On Thursday, Ottawa’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee met to discuss the City’s draft Economic Development Rural plan.
The plan was initially presented to the committee in early March. Feedback from the public was gathered via survey on Engage Ottawa.
Survey respondents totaled 63, along with three written submissions. In total, City staff reviewed 38 draft recommendations based on this public engagement.
Results indicated that the majority of respondents approved of the plan (68 per cent), 18 per cent disagreed with the plan, and 13 per cent were neutral. Approximately half of respondents were business owners.
Most interesting to survey respondents was the proposed Rural Business Liaison position, which will be a dedicated city staff position, charged with all implementation activities regarding rural business in the Ottawa area.
Councillors were generally approving of the updated rural plan, after putting forward a few amendments.
“When I read the initial plan, I felt that it really lacked the ambition that’s needed in this moment,” said Isabelle Skalski (Osgoode). “We can’t even pretend to be serious about rural economic development if we don’t have staff whose job it is to do outreach and foster partnerships with rural businesses, or if we don’t have data that tells us what the rural economy even looks like.”
“I’ve heard from rural businesses that they won’t invest in Ottawa, it’s too expensive, and they get more support from our neighbouring municipalities,” she continued. “So the plan before us today puts the pieces in place that are essential to building anything more ambitious going forward. It recognizes that there are gaps and it works to fill them.”
Catherine Kitts (Orléans South-Navan) echoed some of Coun. Skalski’s perspective.
“When we asked staff what the key takeaway was from the businesses that they spoke to in Ward 19, it was that they were ‘pleasantly surprised’ and appreciative to have city staff take an interest in them. And I wanted to emphasize that because I think it says a lot, it shows that rural Ottawa has felt overlooked and really like an afterthought in conversations at City Hall. And that is disappointing.”
“I also think that there’s something encouraging in it,” she added, “because the fact that they are pleasantly surprised and appreciative just because city staff took the time to speak with them shows how meaningful simple engagement can be, and it tells us that people just want to be listened to and included and recognized.”
With some amendments, the committee approved the draft Economic Development Rural plan, which will next be considered by City Council on May 13.
