Daniel Kolanko, Centretown News
Candidates and Somerset residents crowded into St. Luke’s Anglican Church for an all-candidates debate on Tuesday night. Somerset Ward candidates took shots at the Ontario Municipal Board during an all-candidates’ debate Tuesday, while also voicing support for safe injection sites.
Those were two of the issues that were hotly debated before a packed room at St. Luke’s Anglican Church.
Candidate Jeff Morrison said it’s not city hall or citizens that have the final say on development in Ottawa, it’s the OMB.
According to Morrison, 75 to 80 per cent of the board’s decisions go in favour of developers.
“It is the silliest, stupidest, most ridiculous thing,” he said. “It takes power away from the citizens and it’s the costliest process in the province of Ontario.”
Former Centretown Citizens Community Association president Thomas McVeigh disagreed.
McVeigh said in his experience the OMB’s numerous rulings against the city were the result of the city’s secondary plans being 30 to 40 years out of date.
“We now have defensible plans,” he said. “We can now go to the OMB and say we know where we’re going in the future and win.”
Nine of the ward’s 11 candidates attended the debate, which was sponsored by the Dalhousie Community Association, Chinatown and Little Italy neighborhoods and CKCU Radio.
Latecomers were forced to fill the upstairs balcony, stand against the walls and even sit in the aisles, prompting church member Johnny Simonds to say he wished the sanctuary was as busy every Sunday.
Over a two-hour period the candidates took on audience questions ranging in topics from development to affordability.
Ideas and arguments flew fast as each candidate tried to get his or her opinions out before the stop watch cut them off.
The most polarizing question of the evening was whether or not candidates would back safe injection sites in Ottawa, a touchy subject that came as a surprise to candidates who were expecting to discuss green space and bike lanes, not drug use.
Morrison, past president of the Centretown Community Health Centre, expressed the majority opinion when he stated he would support safe injection sites unreservedly.
“The evidence is overwhelming that safe injection sites are beneficial to the health and safety of drug users,” he said. “Ottawa has the highest rates of HIV and Hepatitis C in the province of Ontario so for me it’s a no-brainer.”
Catherine McKenney agreed, but suggested the city needs a “made-for-Ottawa” solution that could include a mobile unit or multiple locations to better serve clients.
In fact, only one candidate, Edward Conway, a former legal aid lawyer, said he was not in favour of the sites.
Conway stressed that he did believes in providing clean needles and other drug use implements to people with addictions, but in his experience, facilitating drug use is never the right answer.
“I spent 10 years face-to-face with the affects of drugs, up close and personal,” he said. “I’ve seen too many destroyed lives to really be on board with providing these substances.”
Other questions were raised about green space in Centretown, corporate campaign donations and a re-evaluation of Albert and Slater streets once the light rail project is completed in 2018.
When asked what each of them would do differently than longtime Coun. Diane Holmes, who served the ward for over three decades, every candidate also took time to acknowledge and applaud Holmes for her years of service.
Lili Weemen also praised Holmes, but suggested that without term limits politicians might become too comfortable in their position.
“Times have changed, Diane Holmes belonged to another generation, “ she said, suggesting a limit of three terms. “We need fresh ideas and a new perspective.”