COUNCILLOR’S MESSAGE
Federal election results
Last week’s federal election will certainly go down as one for the history books, including the fact that election watchers had to stay up far later than usual to know who would form government, or whether it would be a minority or a majority.
As for the City of Ottawa, not much changed in terms of what parties took which ridings. Of course, Carleton riding had a major shift in representation. But the biggest change in terms of our city’s federal representation is that Ottawa now has the Prime Minister as one of our Members of Parliament, for the riding of Nepean. And Nepean is one of the two ridings that fall within Ward 9.
This means that my two federal counterparts are now Ottawa West-Nepean MP Anita Vandenbeld, and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Typically, elected officials at all three levels of government are in fairly regular contact with each other. Over the last two years, I’ve engaged with MP Vandenbeld and former Nepean MP Chandra Arya on numerous occasions. In fact, I’d already started discussions with MP Vandenbeld a few months ago about an important project that straddles both the Ottawa West-Nepean and Nepean ridings. At the time, MP Vandenbeld and I had assumed that we’d also be inviting Chandra Arya or Conservative candidate Barbara Bal to the discussion. Things have certainly changed.
And so, with Prime Minister Carney as one of my federal counterparts, I’ve got a couple of ambitious initiatives that I’m hoping to bring to the Prime Minister’s attention, including one idea that could radically transform transit and housing across much of West Ottawa.
We’re living in volatile times. Both politically and economically, we’re in a state of escalating crisis. But within every crisis are the seeds of opportunity. When you match opportunity with ambition and good ideas, great things can happen.
And like one of my mentors used to say: “Don’t think big....Think huge.”
The future of Merivale Road starts now
Speaking of “thinking huge”, I’m particularly proud of the fact that last week the City of Ottawa formally launched the Baseline-Merivale Secondary Plan. For readers who aren’t familiar with the term, a “secondary plan” is a multi-year consultation and planning process that leads to a “blueprint” for the future of what a specific area will look like.
As far back as my campaign to be City Councillor, I started talking publicly about my desire to see Merivale Road - from Baseline Road to Viewmount Drive - transform into something different than what it currently is, which is a massive parking lot, primarily meant to support shopping malls and big box retail stores whose best days are now behind them.
Once I became councillor, I started working on a plan. In December 2022, I started convening meetings with city planners, transportation experts, community leaders, architects, developers, all towards getting people excited about the potential for what a new Merivale might be.
Rather than just be a place for parking and shopping, I envisioned a place that could be the “Heart of Nepean”. Not just a place to shop, but a place where people lived, where they found recreation, where they could spend time in a park, or walking around. In other words, a place for people.
The city had already been preparing to do a Baseline Secondary Plan, which would be done in conjunction with the Algonquin Station Secondary Plan. And so, I started working to persuade our city planners, the City Manager, and the Mayor about the potential benefit for adding Merivale Road into that planning process.
And it worked. Over the next several weeks and months, expect to hear a lot more about this.
Get ready, everyone. It’s time to start imagining the future of Merivale.
Transportation Master Plan update
As has been mentioned previously, the City of Ottawa continues to hold consultations over the draft recommendations of our Transportation Master Plan, which will lay out the prioritized transit, road, and active transportation projects for the next two decades. It’s a critically important Plan, and I hope that residents are engaged in the decisions that we must make. As mentioned further down in this newsletter, there’s an online Public Consultation for residents of Ward 9 taking place tonight on May 6.
My team and I are continuing to work with transportation planning staff right up until we debate the Transportation Master Plan at Committee in July. We’ve already identified the major projects that will affect Ward 9 residents are as follows:
- Baseline Road Transitway (BRT) - projected investment of $360M
- Merivale Road Continuous Bus Lanes – projected investment of $142M
- Prince of Wales Drive Road Widening – 3 different segments, including 2 segments in Ward 9, for a projected investment of $110M
While these are massive investments for Ward 9, I can’t say that I’m equally enthusiastic about all of them. The item that I’m concerned about is the proposed road widening of Prince of Wales. It’s a very expensive project to address traffic congestion, but any relief it provides to congestion will quite likely be temporary.
For anyone who’d like to understand why that is, I invite you to learn about the concept of what’s called “induced demand”. There was a recent article in The Narwhal that focuses on how this concept has been ignored in the province of Ontario. Here’s one paragraph from that article:
“At the centre of all of this is the oft-ignored concept of induced demand, which shows that building new highways or expanding existing ones might seem to relieve congestion at first, but over time, attracts more drivers. Before long, new lanes are just as crowded as the old ones were.”
Of course, there are certainly segments of Prince of Wales Drive that are quite narrow (i.e. only one lane in each direction) considering the large volume of commuters that use it. And there are elements of the proposed project that are of unique benefit (i.e. adding new multi-use pathways). Nevertheless, it’s challenging to consider how much money will be spent on this project without offering anything fundamentally different than what we currently have. It will just be more space, for more cars, which will eventually create more congestion.
Beyond these three projects, there are also a wide variety of active transportation projects (cycling and pedestrian) for Ward 9, as well as many other major projects across the city that my team and I will be analyzing and commenting on over the coming weeks.
New staff member
Last month, councillors each received an increase in our office budget, which has given me the flexibility to add a new part-time member to my staff. I’m pleased to announce that Duncan Rae has joined the Ward 9 team. Of course, I’ve already hired Duncan as a contractor on various projects, since he brings an extraordinary vision and skillset. Duncan is highly respected in Ottawa’s community of urban planners / transportation planners. His focus will be to work alongside other members of my team on three distinct projects: the Transportation Master Plan, the New Zoning By-Law, and the Baseline-Merivale Secondary Plan. Welcome, Duncan!
On kindness, bravery, justice and unity
I want to end this Councillor’s Message on a high note, by quoting a segment of the Election Night speech from our new Prime Minister. And I do this respectful of the fact that many residents across Ward 9 did not vote for the Liberal Party. The truth is, I would’ve been inspired by this section of the speech no matter which party leader had said it.
The segment of the speech came when PM Carney was talking about how kindness motivates kindness. From that, here’s what he said:
“We become just by doing just acts, brave by doing brave acts. When we are kind, kindness grows. When we seek unity, unity grows. When we are Canadian, Canada grows.”
During these challenging times, we can all benefit from being more just, braver, and kinder. We will all benefit from finding unity in purpose. And if these values define what it is to be Canadian, then growing that kind of Canada will benefit us all, and the world beyond our borders.
CITY WORKS
Conover Street Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Project Update
Our office is pleased to have received positive feedback from residents regarding the Conover traffic calming efforts, and we're excited to see further progress with the upcoming pedestrian crossing at the Hydro Corridor Multi-Use Pathway.
The City is in the process of securing a contractor. Lighting work is set to begin soon, with installation expected to be completed by May 2025.
You can find more information and stay up to date on the project website: Conover Street Accelerated Neighbourhood Traffic Calming
Highlights of Ward 9 infrastructure projects
Our office recently had our annual Capital Construction Program briefing with City staff. The Councillor will be going over the projects in more detail in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here are some highlights of what's in the works for Ward 9.
Road & Intersection Upgrades
- Fisher & Meadowlands Intersection (2025): This intersection will be rebuilt into a protected intersection to improve safety for all users.
- Greenbank & West Hunt Club (Design Phase): Intersection upgrades include new east/west through lanes. It will also bring improvements for people walking and cycling.
Road Resurfacing Projects 2025
- Auriga Drive (from Antares Drive to Dead End)
- Deakin Street (from Prince of Wales Drive to Auriga Street)
- Merivale Road (from Viewmount Drive to Meadowlands Drive)
- Norice Street (from Viewmount Drive to Sullivan Avenue)
- Grant Carman Drive (from Viewmount Drive to Meadowlands Drive)
- Cedarview Road (from Fallowfield Road to Lytle Avenue)
Walking & Cycling Improvements
- Greenbank Multi-Use Pathway (Design Phase)
Parks & Community Facilities
- Medhurst Park: A brand-new accessible splash pad is being designed, with a pathway connection from Woodfield Drive.
- Pineglen Park: Full playground replacement with new accessible features.
- Raoul Wallenberg Park: New outdoor fitness equipment to support active living.
Grant Carman Drive road resurfacing
Starting the week of May 18th, the entire length of Grant Carman Drive (from Meadowlands Drive to Viewmount Road) will be undergoing a road resurfacing project. This will include milling / re-paving the asphalt, as well as replacement / repair works of the concrete sidewalk on the west side of the road, as well as the re-paving of the asphalt walkway on the east side.
This project will require a temporary road closure of Grant Carman Drive from Meadowlands to Family Brown Lane.
Councillor Devine’s office has already been in communication with city staff to let them know that the line painting on Grant Carman Drive had been falsely implemented in 2017 – resulting in certain segments of the cycling lanes being narrower than the minimum required width – and that we’ll be in regular contact with the project manager to ensure that the proper line paintings are done this time.
HWY 417 Pinecrest ramp closure
Starting May 5th and expected until the end of August, the Highway 417 westbound on-ramp from southbound Pinecrest Road and the Highway 417 westbound off-ramp to Richmond Road will be closed and detours will be in place. These closures are related to Stage 2 LRT roadwork. Signage will be in place, please plan ahead. Motorists planning to access Highway 417 westbound from southbound Pinecrest Road will detour onto Baseline Road, westbound to Richmond Road, and then proceed northbound to Holly Acres Road and onto the 417. Motorists travelling westbound on Highway 417 wishing to access Richmond Road or Bayshore Drive will be directed to exit the highway at Greenbank Road/Pinecrest Road. Residents are encouraged to visit octranspo.com/alerts for details and detours related to your specific routes.
Raoul Wallenberg Park pathways update
In the last issue of this newsletter, we notified residents about a dangerously damaged pathway in Raoul Wallenberg Park. We notified the city’s Public Works department, who were able to do an emergency patch repair, as shown below. Even though the immediate safety issue has been addressed, our office will now be pursuing a pilot project for a better way of designing and building these kinds of pathways.
Redpine Park pathways update
And there’s more bad news when it comes to pathways in city parks. And unfortunately, this is in the same neighbourhood as the damaged pathways in Raoul Wallenberg Park described above.
A resident wrote to tell our office about a shocking example of pathway damage in Redpine Park. As you can see in the photo below, the damage is sufficiently extreme that large areas of the park have been closed.
Our office notified our Public Works / Forestry departments about this, and staff reported back the following:
“While delivering trees for planting to the park on May 1st, the City’s tree planting contractor’s crane truck got stuck, as the soil was too soft and saturated due to rain the previous day. The truck's back wheels sunk into the mud and were stuck too deep to be able to extricate itself from the park on its own. Additional heavy equipment was brought in to support the removal of the crane truck with no success and thus created more ruts and damage to the pathway. Ultimately, the contractor required a large tow truck to successfully remove the crane truck out of the mud. Unfortunately, this resulted in large mud ruts and damage to approximately 80 meters of the park asphalt pathway.
The contractor is responsible for repairs under the tree planting contract and has met with staff on site to assess the damage and determine a timeline for repairs. Currently, there is caution tape and signage in place to indicate that the pathway is closed.
We expect to receive more information on the timeline of repairs in the next day or so and will follow up with you when confirmed. Going forward, the contractor has been reminded not to enter parks with heavy equipment if the ground is too wet.”
Urban Flooding
The City is committed to ensuring our infrastructure is safe and reliant and is continuously working to improve our City’s sewer and stormwater systems to mitigate impacts from extreme weather events and climate change. Where and how frequent urban flooding occurs depends on a number of factors, such as the amount of rain that falls over a period of time, topography, our historical drainage systems, and the size of the storm and sewer pipes. There are things residents can do around their homes to help mitigate the risk of urban flooding. Check out this list of home solutions to prevent flooding, as well as this FAQ.
Fire Venturers Open House
Fire Venturers is an amazing program in partnership with the Ottawa Fire Services and Scouts Canada for youths who have an interest in the Fire Services. There's an Open House on May 7th where interested participants can learn more about applying.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Transportation Master Plan: Public Consultation (online)
The City of Ottawa is in the process of holding public consultations for the Transportation Master Plan.
Ottawa has grown into a city of one million residents. Over the next 25 years, that number is expected to grow to more than 1.4 million. With that kind of growth, we need to revisit how people, vehicles and goods move through our city.
City of Ottawa transportation planning staff will be hosting several online sessions, including a Public Consultation (online) on Tuesday, May 6th on Zoom. The meeting will run from 6:30pm - 8:30pm. Residents can also explore the schedule of other engagement sessions. Virtual sessions will include a presentation followed by a question-and-answer period. In-person sessions will have display boards showcasing project information, and members of the project team will be available to answer questions. The same information will be presented at all sessions, but discussions at each session may focus on projects specific to the local geographic area. The online meeting on May 6th is focused on Ottawa's south quadrant.
Public consultation: Knoxdale Road Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Study
The Neighbourhood Traffic Calming (NTC) Program focuses on addressing requests for permanent, engineered, traffic calming on existing local and collector streets within neighbourhoods. This Program is reserved for streets that cannot benefit from roadway modifications through other City Programs.
As mentioned previously in our newsletter, Knoxdale Road in Ward 9 will now be the subject of a NTC project. This is very good news for residents, since this road is frequently the issue of speeding concerns, and because there are several vulnerable areas along this road (e.g. St. John XXIII Catholic School, Manordale Park, Manordale Public School, Beechcliffe Park). The City of Ottawa has just launched the Public Consultation Survey for this project, with the survey open until May 23rd.
Last week our office held an online Public Information Session where residents could learn about this upcoming project, as well as the existing traffic safety concerns that are being addressed. This week, the city launched its Knoxdale Road Traffic Calming Study website page, where residents can find the following information:
- A copy of the presentation from last week’s Public Information Session
- Details of the recommended plan for traffic calming on Knoxdale
- A link to the online Public Consultation Survey, which is open until May 23
Ward 9 Pop-Up Office Hours
Our office will be holding Pop-Up Office Hours on May 16th in Tanglewood from 2:30pm - 4:30pm. This is a great opportunity for some one-on-one time with your City Councillor to discuss any municipal issue or concern, whether it's a local item or a city-wide issue. To book a 20-minute meeting, please fill out our online booking form. Our office will confirm your reservation a few days before the event.
SpayPalooza cat neutering event
We're happy to share the success by the HolliBell Foundation, which saw 43 cats—19 females and 24 males—spayed and neutered in Ward 9. Our office was happy to sponsor HolliBell’s city-wide event, which resulted in single-day spay sessions across the city, where HolliBell would transport cats to and from a private clinic in Lanark Leeds. Efforts like this play an important role in managing the local cat population, and we encourage all pet owners to have their cats spayed or neutered. Thank you to HolliBell and everyone involved for their continued dedication and hard work.
PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY
Tanglewood brush fire
On Friday May 2, we received reports from the Tanglewood Hillsdale Community Association that residents had notified them about a brush fire being set by youths in the field adjacent to the RONA. While this fire didn’t result in any injuries or property damage, it is still an incident of significant concern, and not only because of the serious risk that these kinds of fires present. But over the past year, there continue to be a number of incidents involving youth mischief in the Tanglewood, Manordale and Craig Henry Areas. Last year, our office brought Ottawa Police Services (OPS) into Tanglewood for a community meeting to address this.
Councillor Devine reached out to OPS and Ottawa Fire Service about this recent incident, and to see if OPS can continue to engage with our office and these communities about these various incidents.
Community Health Notice: Measles Exposure Alert
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is investigating two confirmed cases of measles in Ottawa—an adult and a child who likely contracted the virus while traveling internationally. OPH is notifying possible contacts but is also reaching out to those they cannot reach directly. While the current risk to the general public is low, you will wish to be alert if you visited either of these locations at these times:
- Food Basics / 1021 Cyrville / Monday, April 21 / 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Costco / 1405 Blair Towers / Wednesday, April 23 / 6:00 PM – 8:45 PM
If you visited these locations during the times listed, you may have been exposed. Here is what you need to do:
- Monitor for Symptoms until May 12 (Food Basics) or May 14 (Costco), even if you have been vaccinated.
- Watch for fever, cough, runny nose, red/watery eyes, and a red facial rash spreading down the body.
- If symptoms appear, contact your health care provider before visiting. Wear a medical mask.
- If you don’t have a provider, contact Health811 (dial 8-1-1) for free 24/7 advice.
- Check Your Vaccination Status
- Most born before 1970 are likely immune.
- Those born in/after 1970 should have two doses of measles vaccine (“MMR,” “MMRV,” or “M”).
- Unsure? Ask your health care provider or visit OttawaPublicHealth.ca/Measles.
Measles is highly contagious and airborne. Vaccination remains the best protection. To help you stay informed, updates will be posted on OPH's website. Or, you can call 613-580-6744 (Mon–Fri, 8:30 AM–4:30 PM).
Respiratory Disease Update
As the weather gradually warms up and we open windows to let the breeze pour through, as we spend more time outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, the number of cases of respiratory disease begins to fall. While it has been a ferocious winter for flu, in particular, the number of cases is finally beginning to decline. There is still a lot of it out there, however. So be vigilant and make the most of the nice weather.
Every two weeks, we bring you the data you need to assess your risk. That data comes courtesy of Ottawa Public Health (OPH). And now, OPH is interested in how you use this data. If you’ve got five minutes to fill out their survey, it will help them better understand how the data is used and how they can improve their services. If you’ve got the time, take the time. It will help ensure this data stays available to you.
National Mental Health Week
The theme for the 74th edition of the annual National Mental Health Week is “Unmasking Mental Health.” The focus is on breaking the stigma surrounding mental health and encouraging openness and honesty in conversations about mental well-being.
A recent report by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) revealed that mental health concerns among Canadians have tripled. Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is encouraging everyone to #unmaskmentalhealth by looking beyond the surface and creating space for open and honest conversations about how we are really doing. Whether dealing with stress, going through a tough time, or feeling overwhelmed, it is crucial to remember that mental health matters. It is part of our overall health and deserves just as much care and attention.
Here are a couple of ways to join the conversation your community:
- How to have THAT talk About Mental Health with Newcomer and Diverse Populations – a community event hosted by OPH’s Mental Health Team and Ottawa West Four Rivers Ontario Health Team. Open to service providers supporting newcomers and multicultural communities, offering tools and resources for mental health conversations. Register to join virtually on May 9th, 11:30 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
- Take OPH’s online course, Stigma: How You Can Impact Change. This interactive training, available in English and French, takes about 20 minutes. Learn about stigma, how to reduce it, and communicate supportively.
Let’s unmask mental health together – with honesty, care, and compassion. This week, and every week, let’s come together to build a healthier, stronger, and more supportive community for everyone.
COMMUNITY NEWS & EVENTS
Barrhaven Lions Pancake Breakfast
Barrhaven Lions Mushroom Compost Sale
Seniors Centre Summer Activities
Nepean Horticultural Society
Volunteer Ottawa - Start your volunteer journey
Volunteer Ottawa/Bénévoles Ottawa runs free, bilingual, information sessions to help people start volunteering in Ottawa. There are in-person and virtual options available every month. Advance registration required. Sign up online.
Just Older Youth - Special Vocalist Performance
Where: Arlington Woods Free Methodist Church, 225 McClellan Road, Nepean, Ontario
Time: May 15, 2025 1:00 to 3:00PM
Light refreshments will be served.
