Delivering for Rural Ottawa at ARAC

Earlier today, we had a very long meeting at the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) where many important items were on the table. I have been working hard with my colleagues to advance the priorities of our communities through the committee and am happy to report on some positive developments.

First, we had heard that many organizations who apply for the Rural Community-Building Grant program are frustrated with the timelines for processing their applications. Working with Chair Darouze and City staff, I helped advance a motion that would direct staff to provide grants to successful community applicants on a tighter timeline. Rather than processing these applications quarterly, they will be processed within 30 days of receipt. This will give organizations in our communities the funding that they need in a more timely, predictable, and effective fashion.  

Many residents will have heard or experienced the long wait times in receiving severances or other applications through the Committee of Adjustment. These legal delays from the City cost money for residents, delay home construction, and frustrate those who apply with unnecessary bureaucratic wait times. I submitted an inquiry to City staff asking them to outline the causes of the problem and their plan to fix it. They provided a detailed reply to my inquiry and answered questions at committee; in addition, the 2024 budget contains more investment in the necessary resources to address the backlog. I am grateful to the residents who raised these concerns with us.

Last week, there was an update to the Environment and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) regarding staff exploring changes to the stormwater fees. Staff are exploring using impervious surfaces as the standard for applying stormwater fees; I have serious concerns with this approach, particularly given the rates that residents are already paying and the fact that there are major differences between rural and urban Ottawa. As I often say, a one-size fits all model does not work. At ECCC, I asked staff to present to ARAC, and they did so today. They heard loud and clear from my colleagues and I about the need for these matters to be considered by ARAC, that rural interests must be reflected, and that there should be no changes to how residents are billed without significant community involvement, input, and support. For what it is worth, I am not supportive of the direction that staff are intending to go as I believe it would be a tax grab on rural residents, but I am willing to see what the final recommendation from staff is on this matter when it comes to Council in later months.

Many residents, particularly farmers, will have noted that changes were proposed to the City’s Site Alteration By-law. These changes would have required farmers in some parts of the City to provide notification to the City when removing trees, even if they were being removed for farming purposes. Beyond being of dubious legality based on provincial legislation, I felt that the changes were overly onerous and unnecessary. While I support the protection of trees, the changes that were proposed would not have accomplished that. My colleagues passed a motion that I proposed that ensured that farmers’ interests and rights were protected, reverting much of the proposed changes back to the current status quo, and asking staff to go back to the drawing board on some other changes to ensure that unfair restrictions are not imposed on our communities.

Much of the meeting was focused on discussing 4 proposed battery electric storage systems. Staff had initially proposed approving all 4 facilities, and had proposed having authority for future decisions delegated to staff. I proposed a motion, which my colleagues unanimously approved, to have the 4 projects voted on separately and to reinforce that Council, through ARAC, will retain authority for approving or rejecting future requests for municipal support.

ARAC voted to deny 3 of the 4 facilities largely due to poor public consultation and poor site locations. The one that received municipal support is in our ward, but is not close to residents; it is proposed to be located south of the Trail Road Landfill. If the project does proceed through future approval stages, there will be a community benefit agreement between the proponent and the City to make sure that our communities receive support back for the project. Moreover, I will be working to ensure that some of the taxes and development charges raised from this facility, if approved, go toward local priorities.

It's important to note that the vote today does not approve the project. Concerns related to safety, emergency management, and much more will be considered at a later stage. If I am not persuaded as to the safety of the site and the clear benefits to our residents, I will be opposing the facility at later stages. I will also be making sure that the community remains up to date on this proposal as we continue to consider it.

Lastly, I provided a notice of motion regarding manure drag lines. As farmers and many communities in the ward can appreciate, the transportation of manure/livestock waste results in a significant number of vehicle trips between the farm storage site and the fields being serviced. This causes traffic congestion, damage to farmlands and roadways due to the weight of tankers, odour complaints, mud/dirt on roadways, large uses of fuel, and cost onto farmers. A better solution would be to allow farmers to use City ditches and culverts to run drag lines from a manure reservoir directly to smaller and lighter spreading equipment across roadways and in adjacent lands.

To that end, the notice of motion I provided, which will be voted on next year at ARAC and Council, directs staff to investigate the feasibility of using culverts and the City’s right of way to accommodate manure draglines. If this moves forward, it would be a huge win for farmers; I will keep on staff and will do my very best to have this change move forward next year.

As you can tell, I’ve been busy! At the same time, my office has been going through some staff turnover, so I appreciate the patience of residents as we navigate change during a busy time of year.

For more information on ARAC’s meeting today, you can watch the full proceedings here.