At the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC), we received a presentation on the City’s Draft Economic Development Rural Plan (2026-2027).
I was thrilled to see this draft come forward. I’ve taken the leader of this project with me on a door knocking tour through our industrial parks and most recently to join me at a focus group discussion about ways to enable businesses in our villages to thrive. I was really pleased to see many of the points raised reflected in this draft. I used my time at committee to press staff on accountability and follow-through, because rural Ottawa has seen too many plans that read well but do not translate into change on the ground.
What we need in a plan
The draft plan proposes 11 recommendations including establishing a permanent Rural Business Liaison and closer work with the Rural Affairs Office – which I think is a great start. However, we need to ensure this role is empowered to actively reach out to businesses and be a problem-solver, not just a navigator, and that cross-department coordination will be locked in so that rural businesses are not bounced around City Hall. Importantly, we need clear reporting, and regular check-ins so ARAC and rural residents can see what is happening, what is stuck, and what is getting fixed.
As I have raised before, rural businesses need more than promotion and support. They need the City to commit to removing real barriers like zoning friction, lack of experience with rural innovations, and servicing constraints. We need village level strategies to revitalize main streets and real effort to incentivize investment. I also pressed on the risk of this becoming another “within existing resources” exercise, with no new tools or investment to actually deliver what is needed – so we need to build that in.
Next Steps
The 30-day public consultation on Engage Ottawa opened on Thursday. The final plan is coming back to ARAC on May 7. I’m looking forward to working with staff over the coming weeks to bolster this draft and I invite you to participate, so the final plan reflects rural voices and is setup well to deliver results.
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