Kelly: ‘Working hard at spending your money wisely’

Last Wednesday (Nov. 13), council took the first steps towards passing the 2025 budget. While there will never be enough money or efficiencies to satisfy every resident, we are working hard at spending your money wisely. 

To that end, we are pleased to see the city has found an additional $53 million in savings and efficiency.  While it won’t solve the core issue of hospital off-load delays, the citywide addition of 23 paramedics is a good thing for our city and these additional resources will help with rural response times. The city will also hire 22 additional firefighters, 10 by-law staff, and improved vehicles and technology to support their work, as part of this budget. In a rural area like Ward 5, where emergency assistance stands at the end of an agonizing wait, these additional resources will be a positive addition. 

We are also pleased to see some consideration and some funding for additional resources to support Rural Summit actions. I mentioned during the summit it was not the end of the road for increased rural support in the City of Ottawa, rather it was the beginning. It is great to see some funding for additional resources to help with this important work. With ditching and drainage issues being one of the top reasons for calls or emails to my office I am thrilled that budget for ditch maintenance will be doubled, and staff will be working on a comprehensive plan for ditch maintenance. Also included in the 2025 budget will be money for an additional full-time employee for the Rural Affairs Office which will help both rural residents and councillors to better advocate for rural focused solutions for rural communities.  

Road and infrastructure improvements are what I hear about most often in my office. This term of council, we have consistently upped our roads budget in Ward 5 to help with the repair and maintenance of hundreds of culverts, and many kilometres of roads. We anticipate nearly five kilometres of gravel road upgrades in our ward alone over the next couple of years, and we are excited to see this sort of commitment to rural needs from the city. I am working with staff to identify the road resurfacing priorities in Ward 5 and will also be attending the Transportation committee’s budget debate to advocate for more commitments when it comes to road maintenance. 

I am also happy to see $25.7 million for pedestrian and road safety initiatives and I will continue to push for some more options for road safety on our rural roads, for both pedestrians and drivers. I look forward to continuing to advocate for the city to invest in the safety and infrastructure of Ward 5.

I look forward to providing more details on ward specific investments as we go through the budget debates at committee and the passing of the budget on Dec. 11.