The ByWard Market District Authority says it has terminated the employment of executive director Victoria Williston.
“The Board of Directors of the ByWard Market District Authority (BMDA) has decided to move in a new direction, which will require new leadership,” Suzanne Valiquet, vice-chair of the board, wrote in an email statement on Saturday, Aug. 15.
In the email, Valiquet also said that the termination was an “internal and private matter” and that the board would not be commenting further.
Williston became executive director of the district authority in January 2026.
In a Saturday afternoon post to LinkedIn, Williston said she was proud of the work the BMDA team had done in the seven months since then.
“The BMDA team is one of the best groups of people I’ve worked with, and the ByWard Market is lucky to have them. Thanks also to our partners at the City, and to the businesses who make the district what it is,” Williston wrote.
“For now I’m taking what’s left of the summer. Enjoying long walks, late dinners, and the people who’ve seen far less of me than they should have these past few years. More on what comes next in the fall.”
During her seven months as executive director, Williston said, the BMDA opened Carré ByWard Square, relaunched the Night Ambassador Program and began building out the systems “and foundational partnerships a young organization needs to stand on its own.”
Barry Padolsky, an Ottawa-based urban architect and a supporter of the ByWard Market who has been advocating for preservation of the ByWard Market Building since the 1970s, said the heart of the issues affecting the area was structural.
“It seems that the dismissal of the appointment of the executive director seems to be a way of admitting that there is a problem,” he said.
He said the issue was “more fundamental in that the ByWard Market District Authority isn’t structurally set up to be able to be more widely consultative about its mandate.”
Padolsky said part of the reason why the BMDA had been under heavy criticism was because of a lack of consultation with vendors before decisions about the Market were taken.
“That’s the heart of the problem,” he said. “The irony of all of this current skirmish and conflict of what’s the best way to go forward is that it’s happening on the eve of the two-hundredth anniversary of the ByWard Market.”
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante said she found out about the BMDA’s decision to terminate Williston on Friday and was surprised by it.
“I actually didn’t know until yesterday, so it’s not a decision that I made,” Plante said. “It wasn’t one that would have been made in consultation with me because I’m not on the board.”
Before becoming BMDA executive director, Williston worked for a couple of years as the organization’s communications director. Before that, she worked at 1310 CityNews Ottawa radio station.
When Williston was named executive director, the BMDA board said it was confident that her leadership aligned well with the organization’s priorities.
“Victoria brings a strong understanding of the ByWard Market and the broader civic environment in which it operates,” Sandy Smallwood, chair of the board of directors, said in the release announcing the hiring.
Take control of your search results. Make the Ottawa Citizen a preferred source on Google and see verified local reporting first.
