The Citizen invited Ottawa candidates from the four major provincial parties to explain why you should vote for them on Feb. 27.
The Citizen invited Ottawa candidates from the four major provincial parties to explain why you should vote for them. Those who met our deadlines and protocols will be published this week and next. Today: Ottawa Vanier-Liberal candidate Lucille Collard.
During my time serving Ottawa-Vanier as MPP, advocating for the health-care needs of our community has been my top priority. I have successfully pushed the government to fund a nurse-practitioner-led clinic here, but there is still a dire shortage of primary care providers in our community.
There are solutions within reach to modernize primary care and address the reality that 22,000 Ottawa-Vanier residents don’t have a family doctor. I have been advocating for more licensing of internationally educated doctors and for a plan to train more students to become doctors in Ontario. The Ontario Liberals will expand the team-based medicine model to connect more people with family doctors and health professionals. We will also modernize health care by eliminating the use of faxes and making appointments available evenings and weekends.
Ottawa urgently needs investments in supportive housing to help end homelessness and connect residents with mental health and addiction services. Providing a safe, stable environment with their own units costs less than maintaining outdated shelter models, which do not offer an opportunity for individuals to regain stability.
Housing prices are unaffordable, and we Liberals plan to build more homes. Supporting a renewed agreement with municipalities will help local governments maintain low property taxes and limit unintended housing price increases. For homebuyers, we will remove development charges, which are taxes on housing construction that can add up to $170,000 to the cost of a new home. We will also eliminate the Provincial Land Transfer Tax for first-time homebuyers, seniors downsizing, and non-profit home builders — saving families and seniors an average of $13,500 on the cost of a new home. Removing these taxes will allow more housing to be built too.
To support the city in building social housing, I am committed to backing Ottawa Community Housing in its ambitious plan to build 10,000 new units, which will significantly reduce the city’s affordable housing waitlist, currently at 14,000 residents.
The Ford Government’s approach to funding the City of Ottawa’s needs has been blatantly unfair. The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario estimates that the province’s $1.8 billion in operating subsidies to provincial and municipal transit agencies in 2024-25 is equivalent to a subsidy of $112.16 for each resident. However, per-resident subsidies vary significantly across economic regions. The Toronto economic region will receive an estimated $196.49 per resident; the Ottawa region will receive just $31.91.
Doug Ford doesn’t see investments in the City of Ottawa as a priority. His government has exacerbated the growing homelessness population, currently at 3,000 in our city.
On Feb. 27, I hope that I have earned your vote through my advocacy and results from the last five years as your MPP. I know that what matters most to the people of Ottawa-Vanier are the health-care crisis and the growing homelessness issue. I am prepared to work with all parties and all levels of government to deliver concrete results through practical solutions to these urgent issues. I encourage you to vote in this election for more family doctors and more affordable housing for our community.
Lucille Collard is the Liberal candidate in Ottawa-Vanier.
