(ABOVE: Photo by Michael, used under a Creative Commons license.)
Councillor Shad Qadri will ask his colleagues at City Council to support a motion calling for Canada Post to recognize addresses in his ward as being in Stittsville, instead of Kanata.
Currently, a large segment of homes and businesses that are technically part of the City of Ottawa’s Stittsville Ward are still considered to be Kanata addresses by Canada Post, leading to what Qadri calls “mass confusion” for residents.
The area includes the Fernbank lands, Blackstone, the commercial strip on Hazeldean Road east of Iber, and the eastern and northern parts of Fairwinds.
In his weekly newsletter to residents, he outlined the reasons for the motion: “As you can imagine, this results in mass confusion among both residents and facilitators of Canada Post… This is an important motion for me to bring to Council as it establishes Stittsville’s rich, cultural presence within the city of Ottawa. There is a sense of communal belonging within the residents of our Ward and when boundary lines are confused, this community pride takes a hit.”
Qadri has had discussions in the past with Canada Post about changing the boundaries. Canada Post won’t make the change without a full council resolution, even though Ottawa ward boundaries were changed nearly a decade ago in December 2006.
The motion could come as early as this Wednesday’s council meeting. Qadri tells us he’s waiting to hear from the city clerk’s office to find out if it will be included as a walk-on motion this week, or if it will be discussed at a future meeting.
Qadri says that Canada Post officials have assured him that there will be no cost to the City of Ottawa if a change is made.
“It is my wish that moving forward, we can welcome the new residents of the Fernbank community with open arms – creating an awareness that this is not a community made up of houses and streets but of people helping people,” wrote Qadri.
Qadri’s motion:
“BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Ottawa request Canada Post Corporation recognize the properties located within the area identified on the attached map as being part of Stittsville, and revise the mailing addresses for these properties to reflect the same, in addition to being located in Ottawa.”
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
The issue of Stittsville/Kanata address confusion has been bugging Qadri for a while. It came up last June when two large developers were marketing their Stittsville developments as being “in the heart of Kanata”.
“The community is proud of the name of Stittsville and that pride should be conveyed to residents moving into the area in new developments as well,” Qadri told StittsvilleCentral.ca at the time. “The sense of community is established when residents and businesses can identify with their community name.”
(In a bit of ironic timing, Cardel Homes is marketing a new release of homes in Blackstone as being located “Kanata South”. Blackstone is included in the boundary that Qadri wants to see changed to Stittsville.)
ARE YOU A STITTSVILLE RESIDENT WITH A KANATA ADDRESS? What are your thoughts on Qadri’s motion? Add a comment below or email feedback@stittsvillecentral.ca
Ward 6 Stittsville, which included Kanata West south of Highway 417, was approved by Council in By-Law 2005-302 on the 24 June 2005 and by OMB on the 31 Oct 2005. The Fernbank Lands were approved by Council in By-Law 2009-242 on the 8 July 2009. There is an error in the Canada Post Area map, but it does not affect the addresses – By-Law 2009-242 had excluded the Glen Cairn Pond area even though it had already been excluded in By-Law 2005-302. Wards are established and re-established in order to provide for municipal government representation for certain population levels. There are no guarantees that the Ward 6 boundaries will remain the same in a future ward boundary review. Will Canada Post be asked to change the addresses if they are? There can be many “communities” in any one ward. Stittsville, as a ward, is not a municipally-separate entity – it is a collection of communities which have different development histories. These Canada Post problems can occur in other areas of the City as well because the postal codes seem to have been based on the former municipalities – perhaps Canada Post should be asked to change them all to Ottawa and rely on the postal code for delivery. My mail still gets to me even when it is addressed to Hazeldean, one of the pre-1978 Township of Goulbourn urban areas. When people ask where I live, I reply Glen Cairn or Kanata or Ottawa, depending on the situation
Thanks for your comments Faith. Reaction to this story on social media has been split down the middle. Some are quite supportive of the councillor’s efforts; others see this as making a mountain out of a molehill.
I have to agree, the boundaries are changed overtime and Shad Qadri needs to refocus his attention to other matters. As per the City of Ottawa map of Ward 6 it is labelled as Stittsville- Kanata West not just Stittsville. I am sure he will focus his attention to that next for his beloved Ward. The long and short is we now according to Canada post have three names we can use for our postal code instead of two. I say let’s keep it simple and just use Ottawa. I know I will not be using Stittsville.
It should be changed – I am proud to live here and find it very disrespectful when companies advertise otherwise.
This is still an issue. My water bill comes to my address as Goulbourn, ON. If I punch in my postal code to order a pizza it comes up as Kanata. If I input Stittsville manually not only will they not deliver but the address is not recognized. The Blackstone community should be included as a Kanata address. Anything east of Fringewood should not be considered Stittsville in my mind.