Osgoode councillor says rural divide from city improving

Outgoing Osgoode councillor Doug Thompson saysrural voters still feel disconnected from the rest of the city on the issues of importance, but he's seen improvementsince amalgamation in 2001.

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Thompson, who has worked in municipal politics for 33 years, chose not to run in Osgoode Ward, leaving 11 candidates vying to take over in rural south Ottawa.

But he credits Mayor Jim Watson with supporting the rural ridings.

Rural residents feel their issues are ignored

But his optimism is not shared outside Mackinnon's Foodland in Greely, where residents say they need more attention paid to crumbling roads and poor services.

"[We're] not being heard," says Doreen Crotty. "We've only got four councillors in the rural area and they're not being heard. We've had to fight for over 18 months to try and get Old Prescott Road done but it's been years prior to that it should've been done."

"It's almost like being in a vacuum sometimes. Everything seems to be happening in the city. You see the infrastructure going up in all the other wards except here in the rural wards," said Rob Lavoie.

Thompsons ward has seen a string of good news lately with new infrastructure, roads being paved and the survival of the Rideau Carleton Raceway. These are issues put at the forefront of agriculture and rural affairs committee meetings.

But he said the needs in the rural areas remain distinct from the other 19 wards.

"It's just like night and day. Downtown they are dealing with safe injection sites and homeless people and social housing. Out here we're more concerned about our library system, our fire protection," he said.

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'My sympathy is not with the rural councillors' says Holmes

Somerset councillor Diane Holmes, who is also not seeking re-election, recognizes how different her downtown wardis from Osgoode.

Although, like Thompson, she also sees a need for better library services but in the downtown.

Holmes says urban ridings, which make up by her count only five of the 23 wards,are as voiceless as their rural counterparts, with one important caveat: they represent more people and therefore pay a larger tax burden.

Only one of the rural wards Cumberland, which includes a portion of several Orleans communities had a population over 27,000, according to the city's 2012 data, while a suburban ward like Barrhaven or a city ward like College had double that population.

Holmes says amalgamation in 2001 gave rural residents more representation than their population should suggestand argues despite their protestations, rural residents know now that they would be much worse off if they split from the city and tried to pay for everything themselves.

"My sympathy is not with the rural councillors," said Holmes. "If they would like to leave, I would be first up there on the voting record."

Thompson said he thinks the fresh blood in the ward will help invigorate debate over the issues the ward faces and how they mesh with the concerns of urban and suburban residents.

"The changeover in councillors, the people coming in with less experience are more open-minded to the city as a whole, taking in the rural, the urban and suburban. I think it has changed," Thompson said.

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