Councillor Gower shares this week’s updates on Stittsville vaccination rates; the newly approved City budget for 2022 and the share of the wealth coming to Stittsville for infrastructure upgrades, along with new parks and recreation facility improvements; what Purolator is up to on Sweetnam Drive; 15-minute neighbourhoods; a public meeting on the proposed Bobolink development; the OC Transpo food drive; and, the Stittsville Business Association Thomas Cavanagh Business of the Year Award presentations.
Some COVID-19 updates
Encouraging vaccination stats in Ottawa (As of December 10, 2021):
- 43% of kids ages 5-11 have had at least one dose
- 89% of people ages 12+ are fully vaccinated
- 97% of teens aged 12-17 have had at least one dose
- Over 98% of adults ages 70+ are fully vaccinated
Dr. Etches urges caution: École élémentaire catholique Saint-Jean-Paul II in Stittsville has been temporarily closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak with 8 people testing positive for COVID-19 at the school. It’s a timely reminder that COVID-19 continues to be present in our community. Dr. Vera Etches issued a reminder last week:
“To reduce community risk, I am urging all individuals to pause and limit certain activities before and during the holiday season, particularly indoor activities when it involves individuals who are not yet fully vaccinated and where masks are not being worn.” Please read her full statement here…
Testing: If you are looking for COVID-19 testing in Stittsville — there’s a temporary clinic at the Fringewood Community Centre open Monday & Tuesday evenings throughout the holidays. Details here…
With increasing demand for testing in Stittsville, I’ve asked Ottawa’s COVID testing task force to expand testing hours and locations to make it as easy as possible for residents to get tested. Stay tuned for more updates.
Vaccination clinic: There’s a vaccination clinic for kids 5-11 on Friday, December 17 from 4:15 pm to 7:25 pm. at A. Lorne Cassidy School. Drop-in appointments are available on a first come first served basis. Details here…
For more information about testing, vaccinations, or anything else related to the pandemic, please visit ottawapublichealth.ca
The 2022 City Budget and what it means for Stittsville
Last week City Council approved the 2022 Budget, including a number of investments that will directly benefit our Stittsville community.
The City is investing $427-million in new infrastructure and renewals to improve roads, bridges, culverts, sidewalks, pathways and intersections. We’re closing a funding gap from previous councils that has left a lot of our infrastructure in poor shape. In Stittsville, some of that money will go towards resurfacing Abbott Street (Iber Road to Stittsville Main), Hobin Street (Kyle to Carp), a replacement of the pathway bridge over Poole Creek west of Beechfern, and a new sidewalk on Renshaw (bewteen Delamere and Hobin). There are also many improvements planned for the rural roads that surround Stittsville.
There’s also money to improve the intersection at Terry Fox and Cope, and to build a new intersection at Hazeldean and Mantra across from the Robert Grant Crossing plaza. (We should also see shovels in the ground for the next phase of Robert Grant Avenue, from Abbott to Hazeldean — although it will be paid for in a future budget year, when construction is complete.)
There’s money for parks and recreation, including improvements at CARDELREC and Johnny Leroux Arena, $1.1-million to develop the new Silas Bradley Park in south Stittsville, and $50,000 for a cricket pitch at Bradley Commons Park. You can read about these projects and more here…
City-wide investments. There are also important investments that benefit all of Ottawa, including Stittsville residents. We’ll invest $17-million in affordable housing. That means in this four-year term of council, we’ll invest over $68-million on affordable and supportive housing, more than any other previous council. We’re using that money to leverage additional grants from the Provincial and Federal governments, such as a $54.4-million investment from the Government of Canada’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI). We’re also providing $1 million in City funding will help local landlords make essential repairs to increase the supply of affordable rental units in Ottawa. These are important to help address Ottawa’s housing crisis, with more than 10,000 people on a waiting list for affordable housing in Ottawa.
We’re contributing $27-million to non-profit social services agencies, the largest increase to the Community Funding Framework in 15 years. This funding supports the social services sector to support communities that are most marginalized in Ottawa, which is even more important during this pandemic.
For Ottawa Public Health, we’ve approved a budget of $123 million, including $41.5 million on COVID-19 measures. COVID-19 pandemic costs – such as vaccination clinics, special school public health nurses, and contact tracers — are all covered by the Province, whereas regular public health programs are split 70%-30% between the Province and the City of Ottawa. These programs include things such as mental health support, school immunizations, dental health, early child development, restaurant inspections, and more. I am concerned that the Province has again frozen funding for these regular programs, leaving the City on the hook to cover inflationary increases. This 0% increase essentially amounts to a budget cut to Public Health from the province, since there are always rising costs for supplies and salaries. It’s something to watch for future budget years as we transition out of the pandemic. It’s not wise to cut public health investments, pandemic or not.
On the police budget, Council approved the Ottawa Police Board request for a 2% increase, which is slightly less than originally anticipated. We’ll take some money originally allocated to police and re-invest it in two areas: $2.1 million will support racialized youth programs, community-based, culturally appropriate mental health prevention services, addictions and crisis outreach services, and mental health programs, social supports for our Indigenous community; and $550,000 that will be used to develop an alternative call referral program identifying where and how low-risk 911 calls should be redirected. Despite the reduction in police budget, Chief Sloly has committed to no police layoffs in 2022. (In fact the police service will be adding additional sworn officers next year.) I know that’s important to Stittsville residents who are concerned about things like traffic safety and neighourhood safety.
On transit, we’ve frozen the EquiPass for low-income residents and the Community Pass for Ontario Disability Support Program recipients at 2018 rates, and we’re providing up to 2,000 free transit passes to emergency shelters for the use of their clients. We approved a fare increase of about $3.00 for a regular adult bus pass, but it won’t come into effect until at least one month after all 15 LRT trains are back in service. We’re investing in 74 new battery-electric buses in 2022, as part of a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For local businesses, we’re implementing a 15-per-cent tax discount for small businesses on qualifying properties. The full discount will be phased in over two years starting with a 7.5-per-cent reduction in 2022 and the rest in 2023, benefiting about 10,000 small businesses. This is a permanent tax cut intended to help out a sector of our economy that is really struggling through this pandemic.
A balanced budget. This is a very good budget for our City and a good budget for our Stittsville community. We’ve targeted investments in local projects and in major City initiatives to address the most pressing social and health needs – and as with previous years, we’ve kept taxes under control with a modest increase of 3% per year. For the average homeowner, that’s a yearly increase of $119/year. As a municipality, we can’t run deficits like the provincial or federal governments, so we have to come up with a balanced budget with no over-spending. That’s no small feat in a growing city with so many pressing needs – but it’s even more of an ccomplishment when you consider how the pandemic has put stress and change on city services.
Thank you to residents who have shared their feedback, questions and concerns over the last few weeks as we’ve debated and finalized this budget. Work has already begun to shape the 2023 budget, which will be approved after the next election in 2022. You can contact me any time with your questions and concerns.
Purolator pilot will reduce trucks and emissions in Stittsville
Purolator’s first “Mobile Sorting Unit” (MSU) has arrived in Stittsville on Sweetnam Drive. It will mean fewer delivery trucks and shorter trips for deliveries in Stittsville and Kanata, reducing emissions and improving safety. In the first phase, they’re eliminating a twice-daily trip for delivery trucks between Stittsville and Hawthorne Road. It saves one hour of travel time and 70km/day per truck, for up to 10 trucks. Next spring, they’ll transition to e-cargo bikes and low-speed vehicles. Read more…
Planning Committee focus turns to 15-minute neighbourhoods
I’ve posted a link to a new report presented at Planning Committee next week that establishes baseline scoring for properties across the city. The new Official Plan introduced the concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods, where people can live viably without a car because daily needs are located within a 15-minute walk of home. The report is based on a list of nine amenities that should be within a 15-minute walk of any residential property. By establishing baseline scores, the City will be better able to evaluate how these neighbourhoods evolve in the future and how the City might encourage that evolution. Read more…
Stittsville Business Association (SBA) award winners
Congratulations to Mahogany Salon and Spa and StittsvilleCentral.ca who were both presented with a Business of the Year award from the SBA last week, in recognition of their outstanding service to the community. Please remember to support Stittsville businesses during this holiday season!
OC Transpo Food Drive
During what continues to be a challenging time for Ottawa’s most vulnerable, and with the holiday season well underway, City of Ottawa staff and community members came together to make the 37th annual OC Transpo/Loblaw Christmas Food Drive a success. A total of 103,415 pounds of food and $15,000 was collected for food banks in Ottawa. OC Transpo buses parked onsite at participating Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocer and No Frills locations in Ottawa. All the food items collected were delivered directly to the Ottawa Food Bank, FAMSAC Food Cupboard, Stittsville Food Bank, and the Kanata Food Cupboard. Thanks for your support!
OC Transpo Fernbank survey
If you live in the Fernbank area, and OC Transpo is important to you, please take a moment to complete our survey about future transit service in the community. Tell us how you would use OC Transpo to get to work or school, or to run your errands. Neigbourhoods like Abbottsville Crossing, Bradley Commons, West Wood, Blackstone, and Fernbank Crossing do not currently have the same level of service as elsewhere in Ottawa.
360 Bobolink info meeting
We’re hosting a virtual public information session for the development application at 360 Bobolink Ridge on Wednesday, December 15 at 7:00 pm. This is your opportunity to hear about the proposal from the applicant, learn the relevant policies from city planners, and ask questions/provide feedback. More info here…
Get in touch!
My team and I are working every day to answer your questions and connect residents with the resources they need. If we can help in any way, please email me at glen.gower@ottawa.ca or leave a voicemail at 613-580-2476. NEW: Message us on WhatsApp at 613-277-0193. – Councillor Glen Gower