Pie Palace

I attended the Ottawa-Centre EDA AGM last night. Aside from the usual business of an AGM, the most interesting talk was from Alex Munter who dropped by to give a quick stump speech.

Munter sees five challenges facing Ottawa in the near future:

1. Implementing sustainable transportation.

2. Preventing housing prices from sky-rocketing any further, and providing affordable housing to those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to pay for it.
   
3. Improving the environment.
   
4. Changes in Ottawa’s population. This was two pronged: helping new immigrants integrate into Ottawa (and helping Ottawa absorb them); and dealing with an aging population.
   
5. Handling the city’s financial problems.

He went on to make three other points that I found particularly interesting:

• There is no city plan to handle the aging population. He advocates the creation of residences scattered around the city so that folks can stay in their existing community as they age.

• He wants to ensure that intensificationn projects are appropriate for the host community. He says that the local builders are deliberately trying to show that intensification doesn’t work by proposing huge condo towers. If intensification fails, our city will continue to sprawl out onto the surrounding farmland.
  
• He stated that transportation problems are a sign of poor urban planning.

His statement on transportation made me want to hug him. I seldom have the urge to hug politicians, but this one statement was enough to show that he gets it. Those statements are all wonderfully Green. I don’t know if that’s an indication that he knew what to say to please the room, or if he really is as forward-thinking as he seems. In either case, I’m definitely going to be following his campaign.