Ottawa residents will take to the polls to elect a new municipal government on Oct. 22. Here’s a breakdown from the Charlatan about the promises mayoral candidates and Capital ward councillor candidates are making around the issues that affect students.
Affordable housing
In the wake of the rise in housing prices, mayoral candidates and Capital ward municipal candidates are talking about affordable housing.
Statistics Canada 2016 Census data shows that between 2005 and 2015, the housing market’s rents rose by 26 per cent, while the area median income decreased by four per cent.
Hamid Alakozai, a mayoral candidate, wants to create a municipal government that provides safe and affordable housing for all Ottawa residents and “thereby reduces significantly, if not eliminates, homelessness in the city,” according to his website. However, it’s unclear how that will be achieved.
Clive Doucet, former city councillor for Capital ward and current mayoral candidate, wants to introduce an inclusionary zoning bylaw that would ensure no residential development project is approved without providing a minimum of affordable housing units.
Anthony Carricato, a councillor candidate in the Capital ward, said he supports enforcing conditions on requests by developers to make changes to their property to ensure they are creating more green space and making affordable units that are below market value.
“I would like to explore for Ottawa Community Living to work with the developers to obtain those units and then be the landlord for those places, and those can be available to students and other low-income individuals, “ Carricato told the Charlatan.
Christine McAllister, another Capital ward councillor candidate, said in an email that if elected, she’s going to work with universities, colleges, affordable housing advocates, and developers to identify and implement solutions for affordable student housing.
“I would also like to see initiatives such as inclusionary zoning and devoting surplus city lands to affordable housing development, as well as look for some innovative solutions such as sharing homes with seniors in exchange for help around the house,” McAllister said.
Inclusionary zoning refers to municipalities requiring that a portion of new developments be made affordable for people with low to moderate incomes.
David Chernushenko, incumbent Capital ward councillor who is also running for re-election, said in an email the city needs to make use of inclusionary zoning.
He said the city also needs to take advantage of “the one-in-a-lifetime opportunity of building a light rail system, to make sure affordable housing is built on public lands around stations and the ‘air rights’ above stations.”
Jide Afolabi, one of five candidates running for the Capital ward seat, said in an email he wants to build more on-campus residences.
“If there are more on-campus units scaled for student housing, overall demand would be reduced, and that would bring down the average price of the off-campus student housing stock,” he said.
Transportation and accessibility
Chernushenko said that during his term, he worked extensively to improve and increase safer crossing of Bronson Street and O-train and bus connections to Carleton, especially for cyclists.
“I would like to explore the viability of an underpass crossing of Bronson at Brewer Way, or perhaps near Sunnyside,” he said.
Afolabi’s plans for transportation include the creation and promotion of a second stage of the LRT system he calls “The Elbow.”
He said it’s an arc departing from Carling Station, extending eastward with the placement of a station at Lansdowne Park and another at CHEO. The line would then head back west, with a stop in the Alta Vista area before reconnecting with the main Trillium line at Mooney’s Bay Station.
“I am keenly aware of the fact that The Elbow would extend the [Light Rail Transit] reach of students commuting to and from the school,” Afolabi said. “Plans for such a route extension do not exist at the moment, but that is a key point of elections—to start a conversation on bold ideas for a better Ottawa, and then to see those ideas through to implementation.”
Incumbent mayoral candidate Jim Watson is running on the promise that if re-elected, he will work to extend the LRT further west to Kanata and Stittsville, farther south to Riverside South to the Ottawa International Airport, and to Gatineau over the Prince of Wales Bridge.
For McAllister, she said the city needs to make sure that sidewalks are repaired, traffic is better managed, bike lanes are safer, and also make sure public transit is meeting the needs of students throughout the year.
“I’ve also heard about the need for better snowplowing of sidewalks on the routes that lead to Carleton—so this needs to be improved as well,” she said.
Alakozai shares this sentiment. He said as mayor, snow removal would be a priority to him.
“The current system of snow removal and ice control operations must be upgraded. As your Mayor, it is my responsibility to make sure major roads, arterials, and major collectors are cleared within three hours,” he said on his website.
Carricato added he would work to lower the bus fare for students, those living on fixed income, and students with disabilities who rely on the bus to get around the city.
Access to recreational spaces
Chernushenko said while the Capital ward has no shortage of coffee shops, funky restaurants and pubs, what it needs is more public spaces on main streets where pop-up arts projects can occur.
Afolabi said expanding the LRT would be the “ideal solution” to the questions of transit access in the ward.
“Ultimately, after putting the large nodes in place within a LRT plan, it is important that planners start embracing the idea of neighbourhood stops, ensuring people can go ‘from anywhere to everywhere’ in their city,” he said.
In terms of greener spaces, McAllister said she wants to develop a Capital Ward Parks Plan to increase green space and make sure they meet the needs of all residents including young people.
“One way to do this is by including young people in building the plan and contributing to the designs,” she said. “A really good example of this is the skateboard park at McNabb Community Centre on the corner of Gladstone and Bronson—young people advocated for the space and then became involved in designing it—so it met their needs and is well used as a result.”
Carricato said he would leverage the relationship with developers to have a commercial, retail base on the main floor of apartment buildings to encourage business development in that area.
He said there’s also a lack of grocery stores that are within close proximity of Carleton and that he would work to improve that.
“You shouldn’t have to get on the bus or get in your car to go get groceries or to go out for dinner or get ice cream on a warm night . . . you should be able to walk to all of those things,” Carricato said.
For more information on municipal electoral candidates and how to vote, visit the City of Ottawa website.
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Photo by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
