CANDIDATES IN WARD 2: INNES
In the lead-up to Ottawa’s municipal election, this newspaper surveyed every candidate, providing them with a list of questions. It’s an exercise that’s meant to help residents get to know the candidates better and to get a firm sense of where they stand on important issues facing our city. We’ll run a selection of their answers, featuring different wards each day. Today we feature Innes (Ward 2). Candidates appear in alphabetical order. For the full survey responses, check out our website, at Ottawacitizen.com. WARD 2: INNES
Population (2016): 41,211 Households (2016): 15,436
Votes cast/eligible in 2014: 13,111 / 29,521 (44.41 per cent)
Area: 31.1 sq km
Boundaries: Innes is defined largely by water: Green’s Creek on the west, Mer Bleue to the south, and the eastern boundary runs north near Bilberry Creek, then heads west along St. Joseph Boulevard, and north again along the western edge of Orléans to the Ottawa River.
In 2014, Jody Mitic beat eight opponents with a comfortable 33 per cent of the vote. No other candidate reached 20 per cent. But Mitic is not running this year, and there are four contestants: Laura Dudas is president of the Blackburn Community Association and a member of the Orléans Chamber of Commerce. Donna LeithGudbranson is president of both the Chapel Hill South Community Association and the school council at École élémentaire publique Le Prélude. Tammy Lynch has been the city’s director of community relations for Innes ward since 2014, and is on leave during the election campaign. François Trépanier served for 28 years in the Canadian Forces and is now a consultant. Dudas and Trépanier finished second and third, respectively, in 2014.
LAURA DUDAS
1. What are the two most important issues in your ward? Why?
Road infrastructure has not kept pace with development. With this infrastructure deficit we are seeing increased traffic on residential roads, and we are at capacity on arterial roads.
As councillor, I will focus on: extending Brian Coburn Blvd.; widening the 174, as was done on the 417 in the west end;
adding dedicated bus lanes, improving bus routes and service times;
ensuring east-end LRT stations provide adequate park-and-ride infrastructure, bicycle parking, and safe, well-lit pedestrian infrastructure;
filling gaps in our cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
By taking these actions, we can divert the increasing east-end traffic out of residential communities, while continuing to serve the transportation needs of residents. Addressing the infrastructure deficit is also a key factor to bolstering economic development in the east end.
Economic development. The east end has not seen the level of growth, economic development and commercial investment that other areas of the city have experienced. If elected, I will focus on:
developing economic hubs and transit-oriented development around new LRT stations;
fostering economic development through effective tax incentive measures, including using Section 37 of the Planning Act;
zoning and planning processes that support employment and business growth;
supporting the Ottawa Board of Trade and the Heart of Orléans BIA in their efforts to bring federal jobs east;
supporting existing small businesses to ensure they thrive.
2. What ward-specific decision do you wish council had dealt with better?
As I have mentioned in a previous response, the roads in Innes ward and the east end are deteriorating and are in need of repair. Although the city earmarked an additional $600,000 in the 2018 budget for pothole repair, some of our roads will require a full resurfacing and not just patching up the potholes. As councillor, I will press for more of the existing roads maintenance budget to be spent in Innes ward to address the need.
3. Do you live in the ward in which you’re running? If not, what’s your interest in the area?
I am proud to live in Innes Ward and to have served the east end as a community advocate and volunteer for well over a decade. My family moved to Blackburn Hamlet in 2006 because it had everything we wanted in a community.
DONNA LEITH-GUDBRANSON
1. What are the two most important issues in your ward? Why?
Employment: Bringing employment to Orléans is imperative. I would like to work with the new Ottawa Board of Trade’s Capital Build Task Force and the Heart of Orléans BIA’s “Balance Orléans” to bring a federal employment node to Orléans. I would also like to create a teleworking hub with state-of-theart telecommunications, meeting rooms and workstations, where east Ottawa “office workers,” either from the public or private sector, could easily travel to work (by cycling, public transit, on foot or by car) to a centrally located building here in Orléans. Such a facility would allow workers to skip the commute and still get the job done.
Transportation: The Brian Coburn Extension from Navan Road to connect with Renaud Road and then to Anderson Road is an absolute infrastructure priority, not only for the residents of Innes ward, but also for residents travelling from eastern Orléans. We must also take advantage of the expansion of the LRT to Trim Road to revitalize St. Joseph Boulevard.
2. What ward-specific decision do you wish council had dealt with better?
This is perhaps an issue more relevant to a previous council but which has had a long-standing impact on Innes ward: the decision in the transportation master plan regarding the alignment of Brian Coburn Boulevard. Traffic coming from the east down Brian Coburn Boulevard splits onto Navan Road and is currently directed back onto Innes Road via the Blackburn Bypass and, worse still, down Renaud Road. Currently, 10,000 cars per day use Renaud Road, which was never built to accommodate such volumes, dividing the community of Bradley Estates. Fortunately, council has opened the door again to correct this wrong by conducting a review of the Brian Coburn Boulevard: The Extension/Cumberland Transitway Westerly Alternate Corridor Environmental Assessment Study. Community consultations clearly show that the preferred option is to extend Brian Coburn Boulevard along the hydro corridor to Renaud and Anderson Roads.
3. Do you live in the ward in which you’re running? If not, what’s your interest in the area?
Yes, I have lived in Innes Ward (Chapel Hill South) for 25 years; 36 years in Ottawa.
TAMMY LYNCH
1. What are the two most important issues in your ward? Why?
The most important issue and what I am hearing at the doors is traffic and the lack of road network. This is why, since May, I have continued to push for the Brian Coburn extension to Renaud/Anderson with a parallel bus rapid transit. Seventy per cent of the traffic on Renaud is going south and this extension would provide an east-south corridor and protect the environmentally sensitive mud creek. The second issue I have been hearing repeatedly at the door is poor OC Transpo service on our local routes. Residents are frustrated by the recent change in schedule that has removed sensible routes to their neighbourhood. I will work with residents and OC Transpo to improve our local routes. If we ever want to get more people out of their cars and on transit, then we have to start with improving their local routes.
2. What ward-specific decision do you wish council had dealt with better?
I wish there would have been consultation with residents before drastically changing their local transit routes; it has left many residents very unhappy with OC Transpo service.
3. Do you live in the ward in which you’re running? If not, what’s your interest in the area?
Yes, I have lived in the Chapel Hill South community of Innes ward for 19 years.
FRANÇOIS TRÉPANIER
1. What are the two most important issues in your ward? Why?
Speed. Speed in the street is the single issue that we hear about on every street we go door knocking along in the ward. It seems that everyone is in a “rush” to get somewhere, at the risk of their own and other people’s safety.
Public transit: We need better routes, and more inclusive routes, so riders can all be within 500 metres of a bus stop or LRT station. We need to work on offering a better public transit service to residents.
2. What ward-specific decision do you wish council had dealt with better?
Better development planning. It seems that development permits are granted to developers without consideration for infrastructure, both the roads and commercial space.
3. Do you live in the ward in which you’re running? If not, what’s your interest in the area?
Absolutely. I also believe it should be a requirement to run for a ward. Live in it!