'Our Ottawa' takes aim at city council
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+takes+city+council/2587051/story.html
BY NECO COCKBURN , THE OTTAWA CITIZENFEBRUARY 19, 2010COMMENTS (14)
OTTAWA — Another new group is hoping to change the makeup of Ottawa’s city council when residents cast their votes this fall.
Our Ottawa bills itself as “a non-partisan group of community organizers from rural, urban and suburban areas who care deeply about this city” and says it has more than 200 people “working to bring change to Ottawa.”
The group’s mission is a bit vague at this point, and it’s still coming up with a vision statement that members can agree on, admits Bob Brocklebank, a group member and past president of the Federation of Citizens’ Associations.
Some of the group’s members could decide to run in the Oct. 25 election, and the group expects to support candidates who agree with its vision, by encouraging people to contribute to the candidates’ campaigns or knocking on doors for them, Brocklebank said.
“Does that make us a slate? I don’t know. I guess it’s a definition issue,” he said.
“At this moment, we do not have a giant control room where we are manipulating candidates and we have 23 people all lined up to run in the 23 wards.”
Brocklebank said group members came together last summer, initially to discuss governance, and, buoyed by feeling “ill at ease with the way the city’s going,” have since been meeting in noodle shops, living rooms, bars and classrooms. Our Ottawa has held panel discussions on governance and the city budget.
Some of the group’s efforts are similar to Fair Chance 2010, a new group of experienced community leaders, including former A News anchor Sandra Blaikie and former Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman, who are reaching out to help potential election candidates compete against incumbents.
Brocklebank said his group is mostly made up of “community association types” who don’t necessarily carry the same profile as Fair Chance members, but both groups are interested in trying to make the election meaningful.
Members of Our Ottawa include Shawn Menard, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, and Rob Campbell, a trustee with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. It has a co-ordinating committee and four committees that deal with policy, communications, candidates, and legal/financial areas.
The group says it has been involved in discussions on issues such as a post-secondary student transit pass, governance reform, Lansdowne Park redevelopment, opposing “overdevelopment” of Manotick, and protecting services such as Crime Prevention Ottawa “during council’s frantic budget debates.”
It’s also opposed to any expansion of the city’s suburban boundary. Council is set to revisit later this month a decision made in June to limit growth of the boundary, outside which major development is not supposed to happen.
Developers wanted the boundary to be expanded further, and have filed appeals to the Ontario Municipal Board, which can overturn city planning decisions.
College Councillor Rick Chiarelli has said the city could face a costly legal battle as it tries to defend its decision, and council may want to reconsider. That has raised the potential for more land to be opened up for development.
Our Ottawa says expanding the boundary would contribute to urban sprawl and create problems such as increasing the cost and difficulty of providing services.
The group said in a press release on Tuesday that councillors who vote in favour of expansion “will be specifically targeted in the municipal election this fall.”
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