Report
to:
Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee
and Council
Submitted by: Kent Kirkpatrick, City Manager
Contact Person: Moira
Winch, Rural Summit Project Manager,
City Manager's Office
(613) 580-2424 Ext. 13360,
Moira.Winch@ottawa.ca
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SUBJECT: |
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REPORT RECOMMENDATION
That the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and Council receive this report for information.
On June 22, 2005, City Council approved the approach for Ottawa’s Rural Summit. The Summit is being held to promote greater understanding between the City’s rural and urban citizens and to identify specific ways in which the City can improve how it delivers services to its rural neighbourhoods. The Summit will last for two days in the fall of 2005. The issues, agenda and timing will be identified and developed by Ottawa’s rural citizens, and the City will work co-operatively with the rural community to develop practical solutions and specific action plans to address those issues.
The first phase of the Summit process was issue identification, which involved comprehensive consultations held from late May through early July. Sixteen facilitated meetings were held in the communities of West Carleton, Kanata, Goulbourn, Rideau, Osgoode and Cumberland. Over 300 rural citizens participated. In addition, feedback was also received by email, in writing, by telephone and by direct contact with the Rural Summit Project Manager.
The consultation sessions were designed to elicit as much feedback as possible. In many instances, discussion was intense and strong opinions were expressed. The facilitators did not differentiate between perception and fact in their reporting, instead reporting what was said as it was said. Participants did not only look at problem areas during these sessions, but also offered insight into potential solutions to the issues raised. Both the issues raised and the suggestions offered have been synthesized by the Summit Project Manager, and will be the foundation upon which the Rural Summit Steering Committees will build the agendas for the two days of the Summit. An overview of the issues and suggestions is provided in this report, with the full results of the consultations listed in Appendix A.
Overall, the Rural Summit consultations can be summarized with three underlying messages. Rural citizens want the City to understand that one size does not fit all, that common sense must be applied to service delivery and policy issues and the new city needs to respect rural citizens more.
Most of the specific views, concerns and issues as provided by participants can be grouped into five major categories:
The specific concerns raised range from very general, broad-based issues involving several jurisdictions to very specific individual or neighbourhood concerns. The Steering Committees will be using these issues to develop agendas that will result in practical solutions and action plans that will mean real change in how the City works for its rural communities, which means that the Summit will be addressing the overarching issues rather than the individual issues (i.e. how roads maintenance schedules are determined rather than individual roads), and the action plan will be addressing only those areas that the City has direct control over (i.e. wellwater testing services offered by the City but not provincial drinking water regulations; improving current governance but not provincial amalgamation/de-amalgamation issues). The Summit will not be dealing with issues that City Council has already decided (for example, the transit levy and the Munster forcemain), but will be recommending to City Council activities and policies which could become the City’s Rural Agenda, to be included in the City’s Corporate Plan and incorporated into the 2006 and future budgets.
A number of the concerns raised, particularly those regarding
agriculture, the environment and land use, have implications beyond the City
and involve the federal and provincial governments and emerging national issues
surrounding the rural/urban divide. These kinds of issues will form the basis
for the agenda for Day One of the Summit. Day One will focus on “The
Rural-Urban Relationship”, and uses the Ontario Rural Council (TORC) Model. Day One will include presentations
and panel discussions, followed by question and answer sessions. The Day One Summit Steering Committee
consists of: Jim Nubel (The
Ontario Rural Council or TORC), Ned
Lathrop (Deputy City Manager, Planning and Growth Management), Councillor Rob
Jellett, Councillor Maria McRae, a Federal Government Representative, a
Provincial Government Representative,
and community representatives.
This Committee will use the Issues Paper to identify topics, suggest
presenters and determine panel participants for Day One of the Summit. The Day
One Steering Committee will also determine the timing and the location of the
Summit.
Those concerns that are specific to how the City of Ottawa works with its rural communities will be addressed in Day Two of the Summit. Day Two will focus on “Rebuilding Public Satisfaction in Rural Areas” and will use a workshop format based on the five major issue themes identified during the consultation process. The Day Two Summit Committee consists of Councillors Rob Jellett, Glenn Brooks, Eli El-Chantiry, Janet Stavinga, Doug Thompson, Maria McRae, Bob McKinley (The Rural Council of Ottawa-Carleton), Jim Nubel (The Ontario Rural Council or TORC); and a number of community representatives. The Day Two Committee will review the issues paper and structure five sub-committees, with each committee dealing with one of the major themes noted. These sub-committees will be tasked with the responsibility for research, investigation, and developing potential solutions for consideration during the Summit. The sub-committees will be made up of community representatives, city staff and one or two city Councillors. At the Summit, the workshops will be led by community representatives who have served on these sub-committees. All Summit committees and sub-committees will be supported by the Rural Summit Project Manager and City staff.
It is important to note that the process for the Summit has already led to a change in how the City is addressing rural issues. A number of the individual issues raised at the consultation sessions were acted upon immediately and most have since been resolved. As well, any policy issue that the City is currently undertaking that does not have mandatory requirements or timelines is being forwarded to the Summit process to help develop the recommendations for Council (i.e. the Greenspace Master Plan), and these will also form part of the Summit Agenda. Consideration of the rural perspective is being included more as a matter of course. For example, the Director of By-law Services has begun working very closely with rural representatives on By-law Harmonization and rural-specific issues, and the newly-created Business Advisory Committee has significant representation from the rural business community.
After City Council receives this report, the Day One and Day Two Steering Committees and the Day Two sub-committees will begin their work. The Summit’s theme is “Ottawa – Proud to be Rural”, and it is anticipated that it will be held sometime in mid-November. Currently, venues are being investigated for recommendation to the Day One Steering Committee.
Immediately following the Summit, the Mayor’s Task Force will be appointed. Membership will include many of those community members involved in the working committees, as well as City staff and members of Council. The mandate of the Task Force will be to evaluate and monitor implementation of Summit and Task Force findings.
As has been stated, the consultation process for the identification of the issues that will form the agenda for the Rural Summit was intensive. Over 300 people participated in 16 facilitated sessions. The participants expressed their issues clearly. Often, there was heated discussion and people expressed both frustration with issues and insight into potential solutions. All of the feedback was recorded and included in some form within the themes identified by the Summit Project Manager in this report. It should be noted that the feedback received was not filtered. Some of the issues raised are not in the City’s control. Some of the issues raised are not factually accurate. Some have already been addressed by either City Council or by City staff. Everything was recorded and included for consideration, as it was determined that it was important to understand perceptions as well as factual issues, and that there was considerable value learning from past or resolved issues to better inform what could be done differently in the future.
A full recording of the feedback received is attached in Appendix A.
There were three underlying messages that remained consistent throughout the consultations: Participants wanted the City to understand that one size does not fit all, that common sense must be applied to service delivery and policy issues and the City needs to respect rural citizens more.
From there, the sessions focussed on issues that have been grouped into five major categories: Access, communication, and consultation; Governance; Service Issues; Policy Issues; and Agriculture. These issues will inform the Steering Committees and sub-committees as these groups develop the agenda and options papers for discussion at the Summit itself.
Highlights of the feedback are listed below, to illustrate the kinds of issues the Steering Committees and sub-committees will be working on in the next few months leading up to the Summit. As has been said, issues that have already been resolved or dealt with by Council or are outside the scope of the City’s work will not be included as part of the Summit workshops, but will be used to inform the working groups as they develop options for future change.
Highlights of Consultations:
Much of the feedback received centred on these issues. Overall, participants felt far away from the City, and felt that City staff does not have a good understanding of rural culture and concerns, and that lack of understanding is reflected in how the City conducts its everyday communications and consultation activities. Some specific observations were:
In addition to these issues, participants offered a number of potential solutions that the working groups can look at as they develop recommended options for consideration at the Summit. These included: Client Service Centres should be open more often and staff at the centres should be knowledgeable about rural issues; the City’s Web Page should have a dedicated rural section which is easy to access; the Call Centre should have dedicated staff to respond to rural callers or key contact persons with rural knowledge should be identified to respond to rural enquiries; staff working with farmers should attend meetings of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and network with provincial and federal associates to stay abreast of agricultural issues; Councillors offices should provide easy-to-read newsletters on a regular basis to all citizens; get information out to rural citizens and then allow more time for consultation; and initiate a team of rural experts to consult on rural issues before policies are drafted
Governance issues were also raised at most consultation sessions, with reference made to recent discussions regarding changes to ward boundaries. Some specific observations were:
In addition to these issues, participants offered a number of potential solutions that the working groups can look at as they develop recommended options for consideration at the Summit. These included: appointing a Rural Ombudsman; vetting by-laws with a rural impact with a rural team prior to being brought forward for consideration by Committee or Council; de-centralizing decisions that affect rural citizens to a group of Ward experts; put in place an Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee that has real power and understand rural issues, but includes some urban Councillors as well; add a Rural Affairs Department with a Deputy City Manager reporting directly to the City Manager and staff with real knowledge of rural issues; initiate a system of weighted voting on items that impact rural citizens.
Service issues occupied most of the discussion time at the consultation sessions, and particular emphasis was placed on roads, facilities and emergency services. Specific concerns included:
In addition to these issues, participants offered a number of potential solutions that the working groups can look at as they develop recommended options for consideration at the Summit. These included: more funding for maintenance; local crews should have more discretion; a capital program should be put in place; roads travelled by school buses should be given priority treatment; speed limits should be in line with use; dust suppression compounds should be applied regularly on gravel roads, particularly those used by pit and quarry operators; a clear process should be put in place for funding and operating rural facilities that do not have full time staff in house; facility operating boards would provide autonomy to community volunteers; toilet facilities for sportsfields should be portable toilets; more police presence in rural areas, particularly with respect to speeding; ambulance should continue to work on improved response; evaluate the volunteer fire force with respect to efficiency and availability; and review tiered response mechanism for fire and emergency services.
Participants raised a wide-ranging group of policy issues, mainly focusing on transit, by-law harmonization, land use and property rights, environment, sustainable communities, and taxes. Specific issues raised included:
The potential solutions offered by participants for the working groups’ consideration were equally wide-ranging. These included: do not impose transit services on areas that do not want it; if there is a business case for private service, allow use of City transitway; Review/revise the commuter bus schedule as needed; impose a small fee for park and ride users; review new and emerging technologies that could be implemented in existing villages to increase population and provide sustainability; ditch weeds could be cut by City staff before seeding; a system of monitoring septic-tank cleanout could be implemented; rural citizens should be better informed about major issues such as factory farm; if a by-law is not needed in the rural area, note within the by-law that it does not apply in rural wards; compensation could be paid if property redesignated by City; leave stewardship of wetlands and woodlots to the owners; full consultation and discussion should take place with rural landowners before indicating property within a Green Space Master Plan; provide professional support to assist owners in their discussions with the Province or other agencies; consider adopting a by-law that does not allow the redesignation of private property without permission of the owner; provide a clear, easy to read, accounting of revenue received and expended in the rural area; and implement user pay policies.
AGRICULTURE
As the City of Ottawa has the largest farm economy of any city in Canada, participants felt that agricultural concerns needed to specific attention. Specific concerns included:
In addition to these issues, participants offered a number of potential solutions that the working groups can look at as they develop recommended options for consideration at the Summit. These included: building inspectors should be knowledgeable of farm buildings; public meetings and consultation opportunities should be held outside the peak farming season and adequate time should be allowed for review of material; a contact list of stakeholders and organizations in the agricultural sector should be compiled and used by the City; and, an Agriculture Advisory Committee should be structured and given a prominent role in City government.
As has been indicated, the above are highlights of the feedback received from the consultation process. The working groups will be using all of the feedback provided in Appendix A to inform their work.
The process identified for Phase 2 of the Rural Summit is two-fold.
The issues paper will be provided to Day One Summit Steering Committee who will develop an agenda for day one, based on The Ontario Rural Council (TORC) model. This group will identify topics, suggest presenters, determine panel participants, and organize day one of the Summit.
The Day Two Summit Steering Committee will review the issues paper and structure five sub-committees. These sub-committees will be tasked with responsibility for research, investigation, and developing options for consideration during the Summit in line with the five areas of concentration identified in the issues paper. These sub-committees will report to the Day Two Summit Steering Committee. Members of the sub-committees will play a major role in Day Two of the Summit.
Members of sub-committees have been identified as a result of their interest in the summit demonstrated at consultation sessions, through discussions with the Summit Manager, and by indicating their interest by email or through the Feedback Form process. As well, rural Councillors were asked to consider knowledgeable, willing citizens who were interested and had the time to participate in the working groups during the three months prior to the Summit, and in the Summit itself. Senior staff, and members of Council will also be involved. These sub-committees will be supported by the Rural Summit Project Manager and City staff.
Immediately following the Summit a Task Force will be appointed. Membership will include many of those involved in the working committees, as well as City staff and members of Council. The mandate of the Task Force is to evaluate and monitor implementation of Summit and Task Force findings. The Task Force will be supported by the Rural\Summit Project Manager and the City Manager’s staff.
RURAL IMPLICATIONS
A major focus of Ottawa’s Rural Summit is to identify and address issues and concerns of rural citizens.
The Summit is being held to promote greater understanding between the City’s rural and urban citizens and to identify specific ways in which the City can improve how it delivers services to its rural neighbourhoods. The Summit will last for two days in the fall of 2005, with the issues, agenda and timing identified and developed by Ottawa’s rural citizens, and where the City works co-operatively with the rural community to develop practical solutions and specific action plans to address those issues.
The Summit is a unique opportunity for rural citizens to get involved to speak about issues that concern them and to participate in the development of solutions.
CONSULTATION
The first phase of the Summit process was issue identification, which involved comprehensive consultations held from late May through early July. Sixteen facilitated meetings were held in the communities of West Carleton, Kanata, Goulbourn, Rideau, Osgoode and Cumberland. Over 300 rural citizens participated. In addition, feedback was also received by email, in writing, by telephone and by direct contact with the Rural Summit Project Manager.
The consultation sessions were
designed to elicit as much feedback as possible. In many instances, discussion was intense and strong opinions were
expressed. The facilitators did not differentiate between perception and fact
in their reporting, instead reporting what was said as it was said. Participants did not only look at problem
areas during these sessions, but also offered insight into potential solutions
to the issues raised. Both the issues raised and the suggestions offered have
been synthesized by the Summit Project Manager, and will be the foundation upon
which the Rural Summit Steering Committees will build the agendas for the two
days of the Summit. An overview of the issues and suggestions is provided in
this report, with the full results of the consultations listed in Appendix A.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Estimated costs to sponsor the Rural Summit are $150,000, which includes consulting, advertising and public consultation materials and logistical support for the Summit itself. Funds have not been provided for within the City's 2005 Budget; therefore, a one-time contribution from the City-Wide Reserve was approved by City Council at its meeting on June 22.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Appendix 1 – Rural Summit Consultation Results
DISPOSITION
The Rural Summit Project Manager and the various Summit Planning / Steering Committees will move forward on next steps as outlined within the report.