Councillor Kelly's ARAC Remarks About Bringing Back the Rural Summit and Next Steps
- Clarke Kelly
- Aug 21
- 1 min read
Despite it being a promise made to rural Ottawa at amalgamation, our City went 16 years without holding a Rural Summit, and in those years, the feeling that rural Ottawa was being ignored continued to grow.
Our ditches became overgrown, ARAC basically only heard rural planning files, police disappeared from our roads, ambulance response times were unacceptable, and our roads continued to crumble.
The very first thing I did as your Councillor was to bring back this forum for rural Ottawa. And of course, we haven’t solved all the issues through this process, but for the first time in many terms of council, rural issues were on the agenda in a meaningful way.
And together, with the other members of ARAC, we now have a solid foundation in place from which to make more positive change for Ward 5 residents and people and families across rural Ottawa.
The process now is about follow-through and accountability, which is why I moved a motion yesterday to establish regular reporting to ARAC and rural councillors, while also directing staff to develop a clear timetable to track the progress and status of commitments from the 2024 Rural Summit.
You can watch and listen to what I had to say yesterday at committee below:
