From Councillor Stéphanie Plante on Meeting with the Salvation Army

Ottawa, January 19, 2023

Today the Mayor and I met with the Ottawa Salvation Army Booth Centre’s Glenn van Gulik and Marc Provost to discuss their planned project in Vanier on Montreal Road.

During the meeting I covered the following points:

• Our most vulnerable residents deserve the best of what a G7 capital can offer and throughout the pandemic we learned what housing models work and those that do not.
• There are projects that do work in Ottawa, that follow the Housing First model like Options Bytown and the John Howard Society – both of which the city supports through Ottawa Community Housing at locations in my ward.
• The Salvation Army in Ottawa needs to apply the Housing First lessons learned from the successful approach to homelessness that the Salvation Army itself developed in Finland with the Y-Foundation.
• I encouraged the Salvation Army to share their plans and be transparent with the public. We also discussed the need for a real and meaningful consultation with Vanier residents and their community organizations to address the security concerns raised by the community, businesses and social services that neighbour the project.

• There is a willingness in the community of Vanier to work with them on finding solutions.
  I do not support the imposition of another emergency shelter on Montreal Road or in Rideau-Vanier ward, and will continue to work for more supportive housing in Ottawa.

  I would like thank Mayor Sutcliffe and his staff who both organized and attended the meeting as well as Drew Dobson who accompanied me as a community witness. A very special thanks to the residents of Vanier who have consistently elevated the discourse around homelessness and advocated without fail for better housing solutions for everyone.