City pledges new supports amid concerns from rural communities

The City of Ottawa has announced several new commitments to rural residents in an effort to provide them with equal opportunities and support.

The initiatives were announced Saturday at the end of the city's third-ever rural summit, the first one held in more than 15 years.

They include commitments to double the budget for ditching and drainage infrastructure, to identify a designated "rural lead" in every city department to represent rural interests, and to hire 23 new paramedics in both 2025 and 2026 to address response time.

Several rural councillors and city staff hosted the summit as a forum for hundreds of residents to voice their concerns.

First summit since 2008

The city's first rural summit was held shortly after amalgamation in 2001, with a second taking place in 2008.

Summits were initially planned to take place during each council term, but they were halted for unspecified reasons after the second iteration.

West Carleton-March Coun. Clarke Kelly proposed council relaunch the summit in 2022.

Feedback gathered from residents since then informed the initiatives announced Saturday, according to Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown.

Approximately 80 per cent of Ottawa's land is rural, but it houses only 20 per cent of its residents. Several councillors have cited concerns that with the large amount of emphasis being placed on downtown decision-making, those residents aren't being appropriately supported.

Brown said urban infrastructure design, for example, does not often accommodate the type of traffic roads in a rural setting might see.

He said he spent almost a year asking for adjustments to the design of the new roundabout at Perth Street and Meynell Road in Richmond. Those adjustments are now being made, Brown added — but only after he brought a farmer and his tractor out to demonstrate the roundabout would be too small for farm equipment.

"We need rural solutions for rural people," he said. "It is OK to have a different solution for the rural area, the urban area, and the suburban area."

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said Saturday that the city is advocating for a designation as a "rural city" from the province, which would allow for increased recognition and provincial funding.

"I think it's easy for people to overlook the huge rural component we have to our city when decisions are made," Sutcliffe said.

Emergency services updates a key concern

Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matthew Luloff said he was intimately familiar with what's at stake for rural communities.

When his daughter was born with trouble breathing, his family had to wait an hour before paramedics got there.

"In a rural area, you can't worry about how long it takes for an ambulance to arrive," he said.

Often, Ottawa paramedics aren't the ones to respond to rural emergencies and other municipalities have to step in. Ambulances can also be stuck waiting to admit patients at hospitals, and can't be dispatched to new emergencies.

While the announcement of almost 50 new paramedics won't prevent long waits at hospitals, Luloff said it would ensure more are available for dire situations.

"I think it's going to be a game changer," he said.

Not everyone on board

Phil Mount, a sheep farmer in the rural community of Vernon, said he didn't feel heard, despite the city's efforts.

"For something you're only going to do for once or twice a decade, they need to devote more time to it," he said. "This gives people one chance to offer a sort of instantaneous feedback on something that's been thrown at them."

He did say some efforts to include more resident input, like the formation of an agricultural advisory committee, were promising steps.

The city aims to hold its next rural summit within the first two years of council's next term, in either 2027 or 2028.

When Sutcliffe posted a video promoting the summit, he said much of the social media response he received worried he was pitting rural communities against urban ones — and added that was not his goal.

"This is not a zero-sum game," he said.

Sutcliffe said he couldn't yet share information on how much the initiatives will cost, though they would be included in the 2025 budget, which will be presented to council on Nov. 13 and voted on on Dec. 11.