Transit, housing and the redevelopment of the Lansdowne area are taking centre stage in the race for city council in Ottawa’s Ward 17.
Incumbent city councillor Shawn Menard is being challenged by community advocate and former NGO professional Farah Gulzar and public affairs student Jaac Doduck.
Menard is seeking re-election in the Capital Ward, which he has represented in city council since 2018.
Representing the ward in city hall has been a “lifelong dream” for him, he told Compass News. His primary role as councillor is to address “quality of life” issues for residents in any way he can, the 44-year-old councillor said.
“Right now the world can seem like a crazy place, but we can focus our sphere of influence to serve residents well, and I think that’s what we’ve done,” Menard said. “There’s more work to do on quality of life, and that’s where our focus is.”
Ward residents need “follow through and accountability” on issues surrounding the “basics of everyday life,” Gulzar, who was president of an organization focused on protecting women from domestic violence, said.
The ward “deserves a councillor who listens to residents, follows through on commitments and is accountable for results,” Gulzar, 41, told Compass News.
Doduck, a public affairs student at Carleton University and an employee at the Glebe Community Centre, said the ward needs candidates who understand the issues students face.
Ward 17 has a high concentration of students due to the location of Carleton University located within its boundaries.
“I’m someone who can really speak to those lived experiences that I really deal with,” Doduck, 25, told Compass News. There is an impact to “not having a student even so much as being on council,” he added.
Affordability and reliability on transit are primary issues for voters
All three candidates said that transit is a primary issue that they are hearing about from the ward’s residents.
“Transit needs to be treated as an essential public service, not a budget line,” Gulzar said. Routes need to be reconfigured based on demand, and “better service reliability should be a priority,” she added.
The price of using the city’s transit services has been “too high,” and this has been a key priority for Menard during his time at city hall, he said.
In July a city-wide program providing free transit services for riders under 18 was implemented, a policy which was kickstarted by a motion presented by Menard.
Menard said that he is proud of this change. “We’re going to try and expand on that in the future, the cost of a transit pass needs to go down,” he said.
There are some “easy wins” on transit reliability which city council should go forward with, such as planned bus lanes between Baseline Road and Carling Avenue, as well as on Bank Street.
Bus lines in the ward have seen increased frequency during Menard’s term, Doduck said. However, this progress is limited as buses become “bunched up” in traffic, he added.
Doduck said he’d like to see the Bank Street bus lane pilot project become a permanent 24-hour dedicated lane just for buses in the ward. Buses haven’t had enough space to get where they need to be, which vastly increases wait times for riders, he said.
Lansdowne 2.0 sparks debate among residents in the ward
The redevelopment of the Lansdowne area has garnered a lot of attention Ottawa, and its impact has been felt most acutely in the Capital Ward.
The $419-million redevelopment project was passed in a 15-10 vote in city hall last November. Menard was among the 10 councillors who voted against the project.
If a fresh vote on the redevelopment project were held today, Menard said he would vote no again. Gulzar said she would also vote against the motion, while Doduck said he would support it.
The price of the project, fiscally and environmentally, is too high, Menard said. “The plan is very costly, and it’s getting worse where we’re losing over 58,000 square feet of green space.”
“For all this money, we’re losing businesses that have been there for just ten years. They’re going to get torn down,” Menard said.
Gulzar said her top concern with the project is a lack of “clear answers” from the city. “Lansdowne is a major public investment and the numbers matter,” she said.
Over 700 housing units will be constructed as part of the development, a decision which Doduck said is part of his reasons for supporting the project.
“I’d like to see Lansdowne become a place that feels more lived in,” Doduck said.
“I do completely understand people’s concerns with the project, but I like all the ways that the city is trying to make it into a much more community space, trying to make it a much more livable space,” he said.
The winners of the city’s mayoral and council elections will be decided on Oct. 26, with advance voting coming up on Oct. 16.
