The website now has specific pages for all the major communities in the ward. Depending on where you live, you can check out the page, and see what Bob has already done in your community, and what he would do as your Councillor.
Check out the pages for Old Ottawa South, Heron Park, Old Ottawa East, and the Glebe. As mentioned yesterday, there is a specific page for Carleton University too. We look forward to hearing from you about your ideas for the best way to move these communities forward!
New Carleton page: Student issues matter
Students at Carleton University living on Campus or nearby are eligible to vote and make up a big part of Capital. Bob wants to be a strong voice for students and wants to hear from students in this campaign, and he has launched brocklebank.ca/Carleton to reach out and share ideas. Check it out today!
Bob Brocklebank, along with Bruce Webster, Candidate in Rideau-Goulbourn, have outlined a plan for the creation of Regional Standing Committees of Council, which would allow various regions of the City to address local issues in a local fashion. More importantly the City could do so immediately without approval needed from the Province.
Click here to watch a video about the plan, and read the entire plan by clicking here.
”People have talked about creating a borough system, or other approaches, but that needlessly complicates things,” said Webster. ”Council can create Standing Committees for the various areas of the City and those committees can address the local issues raised by residents,” he continued. “A very important element of this plan is that it is something Council can do immediately, without any permission from the province.”
”When the current wards were created, the urban areas, suburban areas, and rural areas were totally divided from each other, and that has led to the situation we have now, where these communities feel pitted against each other,” said Brocklebank. ”Bruce and I have worked together on community association issues. We feel that urban, suburban and rural communities are a great deal more similar than dissimilar. We have many common issues and shared values.”
The plan released by the two candidates calls for the following:
- The creation of 3 Regional Standing Committees to cover the entire City
- Each Committee will, when possible, include communities that are rural, suburban and urban
- Each Regional Committee should meet in the evening, probably once per month and meetings should rotate around the area of the specific region
- Decisions coming forward from the Committees, like those of any other City Standing Committee, would be put on the Consent Agenda for the next full Council meeting, unless another Councillor wants to discuss one or more of the issues.
- The regional standing committees should adopt procedures to encourage community participation such as the “open mike” approach of the present Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee.
Needed: adult discussion about taxes
It looks like we are about to have another round of claims and counter-claims about taxes. Two prime candidates for mayor are blasting each other on this very topic. Neither of them seem to have much to say other than to dump on the other.
Mr. O’Brien is reviving his “zero means zero” slogan from 2006 and Mr. Watson, who has pulled the number 2.5% out of the air, is criticizing O’Brien for his failure to deliver zero for the last four years.
Rather than having a serious discussion about the City’s finances, the two gentlemen are engaged in political slogan swapping.
As I write this, I am reading the text of Mayor O’Brien’s press release of September 11. Apparently all Council candidates are to be approached and asked for their comments on Mr. O’Brien’s proposals. My understanding is that if I fail to sign on and swear fealty to this “plan”, I will be cast into outer darkness and other candidates for Council will be blessed with the warmth of Mr. O’Brien’s embrace.
Hidden behind the over-the-top rhetoric of both Watson and O’Brien, there may be some worthwhile ideas. I hope through many re-readings I will be able to find something of value.
Bob Brocklebank, candidate for Council in Capital Ward in the upcoming municipal elections, attended the Grand Re-Opening of the Sunnyside Libary on August 26 and is thrilled to see the Library up and running again. ”Like any community, this library is a vital part of our lives, and it is great to see it once again open for the kids, the families and everyone in the neighbourhood,” Brocklebank said.
At the ceremony, several people spoke about how important the Library is and how much work went into saving it when it came under threat of closure in 2004. Brocklebank’s role in the struggle to defend the Sunnyside Library was mentioned in the speech by the Friends of Sunnyside Library.
Sunnyside was targeted for closure along with the branches in Vanier and in Blackburn Hamlet. Bob recalled that instead of fighting for their branch alone, and perhaps making a target of the other branches, it was agreed to work with other communities in maintained the library branch network. Bob’s role was liaison with community members in Blackburn and in Vanier working to save their local libraries. In the end, by working together, all the branches were saved.
”It might be a small example, but I think that how we saved all three of these libraries is a great example of what we can do when we work together. It’s that kind of approach that I hope to bring to Council,” Brocklebank said.
Unfortunate entry into the campaign
It is regrettable that Terry Kilrea used his entry into the election campaign to blast the plan for a francophone centre in the west end of the city. The race for Bay Ward is so fractured, that another entrant into the race does little to clarify things.
But looked at from a distance, the attack on the francophone centre (and the implied assault on the francophone community in Ottawa) can only be seen as divisive.
This morning’s Le Droit has an editorial calling Kilrea a “clown”. Surely this is indicative of the interpretation which French-speaking residents have applied to Mr. Kilrea’s comments.
My own view is that the “divide and conquer” approach has been over-used in Ottawa politics. We need to stop pretending that the interests of our rural and urban residents are diametrically opposed. It is time to move to another level of politics in which we cherish the diverse elements of our community and strive to work together in building a better city.
Provincial responsibility – a copout?
The expansion of the Carp landfill facility is back in the news. The less-known part of the story is that the Carp facility is not for the ordinary residential waste but rather for ICI – industrial, commercial and institutional waste.
In every discussion about this matter, municipal officials (both elected and staff spokespeople) make the point that ICI waste is a provincial responsibility. Usually this leads to an explanation that the city can’t do much because decisions are taken at Queen’s Park.
It is strange that we so often seem to run up against provincial policies and decisions which the people of Ottawa are unable to change. First Ottawa is the second largest municipality in Ontario; surely that should give us some influence. Second, the Premier is elected in an Ottawa electoral district; surely he has some interest in Ottawa issues. Third, an Ottawa Councillor is the Chair of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario; surely he gets a hearing in Toronto. And finally, until recently the Minister of Municipal Affairs also represented an Ottawa riding; there must have been talk about Ottawa issues around the Cabinet table.
With all these prominent Ottawa connections with the province, it is a mystery that Ottawa doesn’t get its way on issue after issue.
Has Ottawa failed to effectively articulate its concerns to the province?
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