Community groups raise local concerns in new city

By Caitlin Crockard

Rural residents battle stereotypes about “Jeb the farmer.” Urban dwellers fight to reduce the number of cars on their streets. And suburbanites just want to know who to talk to at City Hall.

Nearly two years after amalgamation, Ottawa’s community associations are feeling the effects in very different ways.

The Glebe community centre is old. But June Creelman, vice president and chair of planning of the Glebe Community Association, says it’s a “comfy place.”

The centre has been trying to get funding to renovate the building for 15 years. Now their estimates are outdated.

Traffic is an issue. Creelman says the Glebe has worked for five years on a plan that would reduce morning traffic.

But Creelman is supportive of the city’s official plan.City staff, while facing new and increased duties, “seem to really respect and accommodate community associations,” she says.

But all is not perfect. Creelman says school closures are rampant and this“runs contrary” to the official plan which aims to keep residents in the core.

Creelman believes the Glebe’s voice is still heard at city hall. The association avoids approaching the city with complaints until they’re ready to present a clear solution. This way the group “can have more impact,” Creelman says.

The Osgoode Rural Communities Association, established less than a year ago, represents a mixed community. There are residents who have their ancestral roots in the area, young families who moved from the city and empty nesters.

“There’s a sense in these rural communities that city councillors have images of Jeb the farmer sitting on his tractor in a straw hat,” says John Foley, association director.

The association wants to set the record straight and keep their identity in the amalgamated city.

The group “sprang into existence” when the city proposed ward boundary changes, says Foley. With lines redrawn, the ward’s population is expected to increase from 19,000 to over 50,000 by 2009. Almost all of the additional population will be from suburban areas, says Foley.

The Osgoode association, along with other rural community groups, launched an Ontario Municipal Board challenge against the city’s proposed changes. Foley says the basic issue is a concern over losing rural voices in the new city.

Foley says suburban and rural lifestyles aren’t the same.

“City council believes they know what’s best for Ottawa citizens,” Foley says, adding that their plan is a “one-size-fits-all” solution that is not going to work. The rural communities’ opinions are “very off-handedly dismissed,” he says.

The Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association is also concerned about the new city and how it will affect the community. Fred Boyd, president of the Beaverbrook association, is frustrated about the reorganization at City Hall.

In late October, the community centre’s heat was turned off because the city, who pays the lease, had not paid the bill. Boyd says the bill was sent to the wrong office. The problem was fixed, but two weeks later it happened again. “Things are just getting lost,” Boyd says.

Boyd and other association members were originally against amalgamation. They felt Kanata was working well on its own. Beaverbrook is the oldest neighbourhood in Kanata, and Boyd says for many years the association “almost ran the community” before more urban developments were “plunked down.”

The Beaverbrook association has successfully worked with the single city, however. A main concern right now is the high volume of traffic in front of Kanata’s elementary schools. Boyd says the schools are overcrowded, and the increase in enrolment has led to buses “trying to squeeze their way through” in front of the schools, as well as cars coming to drop off children.

Boyd worries that “it’s a tragedy waiting to happen.” The Beaverbrook association is working on a plan and meeting with the school board and city officials.

But again the problem of city reorganization arises. To finalize the school traffic plan, the Beaverbrook association must consult one department for road signs, another for road engineering, and yet another for traffic. And Boyd says personal contact with city officials is lacking.

Boyd laments of Beaverbrook-city relations, “We lost the intimacy we once had.”