Councillor Kelly's Full Statement as Council Approves 2026 City Budget (With Video)
- Clarke Kelly
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Councillor Kelly's Full Statement on City of Ottawa's 2026 Budget:
Yesterday, Council discussed priorities, strategies, and funding during a roughly 10-hour long conversation about the 2026 budget.
My priorities have not changed since I was first elected. I intended to work to keep West Carleton-March rural, which is why I opposed Urban Boundary Expansion. I intended to bring rural concerns to the table, which is why I brought back the Rural Summit last year. I worked very hard to include farm exemptions to the changing Solid Waste rules and encouraged Solid Waste staff to speak to farmers to understand their needs. I intended to do whatever I could to fix our crumbling roads, which, in our Ward, crisscross an area of 763 km² and our ward has seen consistent increases in roads funding. This last issue is something I hear about consistently in my office.
I spoke at the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, and again yesterday at Council, about my disappointment with the system for determining which roads are upgraded. Too often, the process to pick which roads are resurfaced happens behind-the-scenes and involves a lot of data, study, and strategic plans, but is light on responding to resident concerns. I expressed my dismay that many of the requests I have made for resurfacing, based on feedback from residents, have not been completed, while other projects, that I have not heard complaints about in my office, are being completed.
After ARAC’s discussion about our budget, I had meetings with City staff to try to better represent what residents are bringing to my office, and to have those concerns integrated into plans for future work. Working together, we managed to fund a functional design for the resurfacing of Carp Road from Thomas A Dolan Parkway to Kinburn Side Road, and work on a particularly terrible section of Donald B. Munro Drive near Panmure.
Councillor Kelly's Questions About Rural Road Investments:
I'm pleased to see a response to our concerns about road resurfacing and happy to report we have seen a nearly 40% increase in roadworks funding since the beginning of the previous term of Council. This year, in Ward 5, there are a number of road resurfacing projects taking place, ranging from large projects on arterial roads to smaller projects on residential roads. I am very interested in making residential roads better and I have been working to get drainage work and studies completed on certain residential roads with longstanding issues, like Barlow Crescent and Harbour Street, to set the stage for resurfacing projects in the near future.
Part of that work involves culvert repairs, and I can say that, in this term of Council, Ward 5 culvert works have increased. This budget proposes the replacement of 30 small culverts in our ward to help with drainage and to set the stage for future road resurfacing. Since the City undertakes culvert work before road resurfacing, these drainage projects are invaluable in advance of resurfacing projects. We managed to add culvert works on Armitage Avenue this year and in the coming years with a goal to resurface a road that has needed this work for more than a decade. That is something we are committed to getting done.
These works reflect movement on a major issue that has come up in my office daily. I consistently hear from residents that our ditches are not maintained to the level required to effectively move water around our city. A major point of discussion during the 2024 Rural Summit was ditch works and the need to better plan for the movement of water. Ditching and ditch responsibilities are a surprisingly complex subject involving City policies, Provincial legislation and Conservation authority work, but an increase to the ditching budget has come forward and along with this there will be more comprehensive work with Councillor’s offices to help determine the areas with the greatest need.
The hope is to create a program that reacts to resident concerns and addresses known problems under a more transparent and clearer framework than is currently available. I am committed to bettering this City service for Ward 5 residents, in recognition of what was heard during the Rural Summit.
The City has put forward significant investments in water and wastewater infrastructure in the Village of Carp to ensure capacity for development and the residents of the Village. Improvements to the current system are upcoming and a long-term plan for municipal connection is taking shape to improve the water that we supply to the Village. I am in regular contact with city staff about this work to make sure that the concerns that we have heard about water in the Village are understood and reflected in the future work that takes place.
I chose to support the budget today and have heard from many residents concerned when they heard reports of a 3.75% increase to their property taxes. I should note, because all of Ward 5 sits in Rural Transit Area B, the increase is less than it is to Urban and Suburban residents.
For a property in the Rural Transit Area B the increase will actually be closer to 2.75%. The Police budget will see an increased levy to Ward 5 residents of an average of $36, but I know that residents of ward 5 will be happy to see more attentive policing in rural Ottawa with the shift to a district policing model.
Councillor Kelly's Questions About Rural Ottawa Policing and the Police Service Board's Budget:
I will always support more funding for paramedics and am so happy to see more money going towards enhancing our services with funding for an additional 23 paramedics. It has been heartening to see, with my own eyes, more Ottawa Paramedics on the roads in Ward 5.
Knowing that these resources are closer when somebody needs them is so important and was a major reason I ran to be Councillor.
I wanted to help provide residents with a feeling that, when they need some help, it will come from Ottawa, and it will be there when they need it. This is a work in progress, but funding for Paramedics and the District Policing model are very important and were something that needed my support.
I acknowledge that this budget is not perfect, but I am committed to working with City staff to further improve the good work that is starting with the funding of this budget. I am also committed to hearing from residents and bringing those concerns to the table. I want to see future budgets that better address the needs I hear about daily, but also ones that continue the good work that has been done for improving emergency services, road renewal and maintenance.
Please see the link below to view the Ward 5 highlights for the 2026 capital budget (please note the funding that will be allocated to design work for Carp Road from Thomas Dolan to Kinburn Side Road and Donald B Munro Drive do not show in this list).
Inevitably these budget posts cause more questions than answer and everyone wants to know wh,ere their road is on the list. If you don’t see a road on this highlight list it does not necessarily mean its not planned to be resurfaced. There is a plan for many roads that are not on this list because they were funded in previous budgets or will be fully funded in future budgets.
If you have any questions, please send an email to Clarke.Kelly@Ottawa.ca or call my office at 613-580-2475.
If you have a question about this or any other Ward or City issue, just send an email to Clarke.Kelly@Ottawa.ca or call our office at 613-580-2475. You can also submit a report to Ottawa.ca/en/3-1-1.
Be sure to stay in touch with what's happening in West Carleton-March:
• Drop-in and speak with Councillor Kelly at his next Open House
• Follow us on social media at X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram or Bluesky
