Peter Hume’s two-decade-long city council career started and ended with Lansdowne Park.

When Ottawa city council wanted to demolish the Aberdeen Pavilion in 1991 because it was deemed too expensive to fix up, Alta Vista’s newly minted councillor teamed up with another rookie councillor — it was Jim Watson — to help lead the fight to save the heritage building.

More than 20 years later, Hume was part of the official opening of the 18-acre urban park at Lansdowne just last week. Of course almost anything that gets done at City Hall is a team effort, but Hume more than anyone was responsible for making the public park a reality, for pushing for an international design competition to plan the new public space, for establishing a design panel for the entire Lansdowne Park redevelopment.

There have been many ups and downs in the intervening 23 years. But even if you didn’t agree with everything Hume did — and what two-decade politician can boast universal approval? — it’s hard not to be happy for Hume that he leaves city politics on something of a high note.

Hume shocked his community and many City Hall insiders when he announced in a letter to his constituents Friday afternoon that he was retiring in order to restore some balance to his life. Even Watson said he was “surprised and really saddened” when Hume gave him a head’s-up about the news.

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• Planning chair Peter Hume stepping down

The longtime councillor hasn’t said publicly what he will do next, but in his letter Hume cited the 24/7 demands on his time as a key reason for moving on. Being a councillor is (or at least should be) an extremely demanding job, which has been made more demanding with smart phones and Twitter and other social meeting requiring constant attention.

“It was clear I had let my work dominate my life,” wrote Hume. “That lack of balance wasn’t good for me, it wasn’t good for my family, it wasn’t good for the way I interacted with my constituents.”

But Hume isn’t just a veteran councillor. For more than a decade he’s been the chair of the planning committee during one of the most tumultuous times in the city’s history as we try to embrace (and often fight) intensification. That resulted in Hume being criticized by all sides: residents, developers, the media. (I was always underwhelmed by the planning summit, a much-hyped affair that resulted in business as usual.)

As a skilled politician, though, he was able to get things done, from bringing in an organics recycling program (the environment file used to be attached to planning) to fighting the urban boundary expansion.

But nothing is ever tidy in politics. The green-bin program has been plagued by a poorly negotiated contract, while winning over enough of his council colleagues’ votes to freeze the urban boundary necessitated some backroom politics that caused much grumbling. (The city also lost an appeal to the urban boundary decision.)

No wonder Hume is exhausted.

On a personal note, I always appreciated the many hours Hume spent explaining the complexities of planning documents and legislation, not to mention the mysterious ways of the Ontario Municipal Board. Other reporters relate similar stories of Hume’s generosity in that way. And while many people didn’t agree with his decisions as the planning chair, Hume never lost his cool no matter what people were screaming at him.

It’s probably best, though, that Hume moves on. Twenty-three years is a long time in the same job. After a while, you accumulate too much political baggage — it must weigh a ton.

Hume’s departure leaves a big hole on council. The planning committee is by far the most technically challenging. Hume was well-versed in the policies, and most people expected him to remain the chair of the powerful committee. The political jockeying for his job has surely already begun.

And the sudden withdrawal from the Alta Vista race means that ward is completely up for grabs. Hume was assumed to be a shoo-in for re-election, so there are just two not-very-organized candidates currently nominated. Leaving his surprise retirement this late in the election campaign throws the local race into disarray.

But what happens in Alta Vista ward is somebody else’s problem now. And that must be a huge relief to Hume who, in retrospect, has been feeling the wearying pressure of the job for some time.

At the start of this term of council, Hume was asked by the Citizen what would be the death of him, and what he’d like on his tombstone.

“E-mail,” he replied. For his epitaph,”Peter Hume is no longer in the office and cannot respond to your e-mail.”

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/jchianello

Ottawa city council has voted to restore and slightly increase the portion of development charges that are earmarked for affordable housing.

After the introduction of the 2009 bylaw, the city phased in the collection of $189 for every single- and semi-detached home built. The charges are among those collected from developers to pay for things such as roads and transit, and the cost is usually passed on directly to consumers.

As of Oct. 1, that amount will now climb to $208.

That means the revised development charge (DC) for building single- or semi-detached homes inside the Greenbelt will be $22,173, up from $21,965, while the cost for constructing the same type of home outside the Greenbelt will be $30,362, up from $30,154.

It came down to the wire for some candidates entering the Oct. 27 municipal election race.

Nominations for mayor, city councillor and school board trustee closed at 2 p.m. Friday.

A record 124 people have registered to run for one of the 23 seats on city council, while another seven people are challenging incumbent Jim Watson for the mayor’s job.

Rebecca Pyrah and Michael St. Arnaud were the final contestants to join that race.

There are open races in six seats following the departures of councillors Rainer Bloess (Innes), Steve Desroches (Gloucester-South Nepean), Diane Holmes (Somerset), Peter Hume (Alta Vista), Maria McRae (River) and Doug Thompson (Osgoode).

Not surprising, many of those empty seat races have attracted the highest number of candidates, with 11 people registered in Somerset and Osgoode, 10 in River and nine each in Alta Vista and Innes.

The remaining 17 incumbents are all facing challengers.

Related

• Ottawa Votes: Complete election coverage

The clerk’s desk at Ottawa city hall was buzzing with activity over the lunch hour Friday, as several candidates rushed to file their papers.

Riley Brockington, a former Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustee, only secured the permission he needed to run earlier that morning. As a federal public servant, he was required to clear his candidacy first before formally entering the race.

Brockington is running in River ward, which has been held since 2003 by Maria McRae. McRae, who chaired the environment committee, announced last week that she would not seek a fourth term.

Brockington, 38, joins a crowded field, as seven others are vying to replace McRae.

He pledged to focus on community safety, see the light rail transit project through and make sure development plans are consistent with the community’s look and feel.

Another sign that election season is upon us came earlier in the day when Jim Watson planted his first sign on the lawn of philanthropist Dave Smith. Signs aren’t allowed on public property until Sept. 27.

By the numbers

124   Candidates for Ottawa city council

8   Candidates for mayor

0   Incumbents acclaimed. It looked like Allan Hubley in Kanata South would be acclaimed but Bruce Faulkner, who had been registered to run in Osgoode, switched wards on Friday.

11   Candidates registered to run in Somerset and Osgoode wards. These races have the most candidates.

1    Former city councillor seeking a comeback. Bay ward candidate Alex Cullen ran for mayor in 2010, but dropped out of that race and entered the race in his own ward, ultimately losing to Mark Taylor. He had previously been the Bay ward councillor from 2001 to 2010.

5   Candidates whose first name is either Marc or Mark. There are also candidates named Jonathan Mark and George Marko.

22   Candidates who are women. That’s two more than in 2010, but still less than 20 per cent.

Voters head to the polls on Oct. 27. For all your Citizen coverage of the municipal election, check out  ottawacitizen.com/tag/ottawa-votes

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/mpearson78

Jim Watson is a big believer in tourism.

He comes by it honestly, having spent a couple of years as the CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Still, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that tourism is a vital component of Ottawa’s economic development, and that every effort should be made to lure more visitors to our lovely capital.

That’s why it makes complete sense that, should he be re-elected mayor, Watson would boost the budget for the city team that bids for events by $600,000.

Currently, the economic development department has about $900,000 at its disposal to pursue the city’s “bid more, win more, host more” event strategy. If elected, Watson said this weekend he would boost that budget to $1.5 million, and is in discussions with other tourism-sector organizations to throw in an additional $600,000

Great idea!

But while modestly increasing the bidding budget to lure events to the capital is almost a no-brainer, Watson’s idea of naming a councillor as a “sports commissioner” is misguided at best.

Watson plans to unilaterally name a councillor as a sports commissioner. (Although his colleagues would technically have to approve the appointment, it would be highly unlikely for the new council to reject Watson’s choice of commissioner.)

This councillor-commissioner would act as an “ambassador” for the city, traversing the country to convince national and provincial sports organizations to bring their tournaments, annual general meetings and drafts to Ottawa. The councillor-commish wouldn’t get any extra pay, but would have a travel budget of about $20,000.

There are a number of issues with this idea.

The first — and most important — is that focusing on drumming up sports-tourism business for the city isn’t a councillor’s job. Watson points out that his concept for a sports commissioner would be “the only position of its kind in Canada.” Maybe there’s a reason for that.

The city’s own website outlines the role of city councillors. Nowhere does it say that a councillor should leave town to scare up sporting events for the city. The only statement that comes close to backing the idea of a sports commissioner is one that talks about councillors representing and promoting the city at “provincial, national and international events.”

As a citizen and a taxpayer, I’d prefer my councillor to be sitting through boring — but important — planning meetings rather than visiting sports organizations from Vancouver to Halifax, which sounds like a lot more fun (with apologies to the city’s planning staff).

The idea of purposely taking an elected official away from council business is particularly egregious considering we have non-elected members of the public on the transit commission, who are accountable to no one. This role-reversal of councillors doing less council work, and outsiders doing more of it, is troubling — and a trend moving in the wrong direction.

Secondly, what does a councillor know about the sports-events business? There are folks with expertise in luring events to Ottawa. Indeed, we have some city staff who are supposed to be specialists in this very thing. If someone believes they aren’t up to the task, we should find someone new.

Watson believes that a councillor-commissioner “adds a little bit of clout” to a bid. That’s hard to imagine. There are a number of ways council can make it clear it supports a certain event — letters, phone calls, motions. And if the city is bidding on something really big — say, an NHL outdoor hockey game — then by all means send the mayor to talk up our town. It’s likely event organizers would want to hear directly from the head honcho, not his lackey.

Third, and least important, is that naming a single councillor to this special position could cause a fair amount of discontent on council. Already the talk is that the sports commissioner would be Mathieu Fleury, if he’s re-elected to represent Rideau-Vanier. Why him? Because he’s good at sports? Watson said it was “premature” to speculate on who the commissioner might be, but whomever he chooses, it’s sure to cause some bad feelings around the council horseshoe.

And that’s too bad. Because most of Watson’s platform is well thought out — he’s even thinking about post-2017 tourism. But all anyone will be talking about is the ill-considered post of sports commissioner.

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/jchianello

Council voted Wednesday to spend $38,500 from the city’s “unforeseen account” to temporarily fund 11 adult crossing guards at school locations across Ottawa.

School boards identified 12 locations where crossing guards were warranted for the start of the 2014-2015 academic year, but the public works department — in which crossing guards are included — only had enough money to fund one position because of the deficit in its snow-removal budget.

Instead, council will fund the remaining 11 crossing guards from the emergency fund until the end of the year. The next term of council will have to find more permanent funding for the positions in the 2015 budget.

The 11 schools that will receive crossing guards are A. Lorne Cassidy School, E.E.P. Maurice-Lapointe, St. Clare School, Reine des Bois/La Source, Featherstone Drive P.S., Lakeview P.S., W. Erskine Johnston P.S., St. Brigid C.S./Rockcliffe P.S., Canadian Montessori Academy/Meadlowlands P.S., Charles Hulse P.S., and Elmdale P.S./Hilson P.S.

Ottawa city council has approved the rezoning of Chaudière and Albert islands, as proposed by Windmill Developments, for a much-anticipated mixed-use project on the old Domtar lands.

Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes told council Wednesday she always hoped the federal government would take back the former industrial lands, but that never happened. Instead, the government sold the property.

Holmes called the land “unceded Algonquin Territory” and referred to the late Algonquin Chief William Commanda’s vision for the land.

“We are victims of the federal government not being interested in native peoples in this country,” she said.

Holmes called Windmill’s plan “a green vision,” but said it will not meet “the hope and dreams of the native peoples.”

The developer has said it is engaging with the Algonquins of Ontario about how to recognize the Algonquins’ heritage.

After a technical amendment, the Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendments were approved, with Holmes dissenting.

Making workplace mental health a priority

Councillors were quick to back Maria McRae’s motion to make improving workplace mental health at the City of Ottawa a priority for the next term of council.

A key part of the motion, passed unanimously, says all members of council want to “reduce the stigma related to mental illness in the workplace and create a work environment where those living with mental illness feel comfortable and supported when seeking help.”

McRae, who is not seeking re-election, said she has been “stunned” by the amount of feedback she has received from city staff and the public since going public with her plan.

Council cancels Somerset House encroachment fee waiver

Council showed no mercy toward the owner of a historic Centretown building that has been left undeveloped for years.

After twice agreeing to suspend $43,000 worth of encroachment fees at the property at the corner of Bank and Somerset streets in anticipation of work proceeding, nothing has been done, despite promises from TKS Holdings Inc. that reconstruction efforts are imminent.

It’s been seven years this month since Somerset House partially collapsed, and two years since the courts awarded the city $543,000 for emergency-related expenses and legal costs after a messy legal battle between the city and TKS owner Tony Shahrasebi. But after council approved to waive the fees a couple of years ago, it appeared the 1896 red-brick building at the corner of Bank and Somerset streets would eventually be restored to its former glory.

That hasn’t happened, and, as Holmes said, “the time really has come” to withdraw the encroachment fee waiver.

Getting the go-ahead in the Glebe

A two-storey retail development at the corner of Bank Street and Fifth Avenue was approved, despite concerns about the building not adding any parking to the area.

The zoning bylaw amendment, which was recommended by city planners, was pushed back for several weeks because Capital Coun. David Chernushenko was trying to work out an agreement between the community and Canderel, the developer of the property at 852 Bank St.

An agreement wasn’t reached, so the planning committee recommended to council to approve the application.

The redevelopment would be a “clear improvement in urban design” and providing 40-60 parking spaces now required would be “impractical,” city planners said in a report.

Vimy Memorial Bridge gets council’s stamp of approval

The Strandherd-Armstrong bridge will officially be renamed Vimy Memorial Bridge.

Not long after the $48-million span over the Rideau River opened in July, two local Legion branches jointly suggested calling it Vimy Bridge, in honour of the epic First World War battle.

Based on comments received during a 30-day public consultation, the city’s commemorative naming committee recommended the name Vimy Memorial Bridge, which council endorsed unanimously.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/mpearson78

The votes have been cast and the victory speeches given. So, now what?

A truce in the sign war

Candidates and their weary campaign volunteers are fanning out across the city to start collecting campaign signs.

They have 48 hours to pick them all up.

Officially official

The city’s website began posting unofficial results soon after polls closed Monday at 8 p.m., and it is upon this information that media outlets, including the Citizen, based their election-night coverage.

But the city clerk is not expected to declare the results official until Thursday.

During the interim period, an external auditor hired by the city will review and assess the systems and procedures used by the city’s elections office to ensure the voting system’s confidentiality and integrity.

The city says the audit guarantees that all votes cast, including those cast during the special and traditional advance voting days, were accurately summarized and reported. Once the external auditor provides a final report, the city clerk will declare the results as official.

First day of work

The new council will be sworn in on Dec. 1.

That means councillors-elect are not technically office holders until then and aren’t allowed to conduct casework on behalf of a resident until the current term of council is completed.

Last day of work

Departing councillors, who remain in office until Nov. 30, are eligible for what’s called “Transition Assistance Allowance.”

The allowance is equivalent to one month’s pay for each consecutive year served on Ottawa city council, to a maximum of six months. That means defeated councillors Peter Clark (Rideau-Rockcliffe) and Katherine Hobbs (Kitchissippi) will both get four month’s pay because they have each served one term. The pair are also entitled to a three-month career transition program paid for by the city.

Bootcamp for the beginners

The clerk’s office is organizing a series of orientation sessions for the eight rookie councillors.

The sessions will touch on a range of subjects, from a city councillor’s role, to meeting procedures, to city planning, budgets and the Freedom of Information Act. The rookies also need to do many typical new-job things, such as getting security badges and meeting with the HR department.

City staff will also prepare for the changeover, setting up equipment, arranging new locks and keys, and updating the city’s website with bios for the new council members.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/mpearson78

THE EXIT INTERVIEWS

When Ottawa’s city council next sits, eight familiar faces will be missing. The Citizen sat down with some of the departing councillors — some who chose not to run in the recent election and others who were defeated — to ask them what their time in office meant to them.

After nearly a quarter century in municipal politics, Ottawa city councillor Peter Clark won’t be returning to Ottawa’s council chambers.

Clark spent three terms as the mayor of Cumberland in the 1980s and two terms as chair of the former Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in the 1990s. He was elected as councillor for the Rideau-Rockcliffe ward in 2010.

The Citizen asked for his thoughts as he departs.

Q What is your proudest moment as councillor?

A We had a couple of things we did. We recommended realignment of the LRT, which saved a mountain of money and allowed it to come in on time and on budget, and we moved for the 2010 year-end adjustments a million dollars a year into the environmental resource fund, which helped us fight the emerald ash borer. Those are the things that I particularly look back on with happiness.

Q What project in your ward are you leaving unfinished?

A Frankly, the road traffic, the safe streets stuff, that takes a long time. We’ve managed to put the bike lanes in along Hemlock, which reduced traffic speeds by 10 per cent. We also have to figure out what to do with St. Laurent between Montreal Road and Hemlock. They are unfinished but they’re at various stages of started.

Q What advice would you give to a rookie councillor?

A Don’t call me the day after election and suggest you are going to come and burrow into the files because the privacy laws restrict that. I remember my first two years as a regional councillor, which would be much the same as this, and I didn’t go in there thinking I actually ran the world and it worked out well in the long run.

Q What’s next for you?

A I still take my grandkids to breakfast on Sunday mornings, and I try to attend as many minor hockey games as a) our schedule allows, and b) that I’m available for. And I play bridge. It’s an open secret. I probably won’t have the same six hours in front of the emails on a daily basis that I’ve been doing for the last four years.

City councillors who’ve moaned for years that they’re helpless to control controversial development projects could soon get all the power they’ve said they wanted.

A private member’s bill from rookie Liberal MPP Peter Milczyn would sharply limit the authority of the Ontario Municipal Board, a provincial tribunal that can overrule city councils’ planning decisions. More rezonings than I can count have rolled through Ottawa city council with politicians saying they don’t like them, but the OMB will just approve them anyway.

Not anymore, if Milczyn gets his way.

His bill isn’t government legislation, whose success would be almost certain, but it’s been moved through Queen’s Park so far with votes from both Liberals and New Democrats. It passed its last vote 34-7.

It’s shot through with the idea that urban planning is significantly a matter of philosophy, and therefore the domain of representative politicians — not a science only for credentialed experts.

Milczyn, an architect, is a new MPP but he was in Toronto city politics on and off for 20 years. His last gig as a city councillor was chairing Toronto’s planning committee. He knows this stuff as well as anybody.

“These reforms would allow development to continue apace,” Milczyn said in the legislature, explaining the bill. “They would ensure, however, that those who are elected in their local councils, when they stand up, pass a bylaw and tell their residents that the process that they participated in to establish a bylaw or an official plan or a secondary plan —that it has some meaning, that zoning bylaws don’t simply become zoning guidelines and official plans don’t simply become something that can be amended on a daily basis.”

To start with, the bill would make it impossible to appeal cities’ own decisions about their official land-use plans for five years after they come into effect. That’s a big, big deal.

Ottawa, obeying provincial law, revises its official plan every five years already. It’s a gruesome process, involving very major decisions about what neighbourhoods should grow and which ones shouldn’t and — a big-money question for developers — which green fields on the edges of town should be opened for new subdivisions. Landowners always appeal.

Last time, the city was already working on the new version before it got a final OMB ruling on the one from years earlier. The OMB threw out a city council effort to rein in suburban sprawl, resulting in 1,100 hectares (or nearly 70 Lansdowne Parks) being opened for development against city council’s wishes.

On individual projects, the OMB would still have a place but it’d be much more restricted. The law currently says the board must “have regard to” city council decisions. Milczyn’s changes would require most important OMB rulings to “be consistent with” what city councils have said. Much more deferential.

The third big thing the bill would do is give cities the power to require developers to include “affordable” units in buildings that need significant rezonings. It would cost developers money, so we could expect a lot of brinkmanship over whether imposing such a demand would screw up the economics of a particular proposal so badly it wouldn’t be worth doing. Councillors couldn’t push too hard. But it would give toothless targets — Ottawa has one for 25 per cent affordable housing in new developments, which we’ve never met — some bite.

The Tories voted against the Milczyn bill because, as their municipal affairs critic Ernie Hardeman said, much of it “eliminates the ability of having a real appeal” for city council decisions. There is a real division that has to be acknowledged, between larger cities with full-time city councillors and planning departments, and smaller towns with less professional organizations.

Arthur Potts is a Liberal who voted for the bill. He represents Beaches-East York in Toronto, about as urban a riding as you’ll find. He addressed Hardeman, who represents Oxford — a rural riding west of Brantford centred on Woodstock.

“I get the sense that your residents’ associations want to use the OMB to protect against bad decision-making at a local level, where our residents’ associations don’t want the OMB to protect developers from good decision-making in our municipalities,” Potts told him.

But, he said, the important thing is to force decision-making into the hands of local politicians, not an unelected board.

Exactly. Into the hands of people who have to answer for their decisions to voters.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely

If there’s one thing you should take away from city council’s freshly tabled — and scintillatingly named — governance report, it’s this: The position of deputy mayor is not a real thing.

And it’s important to remember that over the next four years, because the way Mayor Jim Watson is treating these ceremonial positions, it might be easy to forget that the deputy mayor has no actual power.

Among the 126 pages that comprise the main portion of the “council governance review report” is a recommendation by Watson that the city’s two deputy mayors automatically be appointed to council’s powerful finance and economic development committee. Most of the committee’s other members are chairs of standing committees, such as planning and transit — people who do real work. Deputy mayors? Not so much.

A deputy mayor steps in for the head honcho when he’s not around, most importantly to sign documents that need immediate approval, but also to cut the occasional ribbon. In pre-Watson days, the necessary but hardly influential role was rotated among willing councillors.

When Watson was sworn in four years ago, he proposed to change the deputy mayor role from a rotating one to a permanent position that not just one, but two councillors would hold over the entire term. Even Toronto, with its mammoth 45-member council, has just one deputy mayor.

Related

• Watson to talk light rail route with Baird

Being deputy mayor to Watson isn’t a particularly exciting job. It entails going to events and ceremonies that Watson can’t — or isn’t inclined to — attend, while allowing him to accept ever more invitations from the public. No wonder many councillors didn’t want it last time around, but Watson convinced councillors Eli El-Chantiry and Steve Desroches to take it on.

Desroches embraced the role and soon added “Office of the Deputy Mayor” to his signature. (El-Chantiry was a bit more low key.) But there is no office of the deputy mayor, at least not in Ottawa. In some small Ontario municipalities residents elect a deputy mayor — South Huron, Kingsville, Township of Tiny (yes, a real place) — but not in Ottawa, or any other large city.

Deputy mayors in Ottawa have no mandate from the people — theirs are largely ceremonial positions filled at the discretion of the mayor. Because they are appointed by Watson (although officially they must be approved by a vote of council), they will in all likelihood be strong supporters.

And is acting as deputy mayor really the best use of councillors’ time?

Managing the ceremonial duties of the deputy mayors is so onerous that the governance report is recommending that an employee be assigned to them part-time, while the audit committee — which is being promoted to a full-fledged standing committee to undertake valuable studies — is getting no additional administrative support, as other standing committees do.

Would residents not be better served by these elected officials working more on ward files and poring over committee reports? The same can be said of the newly created sports commissioner job, another specious position with a big title and little meaning that Watson gets to appoint.

Little by little, Watson continues to consolidate his influence around the council table. Those deputy mayors are two more votes on the committee — and council — the mayor won’t have to worry about. Same thing goes for the sports commissioner.

For a more administrative example of Watson’s growing power at city hall, look no further than Page 116 of the governance report at the recommendation that the mayor be giving sole authority to conduct performance reviews, “authorize salary adjustments” and approve vacation and sick leave for the city manager and auditor general.

Now to be fair, council would still have the sole authority over hiring and firing either the city manager or the auditor, but granting this new power is a dangerous precedent. Watson might not abuse it, but future mayors could use the authority to make some official’s life very difficult.

The new council, which takes power Monday, can either approve or reject these recommendations at the special council meeting next Wednesday. It’ll be interesting to see how much influence the mayor has over it in its first two days in office.

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/jchianello

The governance review — a weighty tome that looks back on the past term of Ottawa Council and also casts forward to the next four years — was tabled Wednesday at the final meeting of the 2010-2014 council.

Here are some highlights from the 289-page report, which the new council will discuss and vote on next Wednesday:

Sparks Street under the microscope

City staff are to conduct a “detailed governance review” of the Sparks Street Business Improvement Area and the Sparks Street Mall Authority Board of Management, and report back to the finance committee by next summer. Confusion about the two organizations’ mandates, the sudden departure of the BIA’s executive director and the removal of a city-owned piece of public art from the pedestrian mall could be among the reasons why the city wants to take a closer look at Sparks.

Bylaw redraw?

The city wants to review its bylaws and regulations within the next term of council, and will ask staff to summarize all major bylaws — including the dates they were enacted and last reviewed and related enforcement statistics — by the end of next year. The bylaw that oversees the city’s taxi industry, which was been under intense pressure since the arrival of ride-sharing company Uber, is a bylaw that is surely up for discussion.

Fewer committee meetings

The transit commission held an average of 15 meetings a year between 2010 and 2014 (with one cancellation). But the report says the commission’s workload in the future can be accomplished in eight meetings a year, on the understanding that special meetings can be called when necessary. Same goes for the community and protective services committee (which met an average of 10 times a year, with one cancellation) and the environment committee (an average of nine times a year, with three cancellations). We’ll see what the public thinks of that.

Confederation Line regulator

The report calls for the establishment of the Office of the Regulator for the Confederation Line. This person would report to council directly, much like the auditor general or integrity commissioner, and oversee the regulation of safety and security of Ottawa’s new light rail transit system. A working group, in consultation with city manager Kent Kirkpatrick and other senior officials, are to develop the bylaws needed to establish the position and duties of the regulator, and report back to the transit commission early next year.

No more ARAC road show

Since amalgamation, the agriculture and rural affairs committee (ARAC) has held some of its meetings in rural wards. But the city may scrap this practice because it’s difficult to find appropriate space for large meetings within city-owned facilities in the rural area without displacing community groups. Some rural residents have also complained about having to travel great distances to attend meetings in other far-flung parts of the city.

Audit committee steps into the spotlight

The audit subcommittee was just a twinkle in the eye of the 2010 governance review, but this time around, Mayor Jim Watson is recommending that it become a full standing committee of council rather than a subcommittee. If approved, the committee would meet between four and six times a year and bring even more attention to how the city spends its money.

Heritage subcommittee’s mandate to grow

Established in 2012, the built heritage subcommittee was seen as a success this term, but outgoing members are recommending that its mandate expand to include more than simply matters relating to two parts of the Ontario Heritage Act. Instead, the report says the committee should be able to comment on any planning applications that involve a heritage overlay, which is an additional layer of zoning regulations imposed “over” an area to encourage the retention of existing heritage buildings.

Code of Conduct changes, part 1

The spending guidelines — which currently say councillors can’t buy goods or services from a family member — will be beefed up to say they can’t purchase goods or services from family members of their staff, either.

Code of Conduct changes, part 2

The minimum threshold for disclosing all gifts, benefits and hospitality received from one source in a calendar year has jumped to $150 from $30.

Taking no credit

A ward councillor’s name won’t be allowed on any signage for traffic control measures, whether funded from the councillor’s office budget or a departmental budget.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/mpearson78

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• Saying goodbye: Ottawa councillors bid farewell to city hall

Eight councillors — who together have served for a total of 137 years on municipal and regional governments — bid farewell Wednesday at a laughter-and-tear-filled meeting at Ottawa City Hall.

In speeches short and long, they thanked their families, assistants, city officials and residents for help and support along the way. Each was also presented with a framed picture of a city landmark that is meaningful to them personally.

Here are their parting gifts — and some of their parting words.

Rainer Bloess, Innes

Elected to Gloucester council in 1994; elected to Ottawa city council in 2000

Rainer Bloess: Petrie Island

“I look at the future for this city and I think it’s a solid future . . . our forefathers put together a foundation that we’ve been building on. LRT is one of those building blocks, Lansdowne is a building block, what we’re doing to the river, those are all building blocks.”

Peter Clark, Rideau-Rockcliffe

Elected mayor of the Township of Cumberland (1980-1989) and chair of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (1991-1997); elected to Ottawa city council in 2010

Peter Clark: Stanley Park

“This council deserves a lot of congratulations for the work it accomplished and for the way it got accomplished. A lot of people say there wasn’t enough fire and brimstone during meetings. Frankly, that’s not necessarily the way you get things done.”

Steve Desroches, Gloucester-South Nepean

Elected in 2006

Steve Desroches: Vimy Memorial Bridge

“I’ve always stood tall for my community. We all can’t live in the Greenbelt. We need to continue to serve the infrastructure needs of these existing communities and we shouldn’t malign it and call it ‘sprawl.’ I do not live in sprawl. I live in a very healthy, vibrant, dynamic community that is going to need the city’s support.”

Katherine Hobbs, Kitchissippi

Elected in 2010

Katherine Hobbs: Winston Park, Richmond Road

“This four years has been an incredible opportunity and adventure, and allowed me the opportunity to make a mark on the city, and I’m very proud of that.”

Diane Holmes, Somerset

Elected to Wellington ward in 1982 and to the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (1994-2000); elected to Ottawa city council in 2003

Diane Holmes: Corktown Bridge, Rideau Canal

“It has been a wonderful 30 years . . . I couldn’t have done it without my staff, who are wonderful and who have supported me. You certainly can’t do this work without a great office staff.”

Peter Hume, Alta Vista

Elected in 1991 to former Ottawa city council and to the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (1994-2000); elected to Ottawa city council in 2000

Peter Hume: Aberdeen Pavilion, Lansdowne

“This job never lets you get away. You’re trying to get off a cruise ship and get to a beach and (members of the legal department are) saying, ‘You’ve got to get to some Wi-Fi because we need your input.’ Well, your wife goes to the beach and you go off to find some Wi-Fi so that you can keep connected, and they don’t get angry, they’re just supportive because they know that’s what you want to do.”

Maria McRae, River

Elected in 2003

Maria McRae: Pedestrian bridge, Airport parkway

“A little bit of advice to the incoming councillors: Remember how you got here, that the residents put you here . . . they’re your bosses. When they call, you listen; when they invite you to come to a meeting, you go. That’s the No. 1 job.”

Doug Thompson

Elected councillor for the Township of Osgoode (1982-1997) and mayor (1997-2000); elected to Ottawa city council in 2000

Doug Thompson: Osgoode Link Pathway, Mitch Owens road

“My decision to retire after 31 years was probably one of the most difficult decisions I had to make, yet I know that the time is right . . . I will forever be indebted to all of those who have shown their support to me in these last few months, which have been a bit difficult for me to pull the plug and move away because I’ve enjoyed this work so much.”

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Fewer committee meetings. Cancellation of travelling public sessions on rural issues. A potential increase in secret gifts to elected officials.

These are all recommendations our freshly sworn-in council plans to consider at its inaugural meeting Wednesday, and they are all measures that could decrease the accountability and transparency of our municipal government.

The first order of business for any new Ottawa council is to discuss a governance review, or the way council operates. Nothing could sound drier, and indeed, the bulk of the 126-page report (plus 163 pages of appendices) can be considered housekeeping. So it’s easy to dismiss the review as workaday council business. But there are a number of concerning items — not necessarily related — that require more scrutiny.

Let’s start with committee meetings.

There is apparently so little for our community and protective services (CPS), transit, and environment committees to do that council is considering that they meet just eight times a year. Together, these three committees oversee $1.25 billion in operating expenses, with hundreds of millions of dollars more in capital expenditures. While the environment has slightly less to cover than other committees, especially as it passes multi-year budgets setting water and sewer rates, transit and CPS oversee significant municipal services, from the operation of OC Transpo to fire fighting and paramedic duties, social services, child care and housing.

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It’s hard to imagine why there should be less work for these committees in the next four years than there was in the previous term or why fewer issues should arise that require councillors’ attention. You’d think that transit, in particular, would have its hands full considering the bus schemozzle we can expect as the LRT nears completion. And yet, transit will meet only eight times a year, instead of the 15 it averaged per year in the previous term.

Reducing the number of meetings also means there are fewer opportunities for members of the public to formally address their elected officials. As Mayor Jim Watson likes to say, the “heavy lifting” of council work is done at the committee level, but with only eight of those planned for three key committees, there won’t be many opportunities for the public to participate in that heavy lifting.

Less formal access to councillors is also a concern for another recommendation: ending the travelling Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC). Since amalgamation, the city has held some of its meetings in the rural wards in the evenings. One problem, however, is that depending on where in our vast rural area the meeting is held, it could take some residents from one side of town longer to attend a meeting in the community than one at City Hall.

That’s a valid concern, but the travelling ARAC meeting served two valuable purposes; it was a sign of goodwill to rural residents who can sometimes feel marginalized in our huge amalgamated city, and it took place in the evening so working folks could actually attend.

Councillors shouldn’t be looking for ways to keep members of the public away but opportunities to bring them into the decision-making process. To that end, councillors should demand that at least some committee meetings — all committees, not just ARAC — be held in the evenings. Sure, nighttime meetings will be a hassle to staff, but holding them outside of business hours will make them more accessible to more people. It’s difficult to hold our politicians to account if we have so few chances to see them in action.

Another challenge to accountability is a lack of transparency. And proposed changes to the gift registry will do nothing but reduce the transparency of councillors’ actions.

When councillors approved a gift registry for elected officials last year, they agreed to set the disclosure limit at $30. They could still accept gifts of a higher value, they’d just have to disclose them on a public registry once a quarter.

Suddenly, councillors are clamouring that the disclosure threshold of $30 is too low because it captures many token gifts that our elected officials receive as part of doing their jobs. So what? It takes minutes to register a gift, so it hardly seems like a major burden on councillors’ staff. In fact, most councillors didn’t disclose any gifts so far this year. (Coun. Rick Chiarelli had four if you count events, which is actually a different policy. One of Chiarelli’s gifts was a $50 Chapters card for speaking to men’s group from a church in his own community. According to the registry, it was not donated.)

Perhaps the small number of gifts registered in the first half of 2014 stems from the fact that councillors simply didn’t receive anything. Or perhaps councillors refused items they weren’t comfortable having made public. Either way, the gift registry appears to be working the way it’s supposed to, so why change it?

If the recommendation is approved, a councillor could theoretically accept an expensive dinner or a day at the golf course — anything worth up to $150 — and never have to tell a soul. That’s not the goal of the gift registry.

So fewer opportunities to engage with councillors, and less insight on what they’re taking as gifts. This doesn’t sound like better governance.

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/jchianello

An amazing thing happened Wednesday at this term’s first city council meeting.

Councillors discussed, debated and disagreed on the specifics of a 289-page governance review for more than two-and-a-half hours. And yet the sky didn’t fall, there was no sign of dysfunction, and council seemed actually more productive than ever. There were even a few compromise motions passed, with a welcome absence of grandstanding. Could this be the dawn of a new era around the council horseshoe?

It’s the earliest of days yet, but the tone at council is already different than four years ago. More than half the newbies — councillors Catherine McKenney, Jeff Leiper, Tobi Nussbaum, Riley Brockington and Jean Cloutier — appeared well-versed in the contents of the governance tome and brought intelligent questions and well-considered improvements.

They didn’t showboat, but they weren’t afraid to disagree with Mayor Jim Watson’s stated preferences, either. It all seemed very grown up.

Leiper, for example, moved a motion to punt an item on budget procedure to next week’s council meeting when the budget process is to be hashed out more fully. The new Kitchissippi councillor — along with many others — is worried about the inflexibility of the budget practice, in particular the seeming inability to make any significant changes to the document once the draft is released.

But after numerous assurances from Watson and senior city staff that money actually can be moved among departmental envelopes at the final budget meeting, Leiper withdrew his motion. Reasonable.

As was Nussbaum’s so-called Goldilocks compromise motion on changes to the gift-registry disclosure threshold. In the year or so that the gift registry rules have been in place, councillors had to register any gift worth more than $30. Some councillors argued that the supposedly low threshold was capturing trinket-type thank you gifts that the registry was never mean to address. The staff recommendation was to raise the disclosure level to $150.

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The brand-new Rideau-Rockcliffe councillor wasn’t in favour of raising the disclosure level, but after talking with his colleagues and listening to the discussion around the table, wasn’t convinced there were enough votes to support keeping the threshold at $30. So he moved to make the disclosure level $100, which passed 15 to 9.

That doesn’t mean that $100 gift-disclosure level is the perfect solution, although it is tied with the City of Hamilton’s as the lowest threshold in the province. (The best option would be new River ward Coun. Riley Brockington’s suggestion that public officials disclose all gifts.) But the entire debate and vote around the gift disclosure issue showed both a willingness to thrash out an item, and to come to some sort of compromise.

Cloutier expressed concern — partly in French — that the original plan for the mayor to be the only person to conduct performance reviews of the city manager could have the “perception of undue influence.” Instead, council approved a policy where the mayor will be joined by the two deputy mayors in conducting the review. Sure, the deputy mayors are appointees of the mayor, so it’s valid to question the deputies’ complete independence in this matter. But it’s still an improvement over giving this authority to a single person.

Coun. Keith Egli also improved the performance review process by moving that councillors conduct a “360 review” for the city manager and the auditor general, which entails councillors’ filling out detailed surveys of how the senior managers performed. It’s a technique used in other city agencies and is an efficient way for more people to contribute to a performance review, even if they aren’t part of the official process.

Indeed, Egli was one of several returning councillors who seems rejuvenated by this more engaged council.

Perhaps the most impressive was Coun. Diane Deans who, together with McKenney, moved to hold off on the recommendation to reduce to eight the annual number of the transit, community and protective services, and environment committees meetings. Instead, Deans and McKenney argued that each of the three committees should consider the item at the first of their respective meetings so that the public would have a chance to weigh in. Their motion passed.

Wednesday’s meeting didn’t touch on any dramatic or flashy city issues. It was about governance, which is fairly dry, procedural stuff. But if you care about the outcome, you care about the process. And the fact that most of council took the time to examine the report seriously bodes well for the next four years.

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/jchianello

Hours after his first city council meeting, rookie Innes Coun. Jody Mitic held a small fundraiser Wednesday night to “help pay off some of the campaign bills.”

Mitic says he is several thousand dollars in debt after the Oct. 27 election.

He said Thursday that he didn’t know exactly how much money was raised at the word-of-mouth gathering at the Heart and Crown in the ByWard Market, which drew about 20 people at its peak but said it was “close to what I need.”

“I didn’t realize how much money it would cost,” he said of the campaign, adding he incurred some personal debt along the way.

Mitic, a retired Canadian Forces sniper who lost both legs in an IED blast in Afghanistan, defeated eight other candidates to succeed longtime councillor Rainer Bloess.

In addition to friends of friends, fellow east-end councillors and former military colleagues who have also moved on to other fields, Mitic said, there were some developers at the gathering (he didn’t know all of the attendees personally).

But he said he’s not concerned that people will now expect favours from him.

“I’m not going to feel like I owe anybody just because they donated to me,” he said. “Corporations and businesses are members of the community and I don’t want to exclude anyone from feeling like they can get involved. We’re not talking millions of dollars here.”

The maximum allowable donation to an individual is $750.

All contributions made before the end of the year will be included in the campaign finance reports, to be released in March 2015. But the date when the contribution was made won’t be included, so people won’t know if the donation came in before or after election day.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/mpearson78

Ottawa City Council has decided to increase their gift disclosure threshold, from $30 to $100.
The Citizen’s city affairs columnist Joanne Chianello says it just doesn’t make sense, given that the number of gifts they’re already disclosing is going down.

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Only in a process-obsessed town like Ottawa would people be interested in the disappearance of detailed minutes at council minutes.

But according to Coun. Keith Egli, at least some of us are wondering if there’s any way we can bring back the long-form, written minutes that were cancelled back in 2011 when the city moved to audio and video recordings. The city still writes and posts minutes — they are the official records of meetings, after all — but they record councillors’ “actions”, such as votes, as opposed to a précis of discussions and debates that occurred at meetings like the old-style minutes used to do.

Many miss those former, detailed minutes. They were easy to follow, easy to find and searchable by text (enter a name, a key word and voila!). It’s true that the majority of those calling for the long-form minutes’ return are community associations and the media — but these are also the groups who are delving into municipal issues on behalf of other citizens. And, says Egli, he also heard about the issue at the doorstep during the campaign.

“I’m not saying they raised it with same amount of fervour as garbage collection, but it came up on enough occasions — unprompted by me — that I put it in the back of my head to look into it if I was re-elected,” says the Knoxdale-Merivale councillor.

At the end of this week’s council meeting, Egli formally looked into it. He registered an inquiry about what it would cost to reinstate the minutes, a more responsible measure than simply moving a motion to bring them back because, as Egli himself points out, “you can’t just add services without a funding source.”

Mayor Jim Watson couldn’t agree more. Indeed, when he was asked about the possible return of long-form minutes after the council’s formal inauguration at the start of this week, he told reporters that “there’s a cost to that of about $250,000. I like the searchable audio clips. It seems to work well and we have minutes that deal with decisions.”

He has a point. Usually there’s audio of each committee meeting and a video clip of council meetings. And a quick check with the clerk’s office — which is in charge of, among other things, council procedure — confirmed Watson’s estimate of the cost of providing detailed minutes at most meetings. It would take an additional 2.5 full-time employees, plus costs for translating.

Watson, who says he didn’t find the minutes to be a pressing issue on the campaign trail, adds that other municipalities are moving toward the system Ottawa has of relying more on broadcast records and skimpier official minutes. Plus, he likes the audio and video because “of exactly what was said, and the tone.”

At least in theory.

But for the council meetings of both Nov. 26 and Nov. 27, 2013, the video is “not available.” What was discussed at those meetings? At the first, councillors voted on a few minor matters such as the new official plan and the transportation master plan, which included a little thing we know as Phase 2 of LRT. And at the second meeting, council passed the 2014 budget. Who said what? We don’t know.

To be fair, there were never detailed minutes of council meetings. But certainly there’s an argument to be made for providing them.

Even more recently, the audio recording for this term’s last planning committee meeting doesn’t appear to have worked properly. Among other contentious items was the approval to the 2014 zoning review, a months-long effort to line up zoning guidelines with the city’s new official plan. About 18 people signed up to speak on the subject. Again, we have no real record of what they said or how councillors responded.

Having broadcast recordings of committee and council meetings is, as Watson puts it, a “modern” step forward. But technology is fallible. Would it really be transparency overkill to have a combination of both recordings and written records?

Yes, bringing back some form of detailed minutes will cost more. Increasing democracy always does. (Hansard wasn’t cancelled after they started allowing government proceedings to be broadcast.) Who said what, and when, is a concept that’s fairly key to keeping councillors accountable. Having a more complete documentation of our elected officials’ discussions and debates may just be worth the price.

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/jchianello

Ottawa city council has rejected a planning committee recommendation that could, at least in the short term, spare a Vanier street from a proposed infill development that some residents don’t like.

Lindenlea Apartments Inc. wants to tear down two homes at 67 and 71 Marquette Ave., and replace them with a 20-unit apartment building with underground parking.

But to do that, the builder needed a zoning amendment to permit a dramatic increase in the number of units from four to 20, reduce setbacks to accommodate the parking area — which is partially above grade, and reduce the width of the driveway and number of visitor parking spaces required.

The initial application was for 22 units, included no visitor parking and had the entrance on the side of the building (the current application relocates that entrance to the front).

City planners said the project, as modified, was consistent with the official plan, and also noted the height proposed is 10.6 metres, which is less than the maximum of 11 metres allowed by the current zoning.

The planning committee narrowly approved the plan at its Nov. 25 meeting, but it was defeated Wednesday by a 14-10 council vote.

Adverse impacts due to parking and an inappropriate amount of intensity are the official reasons the council gave for its decision, which, if appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, could cost the city up to $30,000, according to city staff.

Mayor Jim Watson and a pair of councillors who approved the project when it was debated at committee, Jan Harder and Stephen Blais, were among those who voted in favour of the proposal.

Coun. Mathieu Fleury, in whose Rideau-Vanier ward the proposed development would be located, led the charge against it, winning the support of five rookie councillors.

The owner of the property, Mistahi Courkill, said he will be taking some time to digest council’s decision before deciding on his next move.

“We’ll go back and discuss what we’re going to do,” he said.

Courkill said he’s been working with Fleury’s office on the project for more than a year and has already shown good faith by reducing the proposed number of units.

The building would have had a mix of unit types — two-bedroom, one-bedroom plus den, one-bedroom and bachelor — that would range in size from 400 to 850 square feet.

Courkill says he bought the two houses with the intention of building something new and “now we’re being blocked.”

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/mpearson78

Ottawa city council is pumping an additional $2 million into a special reserve fund for winter maintenance cost overruns.

And because the annual snow-clearing budget has been blown year after year, councillors also called on city officials to review winter operations, which have already run up an $11 million deficit this year. Last year’s deficit was $15 million.

Council approved the measure Wednesday during a three-hour meeting during which they passed the 2015 budget in a unanimous vote. There were no major revisions to the $3.073 billion spending plan presented by staff last month.

The brutal 2015 winter had crews and equipment out on city streets and sidewalks on 33 days in January and February — basically, every other day, said city treasurer Marian Simulik.

Extreme cold required crews to use more salt and grit on streets and sidewalks, she said.

Luc Gagné, manager of roads services with Ottawa’s Public Works Department, briefed members of the media on the city’s winter storm tactics at a demonstration at the Conroy Yard last Dec. 9.

Public works general manager Kevin Wylie is reviewing service standards and will report back on the degree to which such standards are being met or exceeded “with an idea towards reducing the overall expenditures to try to bring it in line with the budget,” Simulik told reporters after the meeting.

It’s too late to apply his findings this year, but they could be applied next year and might uncover whether there is an issue with the department’s base funding, she said.

With the additional $2 million — which came from additional tax revenues related to growth — the reserve now stands at $4.1 million.

The roads service branch has a $96-million budget this year, which includes winter operations. Spending at the end of February 2015 had already totalled $37.4 million, which is $11 million ahead of where it is expected to be, Simulik said.

During the meeting, councillors also approved a motion that would allow them to use cash-in-lieu of parkland funds for bridge financing to advance otherwise eligible projects slated for later in this term of council. Essentially, a councillor could use cash-in-lieu dollars to accelerate work in a neighbourhood park and be reimbursed down the road, in the year the park renewal was initially scheduled.

In keeping with a pledge Mayor Jim Watson made during last fall’s municipal election campaign, the residential tax-rate increase for both urban and rural homeowners will be kept to two per cent; the commercial rate increase will be 1.37 per cent.

The 2015 budget caps the water and sewer rate increase at six per cent, which translates into an extra $48 per year for each household. The household fee for garbage will remain unchanged at $82 this year.

The city will end a four-year freeze on increases to its recreation fees, recommending a two-per-cent increase this year. The move will generate roughly $400,000 more per year once the increased fees are fully implemented.

OC Transpo fares will increase by an average of 2.5 per cent.

The passage of the budget also commits the city to spending $400,000 on a new exit strategy for gang members.

The money won’t translate into more officers on the street, but Ottawa police say it could help fill a gap.

Crime Prevention Ottawa has been working on pulling together resources and partners, such as police and the John Howard Society, and will roll out a plan that the public can see soon, said Bay Coun. Mark Taylor.

“There’s a lot of full-court press to try and get this out there as quickly as possible,” he said.

Taylor chaired Wednesday’s meeting. He was appointed deputy mayor last fall and filled in for Watson, who is still recovering from a pelvic fracture following a snowmobile accident.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/mpearson78

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For Jamie Gartshore, a young mother living in the Heron-Walkley area of south Ottawa, the squeamish feeling that comes with seeing cockroaches in her apartment kitchen has become routine.

“We have a vacuum in the kitchen and luckily, they stay contained there so we just deal with it that way,” says Gartshore, who lives with her boyfriend, Matt Berneche, and their two-month-old son, Benjamin.

“We’ve noticed they come out more at night – it’s normal for us now to wake up in the middle of the night, make a bottle (for Benjamin) and suck up some cockroaches.”

Gartshore and Berneche say they have repeatedly reported the infestation and other repair issues to landlord Timbercreek Communities, which took over the property in 2012. But getting the problems fixed, they say, is a slow process. The landlord says it is working with residents to address concerns.

Gartshore was among nearly 20 community members from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Canada who gathered outside the Timbercreek Communities’ rental office on Wednesday to draw attention to a city-wide campaign called “We Deserve Healthy Homes Now.”

The advocacy group for low- and middle-income tenants says the campaign’s main goal is encourage Ottawa Council members to create municipal bylaws that would dictate maximum wait times for urgent housing repairs and penalize negligent landlords.

“Residents deserve the right to have their housing concerns taken care of in a timely manner,” said Mavis Finnamore, co-chair of ACORN’s South Ottawa chapter and a long-term tenant in Heron Gate village. ACORN rallied at the same site in 2011 to press the development’s then-owner to address problems.

“It took me six months of persistent negotiation to get repairs done in my unit … with little success. And that’s a shame — the landlords should be doing their job.”

ACORN members are calling for municipal bylaws that would set maximum times for landlords to make urgent repairs.

Roly Morris, president of Timbercreek Communities, said management is as frustrated as tenants with the repair issues. Timbercreek “walked in the door to face almost 500 city work orders” after taking over the development. he said. As of today, Morris said, there are none.

“We actually meet with members of ACORN every quarter to discuss any issues that need to be addressed,” he said. “And out of about 4,000 residents, six people attend that meeting regularly.”

Timbercreek Communities has spent $18 million to repair and renovate properties in Heron Gate, according to Morris.

“Are there issues? Yes. Could we be more responsive? I’m sure that’s true,” he said. “But I think when you put it into context, we are very committed to being responsive to residents and to addressing their issues. There’s still more work to do but we’re working on it in conjunction with the residents.”

ACORN said its members will be rallying at various locations from March until May as part of the Healthy Homes campaign.

The City of Ottawa was unable to provide a comment Wednesday on the group’s call for tougher rules for landlords.

agosselin@ottawacitizen.com