Councillor Kelly's Update on ARAC Terms of Reference
- Ward 5 Staff
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
Things have been very busy over the last few months and there are a few important things I want to update Ward 5 residents on.
The new and updated Terms of Reference for the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee was an initiative and key change that came out of the 2024 Rural Summit. This is good news on two fronts for rural Ottawa.
First, rural Councillors and ARAC will have more of an influence on matters beyond planning files and rural community grants. There will be more files from more departments coming before ARAC so that rural councilors and residents can better understand and shape the polices that will have an impact on rural life and rural communities.
Second, this new mechanism helped us address a very long-standing grievance amongst rural residents, who were paying a stormwater fee, but seeing very little maintenance or upkeep on rural roadside ditches.
Rural residents will still pay a levy but can now have confidence that money will be spent on maintaining rural ditches, as staff create a plan for this work.
ARAC Terms of Reference:
On July 3rd, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee approved updates to its terms of reference. Moving forward, the Committee would generally be responsible for all matters outside the urban boundary, with Committee recommendations being subject to the final approval of Council.
The Committee will make recommendations to Council on matters relating to rural infrastructure, City acquisition of rural lands and buildings, and matters of transportation policy related to rural Ottawa, which adds to its existing role in considering specific rural transportation projects.
The changes would also recognize the Committee’s role in overseeing rural ditching and the Rural Ditch Maintenance Levy that was recently approved. This levy brings a change to the stormwater tax that has caused consternation in the rural wards as it would allocate funds specifically for rural ditch work, rather than funding citywide stormwater projects.
Best regards,
Clarke
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.
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