Introduction

The October 26 municipal election offers an opportunity for bold ecological action in Ottawa. These planks are one part of Ecology Ottawa's 2026 municipal election initiative, which also includes our All-Candidates Environmental Survey, Steal These Ideas initiative, mayoral eco-debates, and sharing basic voting information. 

We've prepared a set of suggested ecological planks* for this election, and we encourage candidates to adopt these planks wholesale into their platforms. We also encourage voters to ask candidates directly about them. In developing the planks, we selected issues in a range of ecological categories and with high impact. We heartily thank those who shared their suggestions with us through the Steal These Ideas initiative. Many of you will recognize your ideas below! 

Ecology Ottawa's Planks

Climate 

• Commit to meeting the net zero commitments in Ottawa’s Energy Evolution strategy, including the 2030 goal, with a detailed plan outlined by the end of 2027. Ottawa has set emissions targets. What candidates need to show is how they would meet them, and when the plan will be ready.
• Commit to fully funding Climate Ready Ottawa. Climate Ready Ottawa is the City's strategy for adapting to climate change impacts and risks like flooding, extreme heat, and severe storms. After the Canada Day flooding left at least 5,700 households picking up the pieces, adaptation needs funding to match.
• Implement a carbon budget across City operations. A carbon budget ensures that our carbon output remains within reasonable levels and helps us meet our emissions targets. It should also show up where decisions get made: during budget season, so the climate cost of a decision is as visible as the financial one.

Transportation

• Provide a detailed plan for meeting the Transportation Master Plan's target that by 2046, half of all trips be taken by sustainable modes. The target is already in the City's commitments. Candidates should detail how they would reach it.
• Commit to Vision Zero, with no deaths on Ottawa's roads, by 2035 at the latest. Vision Zero treats road deaths as preventable and sets a deadline for implementing the adaptations necessary to end them.
• Implement a bikeshare system by 2028 at the latest. Bikeshare lets people make short trips by bike without needing to own one or have somewhere to store it, and it extends the reach of transit by covering the first and last stretch of a trip. It would also support the Transportation Master Plan's target that half of all trips be taken by sustainable modes. 
• Commit to an Ottawa electric school bus pilot. Diesel exhaust has been linked to higher rates of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive impairment, and children breathe it every day on the way to school. A pilot would pave the way for further electrification of Ottawa's school bus fleet.
• Ban vehicular turns on red in Ottawa's downtown transect and at any protected intersection. This is in keeping with Official Plan commitments, and it ensures our downtown is safe for people walking and biking isn't undermined by turning vehicles. 

Transit

• Commit to implementing Bus Rapid Transit plans for Baseline, Carling, and St. Laurent by the end of next Council term. Dedicated lanes and priority signals let buses bypass vehicular congestion instead of sitting in it, which makes transit faster and more reliable. BRT plans have been in the works for years, even while less effective projects--particularly road widenings--have gone ahead.
• Publish route-level on-time and cancelled-trip data, and report publicly against all of OC Transpo’s service standards, as the Auditor General recommended. Riders can't hold a system accountable for what isn't measured. OC Transpo already reports system-wide figures to the Transit Committee each month and has targets for service delivery and on-time performance. But the Auditor General found its service standards outdated and only partly monitored, and some measures weren't reported. Riders ride routes, not systems. Route-by-route reporting against a consolidated standard would show where service is failing and whether it’s improving.
• Commit that no trip within Ottawa's urban boundary takes more than twice as long by transit than by car. Research shows transit must be competitive with driving on time before they will switch. Based on community input, trips by transit are typically 2 to 3 times longer than the same trips by car.
• Commit to a high-frequency bus network on core routes, with service frequent enough that riders don't need to check a schedule. Frequency is what makes transit a real option for unplanned trips and for connections. Without it, a missed bus means a long wait, and people go back to their cars.
• Same-day booking for Para Transpo. Riders who depend on Para Transpo can't always plan trips days ahead, and same-day booking would give them the flexibility other transit riders have.

Trees

• Commit to a date for meeting Ottawa's 40% urban tree canopy target, and to developing a plan for meeting it. The 40% target is already in the Official Plan. What's missing is a deadline and a plan to meet it. Trees provide valuable ecosystem services crucial for climate resilience and livability. Right now, Ottawa's tree canopy is in decline and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and newly planted trees will take years before they provide us with the valuable ecosystem services compared to mature trees. 
• Create an incentive for trees indexed to the ecosystem services they provide, including property tax rebates for forests and woodlots. Trees and woodlots on private land cool neighbourhoods, absorb stormwater, and clean the air, and those benefits go to the whole city while landowners carry the cost. Rewarding those services makes keeping trees more financially viable/
• Commit to planting new native trees in every road renewal. Road renewals—when the street is being reconstructed—is the cheapest time to give trees the soil and space they need to survive. Besides, planting is only half the job. Trees need room to grow to maturity, and the City needs to water and maintain them.
• Create a fund for purchasing abandoned properties—particularly in denser, greenspace-poor areas—to create parkettes in neighbourhoods. Everyone needs greenspace within 100 m of their residence, but also parkettes would provide ecosystem services, etc. Turning them into shaded parkettes or micro-forests creates shade, supports biodiversity, absorbs stormwater and adds cooling and green space where there's little room for either.

Land Use

• No urban boundary expansion. Meet our growth targets through sustainable, affordable intensification. Ottawa's land supply for housing via intensification comfortably exceeds the Province's requirements. Expanding outward adds roads, pipes, and transit routes that taxpayers must build, maintain, and service for decades, and it destroys precious farmland and natural areas.
• Commit to zero net artificialization by 2032, so that no additional land is rendered impermeable. When new land is paved or built on, an equal area should be restored to permeable, natural cover elsewhere. Impermeable surfaces drive flooding and urban heat and biodiversity loss, so stopping their growth protects both.
• Change land tax to be value-based instead of use-based, to minimize drive-throughs and surface parking lots. Taxing land according to its value ensures that its use matches its value. Taxing by value removes that incentive and encourages building on it.
• Work with the NCC to strengthen Greenbelt protections so that no natural or agricultural land is lost. The National Capital Commission owns and manages large areas of land across Ottawa, including the Greenbelt, and what happens there affects the city's tree canopy, flood resilience, and natural areas. The NCC is a federal agency, so the City can't direct it, but it can work with the NCC to align development on NCC lands with Ottawa's commitments.
• Ban drive-throughs within the urban boundary. Drive-throughs encourage vehicle idling, make streets less safe for people on foot, and destroy precious land that complete, walkable, sustainable neighbourhoods could use better.

Nature

• Present a detailed plan for meeting Ottawa's commitments under the Montreal Biodiversity Agreement to protect 30% of its land and inland waters by 2030. A 30% target means little without a roadmap showing which lands and waters will count, who is responsible, and by when. Protection needs to be connected and managed over the long term, not just a designation on a map.

• Develop a Biodiversity Strategy to guide City decisions on land, development, and infrastructure. A proper Biodiversity Strategy would insert  ecological aspects into Council’s decisions from the start, rather than leaving it to be considered after plans are largely designed—or not at all. The City also needs to revise its Wildlife Strategy, as the current strategy focuses only on human conflicts with large mammals, taking an anthropocentric view and completely ignoring the rest of the ecosystem.
• Preserve critical habitat for 5 species on the list by the end of the term. Species at risk are protected by protecting the places they live. Naming specific species and a deadline turns a general commitment into one that shows up in decisions about particular places.
• Meadowize any medians that currently have turf grass, and adopt road renewal practices that leave room for plantings. Meadows provide valuable ecosystem services and support pollinators and wildlife, and the City saves money on mowing costs. 
• Create a fund and information resources for property owners to replace turf grass lawns with native species. Rebates should be given for replacing lawn and support for pollinator gardens. A fund and information resources would make it easier for private property owners to contribute to supporting biodiversity and building climate resilience.
• Adopt Conservation Ontario's Good Practices for Winter Maintenance in Salt Vulnerable Areas. Road salt washes into streams and wetlands and harms aquatic life. Following best practices keeps roads safe while limiting damage in the places most vulnerable to it.

Energy

• Implement Ottawa's Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty endorsement. Ottawa endorsed the Treaty in 2022, and the commitment now needs to show up in decisions the City controls: its own buildings and vehicles, its procurement and investments, and its advocacy to the provincial and federal governments.
• Offer builders information and incentives for implementing our High Performance Development Standard, and advocate against the Province's prohibition of the requirement for HPDS in new builds. Buildings are Ottawa's second-largest sources of emissions, and what gets built now will be around for decades. A high-performance standard builds efficiency into new development from the start, which is far cheaper than retrofitting later. The Province unfortunately prohibits the city from requiring HPDS in the new builds, so advocacy by the city is the best level here for the time being.
• Offer municipal credits for clean energy such solar, wind, and heat pump installation, and eliminate municipal barriers to the installation of balcony solar. The City can help households pay for installing clean energy at home. Credits would ease the upfront cost, including for heat pumps, where federal and provincial programs don't cover the full installation cost. In addition, equity deserving communities should also be given the consideration they deserve as so often these incentives don't reach those who need it most.
• Commit to at least 500 MW battery storage by 2032. Storage makes renewable energy reliable and keeps essential services running during outages. Ottawa already has projects on the way: a South March battery project adding up to 250 MW of capacity and 1,000 MWh of storage is in pre-construction. A clear target gives the next Council a number to hold itself to. In addition, repeated storm outages push households toward gas generators. 

Waste

• Establish a permanent fund for community-led reuse initiatives, with $500,000 available annually. Repair cafés, tool libraries, and swap events keep materials out of landfill, but they depend on volunteers and short-term grants. A permanent fund should allow multi-year projects and cover salary and operating costs. Funds can come from money the City no longer spends on curbside recycling now that producers are responsible.
• Commit to no incinerator in Ottawa, avoiding the health, environmental, and financial dangers. Incineration releases air pollutants and carries an enormous public cost, and it displaces the cheaper and cleaner work of diverting waste upstream, and incinerator contracts incentivize producing waste. Ottawa's priority should be reducing what needs to be disposed of at all.
• Develop and implement a textiles diversion program modelled on the City of Markham's. Textiles are a large and mostly untapped part of landfill waste. Through its network of over 160 public access SMART bins and partnerships with local charitable organizations, City of Markham's textile recycling program has successfully diverted over 17.2 million kilograms (38 million pounds) of fabric waste from ending up in landfills.
• Develop and implement a mattress diversion program modelled on those in Montreal and Toronto. Mattresses are bulky and hard to dispose of, and they take up expensive landfill space. Other peer cities have effective programs that can be simply copied.

Take action before you vote: ask your candidates to adopt these planks

Candidates pay attention to what voters ask them about. You can put these planks in front of the people running in your ward. Follow the steps below. 

1. Sign one of our petitions. You can support these planks by adding your name to one of our related petitions.

2. Find your candidates. See who’s running on the City of Ottawa’s candidate list.

3. Suggest the planks. Email them, message them online, or ask at the doorstep or at an event. Pick the planks that matter most to you and ask whether they’ll commit to them. You can copy the message below.

4. See where they already stand. Read how candidates answered our All-Candidate Environmental Survey before you reach out. If yours hasn’t responded, ask them to.

5. Share this with a neighbor, or repost them on social media

6. Tell us what you hear. Send their reply to [email protected], or share it online and tag Ecology Ottawa. 

If you have any questions, or if you’d like to learn more about our 2026 Municipal Elections Initiative, please visit this page.  And if you found this information helpful, consider supporting our election work with a donation; please visit this page.

* A plank in this context is just a component of a candidate's platform. Ecological Planks are the specific environmental commitments we're asking candidates to include in their platforms.