Chiarelli calls on province to give next council a say on city's Official Plan

Ottawa mayoral candidate Bob Chiarelli has written to Ontario’s municipal affairs minister, asking him to send the Official Plan, approved by council last October, back for review by the next city council.

Chiarelli, who was not on city council when it approved the Official Plan in October 2021, wrote to Minister Steve Clark on Friday, arguing that, with a municipal election unfolding now, it would be unfair to bind the incoming council by approving the plan.

“I believe that it is so late in the current municipal mandate understanding that we are now into a heavily contested election where the residents will elect a new Mayor and many new Councillors. I do not believe that at this late date it would be fundamentally democratic to impose the will of the previous Council on a very much transformed new Council,” Chiarelli wrote as the first of three reasons he believes Clark should delay approval.

The Official Plan is Ottawa’s growth roadmap, charting how the city plans to expand over the next quarter-century. It went through rigorous and lengthy debate before finally being approved by councillors on Oct. 27, 2021 in a 21-2 vote.

The provincial government, however, must give its final approval and it has yet to do so. The city submitted the plan for approval in December, anticipating it would be greenlit by April 2022, but a provincial housing bill, Bill 109, suspended that approval prior to the provincial election in June. The city says there is no timeline prescribed in Bill 109 for when the Minister must issue a decision or rescind the suspension.

Given that approval has yet to be granted, Chiarelli, a former mayor of Ottawa and a former municipal affairs minister, said having the next council review the plan again would be in the best interest of “all residents of the city of Ottawa.”

He cited two other reasons, the controversial inclusion of the Tewin project in the urban boundary, and what he says is too small a target for new development in the early years of the plan.

“Understanding that housing development is a priority of your government, expanding Ottawa’s urban boundary to include the unserviced so called ‘Tewin Lands’ rather than the much better serviced West Carleton/Kanata North property as recommended by city staff will be an unreasonable delay on development,” he wrote.

The Tewin development, a 445-acre plot located east of Letrim Road and west of Carlsbad Springs would be a satellite community built by the Algonquins of Ontario and the Taggart Group. Councillors raised concerns about the cost of connecting the remote site to city infrastructure and about the poor quality of the land for development, but its inclusion in the expanded urban boundary, part of the Official Plan, was ultimately approved.

"That decision displaced lands, which were in the west end, that's the Kanata North and West Carleton lands that had already been given approval," Chiarelli told CTV News. 

“Finally, the presented Official Plan has a short-term target of 8,000 new units being constructed per year,” Chiarelli wrote. “That will simply not be enough to reverse the housing shortage in Ottawa. I would recommend to Council that we expand that target to 10,000 new units per year off the bat, growing to 16,000 new units over time.”

Housing and development are among the key issues on the municipal hustings.

Mayoral candidate Coun. Catherine McKenney said they would prioritize building “green, affordable and accessible homes” faster and cheaper by “cutting red tape,” and has vowed 1,000 affordable units per year. McKenney voted to approve the Official Plan in October 2021, but also voted in favour of a motion to remove the Tewin lands from the plan that was ultimately defeated.

"I've never supported sprawl beyond our existing urban boundary," McKenney told CTV News on Saturday. "And we know the Tewin development will cost $465 per person, per year, forever."

While McKenney did support the final vote on the Official Plan in 2021, they voted against expanding the urban boundary when that issue came before council in 2020.

Mark Sutcliffe is pledging to build 100,000 homes in 10 years, including 1,000 affordable units per year, using use targeted building incentives, zoning changes and city lands to reach that goal.

On the Official Plan, Sutcliffe said he supports the approach approved by council in 2021.

“If the (Official Plan) is approved by the Minister, then it is essential that all new lands, including Tewin, meet stringent 15-minute community smart growth standards,” Sutcliffe said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa. “Unlike my opponents, I am not interested in playing politics or re-litigating Council's decisions. I am interested in moving forward to get the housing we need for our kids, grandkids and our vulnerable who need community and supportive housing.”