Council moving to hold byelection to fill vacant Osgoode seat

Ottawa city council is moving to hold a byelection to fill the seat for the rural ward of Osgoode, which will be left open by outgoing Coun. George Darouze's victory in last week's provincial election.

The city clerk, Caitlin Salter MacDonald, will come back later this month with a report laying out a plan for the byelection to replace Darouze, who was elected MPP for Carleton. She told reporters the most likely date will be in June.

Provincial law gave council two options: hold a by-election or appoint someone to the seat until the next general election in October 2026.

Council previously chose the appointment option to replace Jenna Sudds after she won a federal seat in 2021. But Mayor Mark Sutcliffe argued that this time around, a byelection was the more democratic choice.

"I think the default should always be a by-election, unless there's a good reason for there to be an appointment, if it's three months or six months before the next election, something like that," he said after a special council meeting on Wednesday.

"In this case I think it's far enough from the next election that the voters of Osgoode, the residents of Osgoode, deserve to have a voice in the decision."

Kitts, Brown to assume ward duties

Salter-MacDonald explained that council is expected to officially declare the seat vacant at a meeting on March 26 and pass a bylaw to require the byelection.

"Once that has occurred, voting day would need to be between 75 and 105 days later, so we would anticipate if that bylaw would to be passed at the next regular council meeting, a byelection would take place in the month of June," she said.

Council also formally tasked two neighbouring councillors, Catherine Kitts and David Brown, to take over responsibility for the residents of Osgoode while the seat remains vacant. That means they will have to sign off on matters and reports that require councillor approval.

Brown explained to reporters that residents of Osgoode won't see any real change when accessing the ward office.

"The office staff is still there, so you're still going to connect with the Ward 20 office," he said. "They're still going to be processing the casework and any of your inquiries that you have. It's just if there's a need for a councillor to become involved that either Coun. Kitts or I would engage on those matters."