While most residents in Orléans have been caught up in the COVID-19 pandemic, consultants hired by the City of Ottawa have been busy formulating recommendations for the Ottawa Ward Boundary Review (OWBR).

Those recommendations were released last week in the OWBR Options Report, which among other things suggests a number of drastic changes to the ward boundaries in the far east end. By far the most drastic is the recommendation to merge the rural part of Cumberland Ward with Osgoode Ward, which is contained in all five options presented in the report.

The Ottawa Ward Boundary Review proposes a number of changes to the east ends three suburban wards. GRAPHIC SUPPLIED

Four of the options would maintain three wards in Orléans and Blackburn Hamlet, while Option 5, would reduce the number of wards to two and cut the overall number of wards in Ottawa from 23 to 17.

Under these scenarios that would maintain three wards in Ottawa. Innes Ward would no longer include Chapel Hill South and Bradley Estates. Instead, it would be extend-ed east to include Convent Glen North and all of Chateauneuf and Queenswood Heights between St. Joseph Blvd. and Innes Road.

Although is would lose Convent Glen North and Queenswood Heights, Orléans Ward would retain the neighbourhoods north of Hwy. 174 (except for Convent Glen North) as well as Convent Glen South and Pressault between Hwy. 174 and St. Joseph Blvd. The ward would also be expanded south to Innes Road to include all of South Fallingbrook and east to Cox Country and Frank Kenny Roads between the Ottawa River and Innes which would include the new Cardinal Creek Village sub-division.

The third ward would be located in Orléans South between Innes Road to the north, Trim Road to the east, Wall Road to the south and the Greenbelt to the west and would include Chapel Hill South, Bradley Estates, Trailsedge, Notting Hill and all of Avalon.

And while there likely won’t be a great deal of opposition to the proposed new suburban ward boundaries, the recommend-ation to merge the rural part of the current Cumberland Ward to Osgoode Ward has already raised the ire of a number of residents and left several former elected representatives scratching their heads.

“No, I don’t think it’s a great idea,” says former Ottawa city councillor Bob Monette who sat on Cumberland town council in the 1980s. “Besides the fact that the residents living in Cumberland Village and Navan have different issues than residents living in Metcalfe and Osgoode, it reduces the number of rural wards from four to three.”

The options contained in the Ward Boundary Review will be presented to Ottawa City Council on July 15. Public consultations will follow in August and September.

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