Budget 2025: Active Transportation Priorities

Matthieu Gagnon, Vice-President, CGOWCA Board

Last spring, I did a series on my personal blog about what I consider the top priorities for active transportation in Orléans. I came up with four general objectives and wrote a post about each of them:

1. Allowing kids to move around the neighbourhood
2. Getting people to the future LRT stations
3. Accessing local business and amenities
4. Enabling commute downtown

Since budget consultations are coming up, I thought it would be good to review any progress on those objectives and determine what would be my top asks for next year’s budget.

The most important connection that I identified is an easy way to cross the 174 with Orléans Boulevard being my favoured crossing because of the proximity to a lot of schools. Last year’s budget included money to conduct a study on Orléans Boulevard to include bike lanes which should be out this fall. As a community, I think we should be pushing hard to get this project moving along in the hopes that we can get something in place by the time the LRT comes online so people can include cycling as an option to quickly get to the LRT station and make a habit of using transit. As a community association, we will keep pushing to get this connection and make sure that whatever is implemented is usable for all ages.

A second connection that has risen in my list of priorities that I would like to see progress is Champlain between the river and Place D’Orléans. With the coming of a new senior residence, I think it would be important to give them easy access to the mall and to the river. It would also help the rest of the community to access the mall and by extending the infrastructure to Centrum, it would help access the amenities located there while also supporting the condo buildings already on Centrum which could help reduce traffic on St-Joseph.

I would also like to see further improvements to the multi-use pathway (MUP) network. Last winter, the MUP around North Vineyard was well used to get students to the school and I would see more of it. Looking at a map of Orléans it seems like a better connection to Terry Fox Elementary School is needed with no direct connection to the school currently in place. The paths around Orléans Wood Elementary School were also in a sorry state when I last rode on them last year. I am also not sure how the MUP along the 174 between Sugar Creek and the Park and Ride will look like in its final state so I will reserve judgement until it is open but it could be a very good connection especially if it is winter maintained. THe path south of the 174 between Place D’Orléans and Orléans Boulevard also needs a lot of work post-LRT along with a few connections to the No Frills parking lot.Whatever the case, the community association will try to be more involved in the design so these paths are better conceived than what we got at North Vineyard.

There are a few other areas where I see improvements being needed fairly quickly based on some proposals that are out there. If the project  proposed at 1887 St-Joseph gets approved, it would be important to provide good connections to the rest of Orléans and to the LRT if we don’t want a lot more cars on our roads. I assume that those conversations will happen as the project moves along and may be financed by development charges or be built by the developers. 

Laura Dudas’s budget survey for 2025 is up and I encourage everyone to fill it out. The budget consultations dates for the Orléans and ward specific presentations announced. I sincerely hope that more people show up to Laura Dudas’s sessions than last year where it was just me and Daniel Lamothe (CA treasurer). I really encourage everyone to get involved if you want any chance of seeing the priorities you value included in this or future budgets. It will also be an opportunity to meet the community association board since some of us will be there.

Ward-specific consultation drop-ins (more info):

• Saturday, November 16 from 1 to 2:30 pm, Bériault Room, Orléans Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, 1705 Orléans Boulevard
• Saturday, November 23 from 10:30 am to 12 pm, Foyer, Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex, 1490 Youville Drive
• Thursday, December 5 from 6:30 to 8 pm, Community Room, Lois Kemp Arena, 200 Glen Park Drive