seeing an increase 10x greater than the increase projected for Ottawa Public Health amidst a global pandemic. Only four City Councillors at the time, including myself, McKenney, Leiper, and Fleury supported this motion. The Ottawa Citizen editorial on that motion can be found here. My closing remarks from that debate are here.

After the motion was defeated, we tried again to make a modest re-allocation of funds from policing to preventative measures that get results. This time we were asking for revenues generated from Red Light Camera enforcement to go towards traffic calming measures instead of the already-bloated police budget. Unfortunately, this motion was also not carried by council.

Then Councillor McKenney and I then brought forward a motion to council which attempted to set the stage for a future budget re-allocation within the OPS budget in favour of alternative models of community safety response. We campaigned on this motion through a petition that saw thousands of residents sign on.

This motion was successful, and explicitly confirmed that the OPS Board would:

• Consult and work collaboratively with a broad range of community, municipal and other stakeholders, including but not limited to Ottawa Public Health (OPH), Crime Prevention Ottawa (CPO), community and social service agencies, housing, homelessness and advocacy organizations, and representation from Black, Indigenous and racialized groups in the development of a comprehensive “whole of city” mental health strategy that reflects the OPS and OPSB’s commitment to reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration for the Decade for People of African Descent; and
• Open up their consultations beyond organizational stakeholders to include the broader public; and
• Include in its mental health strategy consultations, and corresponding report, discussion of potential alternative models of community safety response including those that allow for a non-police response when warranted.

Since then, we have seen a minor reallocation along these lines in the 2022 budget. More needs to be done.

Regulating AirBnB

Our office was fully supportive of the introduction of a new regulatory (permit) system for short term rentals or STRs (like AirBnB). This new system took effect within the first half of 2022.

The City staff report on the Rental Accommodations Study can be viewed here. The specific recommendations for short-term rentals (e.g. AirBnB) here. The Recommendations included a proposal for a registration regime to better regulate AirBnBs, something our office supported, and which we committed to fight for during the 2018 election campaign.

AirBnBs operating outside of principal residences have always been against zoning in residential zones. The City has had trouble enforcing its existing rules, which is a primary reason the review underpinning these proposed reforms was undertaken and is one of the major problems these proposed reforms are attempting to address. There has been some confusion as to what constitutes a principal residence. To clarify, secondary dwelling units do not count, e.g. dwelling units in a duplex or triplex other than the one occupied by the host, i.e. the 'principal occupant' operating a short-term rental business.

Illegally operating AirBnBs are of great concern, not simply because they disrespect our zoning bylaw, nor because we are concerned about the hotel industry’s bottom line (we are not); the most concerning aspect of the emergence of AirBnBs is that they are contributing to the affordable housing crisis. We are also concerned about the disturbances they have caused neighbours in our residential areas.

This registration regime allows the city to enforce its longstanding residential zoning rules and will allow the city to have more consistent and enforceable rules for AirBnBs outside of residential zones. The regulations do, however, extend the legality of AirBnBs in residential zones by changing the zoning to allow for hosts to rent their principal residence through AirBnB even when they are not on site (currently this is also a breach of zoning, but not enforced).

We zone areas of the City as residential (and others as commercial) to ensure that land is specifically set aside for housing our residents. Residential zoning is a cornerstone of our city and should be treated as such. Using this earmarked land to run a commercial operation for tourists is not just a breach of long-standing bylaw, but a threat to our City’s ability to ensure its residents are housed affordably.

Following enactment of the registration regime, hundreds of investment/income properties (be they stand-alone properties or secondary dwelling units) which were being used as AirBnBs returned to the long-term rental market.

When the Ontario Short-Term Rental Association appealed the bylaw to the Ontario Land Tribunal in 2022, the tribunal dismissed the appeal.

Service Line Warranties of Canada P3 Cancelled

As of January 9, 2025, the agreement between Service Line Warranties of Canada and the City of Ottawa was officially ended. This comes after motions brought forward by our office following the roll out of the public-private partnership in Q1 of 2021. 

For those not familiar with Service Line Warranties of Canada, it is a subsidiary of a multinational corporation based out of the UK that the city had given permission to use the official City of Ottawa logo in their advertising and in their communications with Ottawa residents in exchange for fees paid to the city from the insurance provider (5% of subscription fees, which was a small amount of funds). This arrangement led to communications with Ottawa residents that lead some residents to question whether the city was itself asking residents to purchase insurance, when in reality it was one particular private insurance provider advertising its services.

In May of 2021, our office brought forward a report to environment committee directing staff to review the program and report back on the issues to date, and make recommendations based on those findings. This was followed by another motion we brought to environment committee in October of 2023 directing staff to pursue amending the contract in order to preclude direct mail to Ottawa residents (and not to renew the contract upon its expiry in 2027), or, failing that, to terminate the agreement for convenience pursuant to the terms of the agreement.

That latter scenario has now transpired. Moving forward, the city will communicate to residents the options available to protect the private portion of water and sewer services without favouring a particular private sector provider.