Tanya Hein Platform: 2027 to 2030
The focus of my advocacy will continue to be ensuring liveability as Stittsville grows – not just building “units” to meet a housing quota. That means building connected neighbourhoods with robust transit, safe and useful pathways, properly maintained roads, green spaces, access to recreational facilities and programing, thriving business communities, and working toward meeting our key service and infrastructure needs. This platform is meant to be attainable; I have no interest in promising beyond what I believe the City can deliver. I encourage engagement and challenge residents to hold me to account. Specifically:
MOBILITY
Public Transit
Continued adjustments to route run times: We cannot expect buses to show up on time if the schedules are not based on realistic travel times. The Auditor General has reported that the current schedule is built on underestimated runtimes – essentially, these routes cannot reliably stay on schedule. City staff have started to make changes, but I will advocate for system-wide scheduling to reflect the most current conditions to improve reliability and to rebuild rider trust in OC Transpo. As the timing issues are worked out, I will advocate for frequency increases on key Stittsville routes and investigating options for on-demand bussing as a supplementary service.
Transparent performance reporting: We can only fix what we acknowledge. I will push for timely, clearly presented service reporting. This information must be available to the public as well as to staff and Council. Importantly, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel on this – OC Transpo used to offer fairly comprehensive performance reporting, and technology has improved since then.
Timely communication with riders: I understand that your time matters and that you need to have real-time information to make informed travel decisions. I will work with staff to find better solutions, so you aren’t wasting time and to help you re-build trust in OC Transpo as a reliable service to move around the city.
Support for provincial LRT upload: I will back the finalization and implementation of the provincial LRT upload and push for investment of savings into Stittsville transit priorities such as more express routes, bus rapid transit, and less ‘milk runs’. Bringing LRT to Stittsville has to be part of this discussion, and it’s time for both the provincial and federal governments to make funding commitments. Council needs to be active in securing this support. Similarly, we are still discovering the impacts of the July flooding on western LRT extension progress. In the meantime, we need to be looking at how to boost bus service serving all of the west end until we have a fully functional and fully built out LRT.
Transit Station: Council has been approving high density and low- or no-parking developments for Stittsville based on proximity to transit stations that do not exist. They are planned, but not the kind of plan that includes funding and goal dates. At least one major transit station in Stittsville needs to put onto an accelerated schedule. This will allow us to have a transit anchor point in the community.
Roads, Sidewalks and Pathways
Carp Road Widening: Carp Road widening is a great example of how leveraging development charge incentive programs can boost funding and expedite a project. It’s also a solid example of why the municipality needs to take an active role with both residents and business owners during periods of extended disruption. For the benefit of both, full-road closures must be minimized as much as possible. I will be working with city staff to ensure there are no unnecessary closures, that access points to commercial and residential areas are protected, that alternate access signage is in place, and that, to the greatest extent possible, residents can easily check on closures for this or other projects from home.
Robert Grant Extension: I will be looking for every opportunity to accelerate/fund this project to completion, including looking at partnership options with other levels of government or developer front-ending agreements.
Road, Sidewalk and Pathway Renewal Inventory: I will work with City staff to build a dynamic inventory list of local roads, sidewalks, and pathways in need of renewal or expansion, grading their condition, listing planned renewal/upgrade dates, and looking for opportunities to move these forward. Stittsville Main Street will be a priority. This will include road-painting projects so we know where that work needs to be prioritized.
Traffic Safety: I will be consulting regularly with the community, school boards, seniors’ residences, By-law Services and Ottawa Police Service on reported pedestrian and traffic safety hotspots and working on enhanced enforcement operations and opportunities for structural changes. Knocking on doors, residents have highlighted the Cope Road and Abbott/Robert Grant school zones as particularly high risk due to congestion and friction between drivers and pedestrians, and Hazeldean, West Ridge, Stittsville Main. Fernbank, and portions of Robert Grant for stunt driving, especially at night.
Data proves speeding has increased markedly since automated speed enforcement cameras were removed. I will be lobbying the provincial government to move quickly on promised speed bump funding/installations and to reinstate the cameras, particularly in school zones. ASE is unpopular with people who prioritize their convenience over safety, but it does have a proven downward impact on speeding behaviour over time.
MONEY
Affordability is an issue for many residents right now, with costs rising across the board and international events causing unusual fluctuations in certain sectors. City Council cannot fix the world, but we can commit to greater financial stewardship.
Budget Transparency: The City must revamp its financial reporting so that the average resident can more clearly see where their tax money is going. Current line items are so broad and/or vague that residents cannot meaningfully contribute to finding efficiencies or determining specific investment priorities. We also need to be able to more easily identify which projects are not staying with assigned budgets, and why, and determining underlying reasons so that future estimates can be more accurate.
Decision Transparency/Voting Records: I think it’s important to know how each councillor has handled each decision that has come to Council as this is a reflection of their priorities, financial and otherwise. To this end, I will ask for the creation and timely updating of a Councillor Voting Record to be made available to the public.
Property Tax: Getting a better financial picture of City spending and looking for efficiencies are critical before looking at increased taxation. That said, with City costs also rising, and with many needed projects having been deferred, it’s unrealistic to think tax levels will remain flat but Council has a duty to reach a reasonable balance.
Economic Development: I want to make city contacts more accessible to local businesses by examining our procurement processes and working with staff to come up with options such as unbundling certain contracts, simplifying the tendering process and ensuring qualifiers are necessary. I also want to centralize services and streamline licensing and permits to better serve local businesses and to attract new investment into the community, following a model such as Mississauga uses. This might include specific tax deferrals for very small businesses, of which there are many in Ottawa, or public realm investments to make areas such as Stittsville Main more attractive to new business investment.
MEETING NEEDS
Consultation & Reporting: Determining the wants and needs of residents is a core part of being a city councillor and I am committed to being approachable in person, online, or over the phone. I believe in meeting people where they are, explaining options, and actively seeking engagement and feedback. I am promising strong two-way communication, timely updates across newspaper and online platforms, and reliable attendance at committees and Council.
I will also provide as many opportunities for engagement as possible, whether inviting developers to explain their proposals to residents before everything is set in concrete, pointing out opportunities to provide feedback on initiatives such as park design, budget or infrastructure priorities, or inviting residents to participate at committees and Council meetings so Councillors can hear concerns directly.
Reporting back to residents in plain language is also important and residents will be able to count on me to keep them informed of City goings on and to how their consultation was either heard, included or implemented.
I am committed to upholding the communication standard set by our current Councillor including a comprehensive website with pinned Stittsville status overview, weekly newspaper and social media updates, responsive staff, community meetings and pop ups, and direct answers always.
Infrastructure/Growth: The City’s 10-year, $10-billion infrastructure spending gap is a serious issue spanning everything from transit, roads, water/sewers, sidewalks, recreation facilities, emergency services facilities, fleets, and more. Previous Councils have kept budgets in line by deferring needed major new and renewal projects to be dealt with at a future point. For many City infrastructure pieces, those decisions are coming due and we need to decide what we can afford and what we cannot afford.
Similarly, we have new neighbourhoods being built daily, and traditionally, supportive or enabling infrastructure for those areas has been kept to a minimum with nice-to-haves potentially added later.
However, with more dense development in Stittsville, in particular, we create problems if we aren’t able to compress the time between occupancy of new builds and the provision of supporting infrastructure and services. A key example of this is the number of no- or very low-parking developments that are approved based on proximity to major transit stations that don’t yet exist (and likely won’t for years) and on a bus/LRT system that is not expansive enough, timely enough, or reliable enough to meet day-to-day needs. That means many of those people will buy or continue to own vehicles but park them on street in surrounding neighbourhoods that were not designed to handle that. That cascades into safety issues, resident upset, snow clearing problems, etc.
When new growth comes into a neighbourhood, I will be watching for potential friction areas, paying attention to cumulative issues (again, the practical issue of managing school traffic on Cope or Abbott is a great example), pushing back against unreasonable zoning by-law amendments regarding density, height, setbacks, urban boundary expansion (particularly into environmentally sensitive areas), and working with the developer to find mitigation solutions (ex: transitional parking areas, additional community benefits, etc.).
Services: A healthy community is a well-served community and with growth, our needs are changing. Much like with infrastructure needs, I will be working with City staff to ensure residents have access to the services they need, whether that is expanded cultural, social, sports and recreation capacity, better library hours, easily accessible social or housing supports, emergency services, snow clearing, grass-cutting, adequate garbage (3-bag limit review) and recycling pick up, etc.
