Linda Davis
Allyson Beauregard
Clarendon resident Linda Davis sat as a regional councillor for Ottawa-Carleton from 1994-2001, was the director of the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society and Ottawa Housing, and has worked behind the scenes for political parties. The candidate also has experience lobbying and delivering infrastructure money from
Linda Davis
Allyson Beauregard
Clarendon resident Linda Davis sat as a regional councillor for Ottawa-Carleton from 1994-2001, was the director of the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society and Ottawa Housing, and has worked behind the scenes for political parties. The candidate also has experience lobbying and delivering infrastructure money from
federal and provincial governments.
Obstacles to progress
According to Davis, the three biggest obstacles to progress in the Pontiac are that there hasn’t been any cohesive planning (ex: for emergency situations like earthquakes or when there are mass telephone or internet service outages); not working together as a community at the MRC level (lack of transparency and engaging the population; people need to see where their money is going); and the loss/lack of jobs.
“I’m more concerned with maintaining current jobs, sustaining businesses that already exist, and providing opportunities for their growth,” she said,
noting we also need to look at jobs available in employment centers immediately adjacent to our communities like Renfrew, Pembroke, and Arnprior.
Amalgamation
Davis warned that the province forcing amalgamation on the Pontiac
“could absolutely happen”, although many people have expressed doubt. “In the Pontiac, each municipality has six councillors and a mayor, so that’s 126
politicians being paid to represent about 14,000 people. Do I think there are too many politicians? Yes. Do I think there needs to be some sort of amalgamation? Yes I do,” she elaborated, noting that two people represented a population double the size of the Pontiac’s whenshe worked as a Regional Councillor.
She stressed the people of the Pontiac need to get ahead of the province, have their own discussions, and develop their own solutions.
“This is already sort of happening, like in Clarendon and Shawville where they cooperate for libraries and the fire department. There is strength in banding together, having a larger tax base and no duplication of services,”
she added. Purchasing products such as sand and gravel in bulk, rather than in small portions for each municipality, would save a lot of money, she said.
Areas for growth
Davis said she is very hopefully for what the newly developed SWAT team can do to promote growth in the area since it includes members of the business community, government ministries, and various organizations working together for a common goal.
With residents of the National Capital region as a major target base, Davis also sees realistic growth in tourism. Until the NAFTA agreements have been
settled, Davis noted many investors may be put on hold until they see which sectors will be affected and the new agreement’s implications. She also said she would like to see the Pontiac’s manufacturing industry better promoted and developed.
Attracting investments
Working on the region’s transportation and communications systems are
essential to attracting any investment, said Davis; “If you look at the 148 right now, the bottle neck going on with construction at both [lower end] entrances is not very appealing.”
“We need to be competitive,” she stressed, giving examples of having the two lane highway in Luskville extend further or expanding the region’s bus service to include more buses, improved routes, and time options.
Improving these domains will attract more people and businesses to the area, which will in turn encourage the government to inject more investment in institutions and services, she recapped.
Nuclear dump
Davis said she approaches Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ plan to store radioactive waste near the Ottawa River in Chalk River with “extreme caution”. She stressed the need for independent scientific confirmation and further studies to determine if the project is safe for both humans and the environment.
“If this got into our water system, it would be beyond a catastrophe. I don’t like it and I think everyone intuitively knows there’s something off about this,” she concluded.
