We need a safe, vibrant and welcoming downtown to ensure our city and country can thrive. Downtown Ottawa is home to incredible businesses, community organizations and people, with proper funding and attention, we can scale up community solutions and ideas that will allow our capital to thrive.
These are my commitments to downtown revitalization for everyone.
Federal land disposal
We need to speed up the process of transferring federal land and buildings for public use. The federal government should also provide funding to the municipal government and non-profits to ensure these repurposing efforts happen quickly, and the disposal process does not end up as a subsidy for profit-focused operators.
As part of this process, a number of buildings and lands should be reserved for social services, housing, public green space and cultural uses.
I am committed to:
Addressing the addiction crisis
We know that the solutions to addressing the addiction crisis are complex and we are committed to tackling this crisis with a wide range of policies and services.
In the short term, we must scale up street-level outreach services, increase the number of drop-in service centres downtown and work with the province to fix the safe supply program.
Additionally, by fighting for access to therapy and community support for hard reduction and addiction treatment services staff, we can ensure the workers keeping our community safe are taken care of.
I am committed to:
Protecting our culture
Public art, festivals, concerts and other cultural events play an important role in downtown revitalization. Not only do arts spaces and events attract tourists and people looking for a new place to call home, increasing the presence of arts based programming helps to decrease crime and increase social cohesion over the long term.
I am committed to:
Supporting small businesses
Small businesses play an important role in downtown revitalization, but we must ensure they can grow their business in our downtown core. Vacant storefronts are a significant issue in our community, and filling these spaces must be a priority.
I am committed to: