KANATA NORTH NEWS Marianne Wilkinson Councillor, Kanata North REFLECTIONS ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE CITY OF KANATA

AND THE NEW CITY OF OTTAWA

Many residents have asked me how this new City of Ottawa differs from the former municipal arrangement when we were served by a two-tiered system of government with the City of Kanata for local matters and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton for services crossing municipal boundaries. It is quite different now. The amalgamated city is huge half the size of Prince Edward Island and more than four times the size of Singapore! Nearly 90% is rural with agriculture an important economic activity. With 23 wards it is necessary to get twelve colleagues to support any initiative you might put forward. If it involves funds, it is very difficult and you have to put in a lot of effort to explain the issue and its value to the city as a whole. The role of a member of Council is two fold. First, you are responsible for ward level issues, including approval of site plans, review and comments on other planning issues and dealing with concerns, problems and sometimes great ideas put forward by the residents of your ward. Secondly you need to take a city-wide view of issues that affect the whole city, such as budgets, transit, planning policies and infrastructure. Council has no role in administration of the city. That is handled by the City Manager, Deputy City Managers and other staff. For example, as a Councillor, I cannot just request additional stop signs and have them installed. Much of the time of my staff is dealing with concerns and problems that affect a small number of residents, finding out where the responsibility lies with staff, what policies are involved and what procedure needs to be followed to get action. Ottawa is very risk averse and process driven so it is hard to get anything done quickly. One of the reasons Kanata was successful in developing our business parks is because that city provided fast, responsive approvals. Now it can take months or even years to get approvals and sometimes the proponent will get conflicting requirements from staff in different departments. Ive found that the only way to move things forward is to stay on top of staff to ensure that the needs of Kanata North are being dealt with expeditiously. It is still slow but I am making progress in getting the recreation complex built, in resolving issues that have held up the widening of March Road and traffic lights in Morgans Grant/Briarbrook, in dealing with the complexities in creating a main

street for Kanata and in making development applications a better fit for our communities. This fall will likely be quite contentious. As well as deciding which transit projects will be done during this term of Council, finalizing the Official Plan, Transportation Master Plan and dealing with a difficult budget, Council will also be considering major governance changes. I have been pressing for more local control, on the lines of a borough or community council system, including funding for local priorities. The changes could include returning to a Transit Commission for OC Transpo, other methods of providing services (particularly using technology) and ways to make city operations more efficient. Despite the challenges, I am happy to be back in municipal government where I have an opportunity to ensure that Kanata gets its fair share of resources and in working with community associations and residents to protect the open spaces and types of development that have made Kanata a great place in which to live.

Serving the residents and businesses in Kanata North

To receive the Kanata North Newsletter, to deal with a concern or make a suggestion contact me at 613-580-2474, email Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca or through www.mariannewilkinson.com.