Joel Harden, previously the MPP for Ottawa Centre and currently the NDP candidate for the riding in Monday’s federal election, released his plan this week to revitalize downtown and support its residents.
Harden released the platform, called “downtown revitalization for everyone”, at the Live on Elgin event venue with less than a week to go before Canadians go to the polls on election day.
“[The plan] is inspired by community organizations that are asking our federal government to take a much more active interest in what’s been happening in our downtown,” Harden said. “What we have seen for almost five years are two very large reports, several summits, and a lot of talking about issues that are hurting and suffering in our downtown that’s been called ‘revitalization’.
“But unfortunately, despite the fact that these reports have all asked for urgent action, we have yet to see significant change.”
Harden’s plan advocates for the repurposing of federal properties not into luxury or unaffordable housing, as he says most in Ottawa have, but instead into community spaces run by local organizations, small businesses or the artistic community.
“There are so many organizations ready, willing and able to help people who are looking for a respite, looking for a meal, looking for a place to be,” he said. “If you’re homeless or if you’re struggling with an addiction during the day, there is no place for folks to go.
“What has happened repeatedly is that those folks will congregate around small business doorways, and that leads to conflict between neighbours,” he said. Instead, he says that if elected, he would find ways to reduce that conflict.
He points to strategies that have been employed by the City of Vancouver that repurpose vacant street-level properties into places of “respite”, with bunk beds, facilities and community resources. These “hubs” could also connect people with resources like the HART facilities and the ANCHOR program.
Adding that accessible and reliable public transit is crucial for downtown revitalization, Harden said the current transit system in Ottawa is “not like anything I grew up with”.
“When I was a high school student in the city in the 1980s, I could count on my bus arriving on time, whether I was waiting for it in January or in July,” he said. “That is not the case today, and more and more neighbours, because of that, are deciding not to take transit. They’re taking personal vehicles, they’re taking Uber.
“We do not blame them for their choices. However, we do want to find ways in which transit can be part of a solution in our downtown to stop the congestion that we have seen during the rush hour of the day,” he continued. “It’s also a climate solution, and our revitalization plan for downtown, our climate plan, our transit plan, is integral to that.”
He also highlighted small businesses, pointing to event and entertainment venues like Live on Elgin, and explained that homelessness, addiction, transit and the local economy are all linked.
“I think we have to set the goal that the government of Finland set, and that is eliminating homelessness. We have to try to find a space for everyone to have a safe, restful sleep, find opportunities for everyone to eat nutritious meals, find places for recovery, to find places for self-fulfillment, to find places for art and inspiration to create your own enterprise downtown and find new clients and customers,” he said. “That’s what downtown revitalization means to me and the local NDP.”
Harden is running against Yasir Naqvi, the Liberal incumbent, who Harden won against in 2018 when both politicians were running in the provincial election.
388Canada electoral projections have named Ottawa Centre as a safe seat for Naqvi, with Harden predicted to win about 27 per cent of the vote. Ottawa Compass asked why local voters who may want to vote strategically to avoid a Conservative victory should risk splitting the vote by voting for Harden. He said that Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who is estimated to be elected as prime minister, “needs the NDP” in the House of Commons.
“I think the choice voters have right now is, would Canada be better served with a tw- party system? Would Canada be better served without a loud presence, a very progressive presence, from the NDP?”
If Carney is elected to his seat in Nepean and as prime minister, he will be an “Ottawa politician”, and it is important that he understand the local issues, Harden argued.
“We have had a member of the [Liberal] government as our MP for nine years. I have not seen homelessness issues getting better. I have seen the cost of housing soar. I have seen our transit system starved resources,” Harden said. “So what I think Prime Minister Carney needs — and odds would have it that if the current projections are true, he will be re-elected again as prime minister — is the NDP.
“Mr. Carney needs to be pushed,” he continued.
In closing, he added that he hears from voters that their voices are not heard, and he is looking to represent the Ottawa community in the House.
“I will hold Mr. Carney’s hand. I’ll put a smile on my face…Let’s walk up and down the street and talk to those neighbours and see what we can do with some federal money,” Harden explained. “This is a rich country, and I find it an embarrassment that we see the suffering and the struggle in our community.”
Harden’s Liberal counterpart has released a healthcare platform, which reiterates the Liberal government’s plan. Naqvi is set to release a plan for downtown revitalization later this week, which is expected to point to his work with the Downtown Ottawa Revitalization Task Force, an initiative he launched and chaired throughout 2023 and 2024.
