Centretown budget wins, where to give this season, update on Bank Block and more!

In an ideal world, we would not need charities. If people had a basic minimum income and affordable housing, then the Ottawa Food Bank would not be reporting a 90% increase in usage since 2019.

But until then, we rely on a network of non-profit organizations and volunteers to help make sure that people can survive winter and stay fed. I thought I would get into the holiday spirit by sharing information about some of the wonderful organizations that help our most vulnerable neighbours. If you have any money or essential supplies to donate, all these organizations would be worthy recipients.

In Somerset Ward, we are served by three organizations that can help with food insecurity: the Parkdale Food Centre, the Dalhousie Food Cupboard and the Centretown Community Food Centre. All these groups can accept donations of both money and non-perishable food items.
We have three groups that work with at-risk youth in Centretown: The Door Youth Centre, Operation Come Home and Youth Services Bureau. They often reach out asking for donations of winter clothing, hygiene supplies and financial support.
Highjinx on Kent Street is a social enterprise antique store that uses its profits to fund emergency food and furniture for people experiencing or exiting homelessness. They are always looking for food items for their pantry, as well as pet supplies. You can also drop off high quality items for them to resell.
Cornerstone Housing for Women operates two supportive housing buildings for women and gender-diverse people in Chinatown, as well as an emergency shelter in the west end of the city. They accept donations of hygiene supplies and are also raising money to provide subsidies and supports to women in need of shelter.
Centre 507 and Belong Ottawa run low-barrier respite spaces and serve meals to people in need. They are always happy to receive donations of money or food items. Reach out to each organization directly to find out their needs.
Kind Space offers support and social groups for people in the 2SLGBTQ+ Community, and Max Ottawa offers health care services specifically for gay and bisexual men. Capital Rainbow Refuge supports queer and trans refugee and asylum seekers. Planned Parenthood Ottawa provides reproductive health support and does crucial sex education in schools and in the community. All of these organizations work with tiny budgets and would appreciate your support.

I am so grateful for all of the people who volunteer their time in community food programs, shelters, street outreach teams and drop-in centres. It really does take a village and luckily in Centretown we have a great one.

Wishing you a warm and relaxing holiday season!

Ariel

PS – Please note that the Ward 14 office will be closed from December 23 to January 3. Please call 311 for assistance or email us at [email protected], and we will be happy to help you in the new year.

City budget: wins for Somerset Ward

The 2025 city budget passed council on December 11. As you may have read, the proposed increases to seniors’ bus fares were significantly reduced, thanks to citizen pushback. I still chose to vote against the transit budget, because I don’t believe that any transit fare increases are acceptable, given the current level of bus reliability.

I did however vote in favour of the substantive part of the city budget, primarily because it contains some significant new investments that will improve the quality of life in Centretown. These wins happened because of years of advocacy by the community:

$1 million will be allocated to install two self-cleaning public bathrooms.
$1.5 million will be used to beautify the streets and public realm in Centretown.
Aided by new provincial and federal funding, the city will be significantly scaling up outreach services to help people in need, prevent social disorder and help local businesses contend with loitering and day-to-day conflict.
$1.2 million will go toward the detailed design and community consultation surrounding the new community hub, park and expanded recreation centre that will be built at 1010 Somerset.
There will be ongoing financial support for ANCHOR, Centretown’s 24/7 non-police crisis service.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our ward budget consultation and who shared your priorities with me by email and in conversations in the community. Your advocacy made this budget better, though I know there is still so much work to do.

Update on Bank Block development

Last week, council approved the zoning and heritage permissions for the former Wallacks building at Bank and Nepean. As I explained in my previous newsletter, I chose to dissent on this file because I was unimpressed with Smart Living’s proposal to build fully furnished, expensive micro-suites. I also did so in solidarity with the 11 tenants who remain in the building and will soon face eviction.

You can listen to my interview with Alan Neal from CBC’s All in a Day, where I talk about the history of the building as a crucial cultural hub and why I helped negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding with the developer to ensure that the remaining tenants are provided with compensation that far exceeds the provincial minimum. What’s clear is that the city needs better tools to protect tenants’ rights in the face of redevelopment. Which is why I am pushing for Ottawa to enact an anti-renoviction bylaw. The next stage of that process will come to Planning and Housing Committee in January, so stay tuned.

Vacant Unit Tax declarations are now open

You can make your declaration for the 2025 vacant unit tax now through March 20, 2025. Late declarations will be accepted until April 30, 2025, with a $250 late fee.

You can complete your 2025 declaration online here, through your My ServiceOttawa account, by phone at 613-580-2444 (option 3) or by visiting a client service centre.

If you have questions or want to learn more about the vacant unit tax, you can learn more online here.

OC Transpo winter service begins Sunday, December 22

OC Transpo’s winter service begins Sunday, December 22. This winter, changes include bus service adjustments to get ready for the opening of O-Train Lines 2 and 4 on January 6, special holiday service, and changes to fares.

New winter schedules are available on octranspo.com. Before heading out, use the Travel Planner or Transit app to plan your trip.

City offers “Play Free Saturdays” for kids and youth in 2025

Children and youth, age 17 and under, can take part in free drop-in swimming, skating and gym sports at City recreation facilities every Saturday in 2025.

These free drop-in programs on Saturdays continue to allow children and youth to participate in City programs and benefit from the associated health and social benefits of these activities.

In addition to Play Free Saturdays, the City also offers financial support through the Ottawa Hand in Hand participant subsidy program, to help to make recreation and cultural programming more affordable and accessible for everyone.

Learn more online here.

Latest posts

Construction season begins, zoning bylaw updates, new tree program, culture plan review, and more!

You know what they say, there are two seasons in Canada: winter and construction. And just as all the snow is finally drying up, you can expect to see cranes, diggers and other heavy equipment all over Centretown. Living through construction can be enormously frustrating, but the benefits of major infrastructure investments in the downtown core will improve our quality of life for generations.

Concerns in Chinatown, Centretown Drain Heroes, school boundary changes, and more!

I have been hearing a lot from people in Chinatown, who are very concerned about a dramatic increase in public drug use over the last two weeks. Two issues have really created a perfect storm – one where the cause and the solution are entirely in the hands of the provincial government.

Open Letter to the OCDSB Board of Trustees in re: Elementary Program Review

To the OCDSB Board of Trustees:

As you can imagine, I have heard from many parents and members of Centretown school communities on the impact that the proposed new elementary boundaries would have on their families. This is not a matter of municipal jurisdiction, and I respect that both OCDSB staff and trustees must make difficult and often unpopular decisions.

I am also aware that this is all happening in a climate of austerity, where decades of underfunding have left our school communities in increasingly precarious positions, limiting the ability to substantially respond to many of the challenges we see in our schools.

I would be curious to know why the board has chosen to only hold in-person consultations outside of the urban core, given the profound impacts that the school boundary proposal has on urban families, as well as the board’s expansive portfolio of available spaces within downtown Ottawa.

While I have heard from community members on a range of issues, and profoundly empathize with the challenges that this review poses for their families, I’ll confine my comments to issues that intersect with my position as a city councillor representing Somerset Ward.

The key theme I’ve heard about from families is about the walk to school. One of the things that brought me to Centretown years ago was the idea that my child would be able to get to school on foot or on a bicycle. In my time as a councillor, I’ve worked with families at Devonshire who loved that their kids could walk an easy 400m to school, but wanted to make sure all students were safe as possible crossing Preston and Somerset. We were able to secure a crossing guard for this intersection, but it took a long time.

The reality is that the Ottawa Safety Council simply will not have the resources to meet the need for crossing guards at the many major intersections that children in my neighbourhood are being directed to cross. I’m especially concerned about the traffic safety concerns that children who are being redistricted to Mutchmor from Devonshire will see, having to cross Preston, Carling, and Bronson.

I’m hearing from parents that the new route is something they would not feel comfortable sending their school-age children to walk or bike since it crosses three major streets. While Carling and Bronson will eventually be re-constructed by the city, we’re still years away from these projects being designed, funded, and built. Moving them up the list would still leave us years away from the kind of structural safety improvements that would make the kind of changes that would make parents feel safer sending their kids to school on foot.

Our Official Plan and our Transportation Master Plan support the expansion of active modes of transportation, including walking and biking. I have heard from many parents who love that Devonshire provides them with the opportunity to foster their child’s independence by sending them to bike or walk to school, either on their own or as part of a bike bus.

I’m very concerned that the impacts of this review in Ward 14 would put more kids on school buses or in cars, not fewer. This would seem to run counter to the boundary review’s stated goals—to mitigate socioeconomic disparity across schools, to keep kids in their communities and to bring high quality French and English education to every neighbourhood.

Regardless of the choices that trustees take, I want to be sure that the concerns in my community are fairly accounted for in the review and we that can reach a consensus. It seems that MPP Catherine McKenney’s request that the boundary for Devonshire be moved from the LRT to Preston Street may help mitigate many of the transportation safety-related concerns that we have both been hearing about.

I would be pleased to discuss any of the feedback I’ve received and wish you luck as you continue to tackle this incredibly challenging issue.

Sincerely,

Ariel Troster

Councillor, Somerset Ward

Centretown budget wins, where to give this season, update on Bank Block and more!

Latest posts

Construction season begins, zoning bylaw updates, new tree program, culture plan review, and more!

Concerns in Chinatown, Centretown Drain Heroes, school boundary changes, and more!

Open Letter to the OCDSB Board of Trustees in re: Elementary Program Review

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