The transition to monitoring operations does not signal the end of the City’s recovery efforts. The ECC has established an integrated task force to maintain situational awareness and coordinate access to recovery programs and services. The task force will support consistent, accessible, and equitable personalized support for affected residents throughout the recovery period.
The City’s Election-Related Resources Policy (ERRP) and its procedures prohibit Members of Council who are seeking re-election in a municipal election from using City resources such as office budgets and staff for newsletters and general communications from August 27, 2026, up to and including October 26, 2026 (known as the “blackout period”). As a sitting Member of Council, I must adhere to the City’s ERRP, meaning that this website will not be updated during the blackout period. My office remains open to deal with day-to-day constituency matters.
I’m hearing from a lot of residents who want answers about why flooding happened, and how we can prevent it from happening again. I certainly want those answers as well.
There won’t be a simple fix. 25 neighbourhoods have been dramatically affected and each had their own particular contexts. The City needs to examine the different local factors that may have contributed to flooding.
The General Manager of Infrastructure and Water Services has issued a detailed memo today about the floods. She details some of the causes, the impacts ward by ward, and how the City has responded.
She also talks about the investigation and analysis that are being done over the next months, and a commitment to action. It's worth reading!
Today, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved my motion to improve road safety across Ottawa. Here's my motion:WHEREAS speeding continues to be one of the most significant road‑safety concerns raised by residents across the City of Ottawa, particularly in residential neighbourhoods and school zones where vulnerable road users, including children, are at heightened risk; and
WHEREAS recent City data has shown a substantial increase in speeding in school zones, with compliance dropping from 87 percent to 41 percent within a 12‑week period following the removal of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras, and high‑end speeding increasing from 0.3 percent to over 4 percent during the same period; and
Whereas speed data is an important input in understanding risk related to more serious collisions; and
WHEREAS the city’s current approach to collecting speed data is limited and does not provide a full picture of speeds across the roadway network, and
WHEREAS other jurisdictions across Canada and internationally are increasingly incorporating innovative, technology‑enabled, and data‑driven approaches—including, predictive analytics, and AI‑supported monitoring systems—to inform their road safety programs; and
WHEREAS the City of Ottawa is currently undertaking work to update the Road Safety Action Plan, which will guide the road safety priorities for the next term of Council; and
WHEREAS this work presents an opportunity to modernize and strengthen the inputs used to make informed data-driven decisions about road safety;
THERFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff, through the update to the City’s Road Safety Action Plan, leverage advanced data analytics, predictive modelling, and AI‑supported technologies, where appropriate, to enhance the City’s ability to identify, monitor, and respond to speeding trends and inform road safety priorities
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff consider speed management as a focus area when developing the Road Safety Action Plan that will be presented to Council in 2027.
Read the Year Three Progress ReportDear Neighbours,
I am pleased to provide you with the College Ward Annual
Progress Report, showing the work that we did in 2025. I work hard every day to represent you on the
issues that are important to our neighbourhoods.
I hope this Progress Report is informative of the projects we
took on last year, and that it demonstrates my continuing
transparency and accountability to you. There is still more
always to do, and I list some future areas of interest.
Warm regards,
Laine
The news this week wasn’t good. Thousands of bus trips cancelled again in February. LRT down to one train for the foreseeable future. When it comes to Ottawa’s public transit, it seems there’s never good news.
Even the announcement of progress on the LRT East project was met with cynicism, given that the trains that Line 1 uses continue to have “spalling” issues with the wheel assembly.
When will it end? And what am I – one of the members of OC Transpo’s governance body – going to do about it?
Since 2022, I’ve been wrestling with myself over a feeling of powerlessness about OC Transpo, in conflict with my ability as a decision maker to affect change.
I have residents who are suffering immeasurably from a lack of service. Algonquin College students have the biggest uptake of the U-pass of all of Ottawa’s post-secondary institutions, but they can’t get to and from classes reliably. Bells Corners’ routes were cut during the pandemic, and the subsequent elimination of the 200 series through the New Ways to Bus changes have completely isolated that community from transit.
Algonquin College has been hard hit financially on two fronts: an 11 year tuition freeze and a sharp reduction in the number of foreign student visas. Both of these factors have made Algonquin's finances untenable, and the college's response has been to cut some of their most successful programs:
Algonquin Centre for Construction Excellence (ACCE)
Sustainable Architectural Design
Horticultural Industries
Horticulture Techniques – Apprenticeship
Pembroke Campus (Pemb)
Business (Program still offered at the Ottawa Campus and AC Online)
Business Fundamentals (Program still offered at the Ottawa Campus and AC Online)
Computer Programming (Program still offered at the Ottawa Campus and AC Online)
Environmental Management and Assessment (Program still offered at the Ottawa Campus)
School of Advanced Technology (SAT)
Manufacturing Engineering Technician
Faculty of Arts and Media Design (FAMD)
Pathways to Indigenous Empowerment (New Indigenous Studies programs offered)
Applied Museum Studies
Design Foundations
General Arts and Science – Aboriginal (New Indigenous Studies programs offered)
Journalism
Music, Media and Film Foundations
General Arts and Science (except English for Academic Purposes)
Music Industry Arts
Illustration and Concept Art
School of Business and Hospitality (SOBH)
Bachelor of Culinary Arts & Food Science (Honours)
Bartending
Business Development and Sales
Hospitality – Hotel and Restaurant Operations Management
Tourism – Travel
Law Clerk
Event Management
Financial Services
Paralegal
School of Health Studies (SOHS)
Pre-Health Pathway to Certificates and Diplomas
Pre-Health Pathway to Advanced Diplomas and Degrees (Program still offered at our Pembroke Campus)
School of Wellness, Public Safety & Community Studies (SWPSCS)
Recreation and Leisure Services
Fitness and Health Promotion (Program still offered through AC Online)
A year before I was elected, the derecho changed everything. Thousands of trees downed, telephone poles and wires destroyed, and days without electricity for many residents. And then, after I was elected, we had an ice storm that again took down branches and took out hydro.
For a while, it seemed like we couldn't go a month without brown-outs and black-outs. And I raised questions to Ottawa Hydro. Why hasn't tree trimming been done? Why isn't the Bells Corners Substation complete and online? What can we do to make our electricity supply more reliable?
Hydro Ottawa answered. The Bells Corners substation was completed and is now online, helping with reliability for thousands of homes. Tree trimming has become a regular activity. And the number of blackouts in College Ward has been sharply reduced. Hydro Ottawa recently provided me with a slide deck to show what's changed. I hope you'll take a look.
Whitmore/Cline/Sherman Infrastructure Renewal: a Q&A
Much of Nepean’s infrastructure, including roads, sewer pipes, and drinking water lines, was built in the 1950s and 60s. As it gets older, the City routinely checks the condition of the sewer and water pipes and makes plans to replace them.
When that work is planned, the City also redesigns the road itself, since it has to be ripped up anyway. City policy is that, wherever possible, the new road must be built to a slower speed limit (30 km/h for residential neighbourhoods), with sidewalks.
Recently, I’ve received several questions from residents along Whitmore, Cline, and Sherman about these policies and the upcoming infrastructure renewal project. I thought it might be helpful to offer a Q&A to help set the facts straight:
As the City moves toward adopting a new Zoning By-law in early 2026, alongside two ongoing secondary plans in College Ward for 2026-27, and several infill and larger developments always ongoing, I often hear from residents with concerns about density, parks, parking, school capacity, shadows, transportation, property standards, and property values. Many residents also share they are excited by the new opportunities and growth these changes could bring.
Given how much has changed in recent years, I wanted to take a moment to walk through the evolving planning landscape — both locally and provincially — and explain how these changes shape development in Ottawa.
At a recent community event, it was suggested that my background in affordable housing presented a “conflict of interest” with my role as your City Councillor. Since a conflict of interest is defined by the Municipal Act as a financial interest in a particular matter – that is, that I will personally benefit from decision-making on housing issues – this doesn’t quite add up.
I think the suggestion was that as someone who cares about the skyrocketing number of people who are forced to choose between housing costs and savings, or food, or other financial priorities, I’m compromised in my ability to advocate for current residents. I can only respond that I think people who need affordable housing are personal support workers, hairstylists, students, seniors and others who live in our communities today. I think it’s our kids and our grandparents.
I don’t agree that representing their interests, as well as the interests of those fortunate enough to be doing better, is in any way a conflict of interest. It’s hard, but that’s the job.
As disappointed as I was in the comment, it gives me an opportunity to reflect on my background and the values I bring to my work as your Councillor. I ran openly on my background in affordable housing as an asset to the role, and I think it might be useful to share how I believe my background makes me – and will continue to help me – be a better City Councillor.
