Meet the candidates in Ward 19 – Orleans South-Navan

Orleans South-Navan

There are three people running for councillor in the ward of Orleans South-Navan, including incumbent Catherine Kitts. Orleans South-Navan is the new name for the ward previous known as Cumberland, and includes sections of Orleans, Navan, Cumberland and Sarsfield.

• 2018 municipal election voter turnout: 38 per cent
• Projected 2022 population: 47,534
• Projected 2026 population: 54,052

CTV News Ottawa invited all registered candidates to answer a questionnaire and submit a video introducing themselves to voters. (Some candidates submitted the requested 280 characters to describe their platform, while others submitted 280 words – CTVNewsOttawa.ca accepted both).

Shamsa Sheikh Ahmed

No contact information

Yvette Ashiri

Political experience: Run in the 2020 Cumberland, Ward 19 by-election

Professional experience:  Public Servant

How long have you lived in Ottawa? 13 years

Favourite Ottawa location/landmark? The Mer Bleue bog

Describe your platform in 280 words or fewer: 

• A more socially equitable and accessible Ward 19:
• Build more engaging and culturally diverse community programs and centers for children and youth to foster leadership skills and opportunities- including the construction of a sports dome. 
• Create more help-centered city programming to curb social isolation amongst our seniors and meet their needs
• Promote equity and ensure safety for women through the creation of a Women’s Bureau at City Council.
• Protect and expand access to municipal and community French services and promote the French language within our Ward.
• Improve accessibility within our community for people and children with disabilities by working with partners, stakeholders, and parents from across the ward to implement a Disability Justice Framework.
• Encourage and foster the growing cultural diversity in Orléans-South-Navan so everyone feels seen, included, and appreciated. 
• Climate Action and Protecting our Environment
• Protect Navan’s prime agricultural land. 
• Support a shift to clean, renewable energy city-wide. 
• Include ward-19 residents in decision making on development processes. 
• Improve transparency and accountability:
• Create more enforceable community design plans.
• Advocate for more transparent committee appointments at City Hall so everyone is well represented. 
• Favour a lower campaign contribution limit.
• Prioritize Rural Issues
• Explore the idea of land-transfer grants that help maintain farms over generations.
• Develop a local food strategy to give our farmers more opportunities to provide food to residents in Ward 19.
• Aid local farmers still trying to recover from the May storm.
• Better Road Safety + Better Transportation
• Advocate for speed calming measures like lower speed limits and automated speed enforcement.
• Improve cycling and pedestrian infrastructure that seek to curb cycling and pedestrian road deaths and injuries.
• Improve public transit to be more reliable, accessible, and secure.

Catherine Kitts

Political experience: : I was elected in the 2020 by-election to represent Cumberland Ward (now renamed Orleans South-Navan), and have had the honour of being a City Councillor for the past 2 years. I sit on various committees and boards including Planning, Transportation and Community and Protective Services. I am also the Vice-Chair of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, am a trustee on the Ottawa Public Library Board, and sit on the Board of the South Nation Conservation Authority.

Professional experience:

After graduating from Carleton with a Bachelor of Journalism, I became the editor of the Orléans Star newspaper, where I worked for several years. Through reporting on the area (that I also grew up in), I became extremely well-educated on the issues facing the east end, which led me to enter politics. In addition to my experience in journalism, I have also worked in communications, marketing and strategic planning.
In my spare time, I’ve been involved with organizations like Equal Voice, the Heart of Orleans BIA, the Carleton University Alumni Mentorship program, the Canadian Hemochromatosis Society, the Snowsuit Fund, and other local charitable organizations. 

How long have you lived in Ottawa? 34 years. A lifelong east end resident. 

Favourite Ottawa location/landmark?  Our city is so rich in beautiful natural spaces and trails. Close to home, I love cycling or walking my dog along the Prescott-Russell Trail in the summer or traveling the Ski Heritage East trails in the winter. 

Describe your platform in 280 words or fewer:

I have spent the last two years as your elected representative in Orléans South-Navan (formerly Cumberland Ward) diving into the most pressing challenges our community is facing, listening to your concerns and advocating on your behalf on issues like our critical need for transportation infrastructure. Our roads are congested and damaged, our intersections are failing, we are under-served by transit, cycling links are missing and very few neighbourhoods are walkable, 15-minute communities. The time is now to resolve our dispute with the NCC and move forward on extending Brian Coburn and building a dedicated bus corridor – Without this critical infrastructure we do not have the ability to build healthy, complete communities. In the meantime, we need to improve traffic flow at key intersections and optimize existing bus routes for efficient, reliable travel. In the rural area, roads have been badly neglected – impacting our farming community and rural small businesses. We must recommit to promises broken after amalgamation, invest in our rural area, protect agricultural land and support our volunteer firefighters.

I have also heard how important affordability is to our community, and I am proud of my voting record on keeping property taxes low and predictable. 

Finally, I am hearing the need to deliver on the basic city services, which is why I have committed to overhauling 3-1-1, continuing to secure investment in east end road resurfacing, park maintenance, enhanced bilingual recreational programming and tackling speeding in our neighbourhoods. You can continue to count on me to be solutions-oriented, communicate heavily, be a collaborative leader and responsive to your concerns.