Comment 88 – comments and feedback

Shirley Dolan

I live in Ottawa in the municipal ward know as West Carleton-March. The ward is encompassed in the federal riding currently known as Kanata-Carleton. This would change federally and possibly provincially in April 2024 should the proposed boundary changes for this riding be put into effect.

With the proposed changes, the ward would be split into three sections - part in the new riding of Kanata, and two other parts would be shifted to Lanark and to Renfrew. The larger of the two parts, roughly Fitzroy and Torbolton Townships, where I live, would be shifted to Renfrew.

The parts being reassigned to Lanark and to Renfrew are very rural in nature with small villages, agricultural businesses, and farmland. This is somewhat attractive in that we would be represented by MPs and MPPs that identify more with rural issues. Being in the City of Ottawa, and included with the more urban Kanata, our rural issues are often drowned out by urban concerns.

But when we look at how the municipal landscape would look, it becomes messy. A councillor representing West Carleton-March would have to work with three provincial and three federal representatives - a most unworkable situation.

A better solution would be to finish the job and take the rural parts of West Carleton-March out of the municipality of Ottawa and put them with either Lanark or Renfrew. There are advantages for rural West Carleton-March if this were to happen. We would then no longer be part of the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA and possibly eligible for the Rural Supplement for the Climate action incentive program. We are truly rural but because we are part of the City of Ottawa, we are exempt for the Rural Supplement.

I understand that counties such as Renfrew are eligible for more funding from the provincial government for roads. Ottawa has not kept up with the road maintenance required. Living in rural West-Carleton, I can see that the roads in the municipality of Arnprior, for example, are better maintained than in West Carleton.

We would also be included in programs for rural broadband upgrades, programs that seem to pass us by because we are part Ottawa.

To conclude: the changing boundaries that affect West Carleton-March and Kanata-Carleton only make sense if you take the rural parts out of West Carleton-March (Ottawa) and include them as one with a rural municipality in either Renfrew or Lanark along with one Federal and one Provincial Electoral District.

Sincerely

Shirley Dolan