Comment 185 – comments and feedback

Janet Mason

I am writing to request that the proposed federal electoral boundary for the Algonquin-Renfrew-Pembroke electoral district be reconsidered based on community of interest and community identity considerations. Specifically, the area that lies within the City of Ottawa municipal boundary should be removed and instead be placed in the proposed Kanata electoral district.

As per the Commission's mandate: the Commission is obliged to also consider communities of interest or communities of identity in, and the historical pattern of, electoral districts, and a manageable geographic size for districts in sparsely populated, rural or northern regions of the province.

The proposed redistribution allocates a cohesive area that lies in and identifies with the City of Ottawa into three different new electoral districts, two of which fall outside of Ottawa municipal wards.

In particular, it places the western portion of the City of Ottawa (most of municipal Ward 5 - West Carleton-March) in the new Algonquin-Renfrew-Pembroke electoral district that runs over 130 kilometres north along the Ottawa River.

While this area west of the village of Carp may look "rural" on the map, our interests as Ottawa residents in West Carleton-March are urban and align with the adjacent residents in Kanata and broader Ottawa: business development, population growth, Climate Change action, transportation, affordable housing, and green space conservation.

• Since municipal amalgamation in 2001, the west end has become tightly integrated with the City of Ottawa. We work in Ottawa, many of us in the high tech sector in Kanata. We shop in Kanata. We go to doctors in Kanata. Our children attend schools in Carp and Kanata. We volunteer with non-profits based in Ottawa, Kanata, and West Carleton.
• Our section of the Ottawa River, from just east of Arnprior at Marshall's Bay down to Shirley's Bay in Kanata, lies within the jurisdiction of the provincial Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA). When the Ottawa River flooded this section in 2017 and 2019, we looked to our federal Kanata-Carleton MP, provincial Kanata-Carleton MPP, and West Carleton Ottawa city councillor for help. MVCA provided the post-flood rebuilding advice and permits.
  • Arnprior, Renfrew, and Pembroke (Renfrew County) do not have a Conservation Authority regulating floodplains and other natural hazards.
• One challenge we do share with the upper Ottawa Valley is the need for high speed internet. However, our needs will be met by coordinated action at the federal and municipal levels by extending Kanata's suburban fibre optic service outward as the city's population expands.
• Maintaining a roughly consistent set of federal, provincial, and municipal electoral boundaries maintains a coherent identity for the area's citizens. It makes dealing with different levels of government easier. Under the proposed redistricting, West Carleton residents, their MPP, and municipal councillor will need to work with three different MPs at the federal level.

The interests of upper Ottawa Valley residents are different. The bulk of the Algonquin-Renfrew-Pembroke district falls within Renfrew County, which has over 900 lakes: it's cottage country. Residents rely on tourism, agriculture, natural resource extraction, and the Army base at Petawawa for jobs.

We identify with Ottawa issues, not those of the very rural Upper Ottawa Valley that is 130 kilometres away. A federal MP from that area will have no experience or understanding of what we care about. And vice versa: an MP elected from our area would have little firsthand knowledge of the issues in the small towns of Deep River, Chalk River, Eganville, and Barry's Bay. The interests of West Carleton residents and upper Ottawa Valley residents are, respectively, best represented federally by a candidate who lives in each area.

West Carleton's community of interest and identity lie in Ottawa, specifically the adjacent Kanata, not the rural upper Ottawa Valley. We should be included in the proposed Kanata electoral district, not Algonquin-Renfrew-Pembroke.

Sincerely,
Janet Mason