Ward 11 - Beacon Hill-Cyrville

Want to know how Ward 11 City Council candidates compare in terms of taking climate action? Then read on!

1. The YES/NO grid below shows whether candidates agree to commit to a specific environmental action.

2. The devil is in the details. Not all "yes" or "no" answers are equal. We HIGHLY recommend reading the long answers found beneath the grid, to get a real understanding of how committed Candidates are to a range of environmental issues.

*** Candidate Nicolas Castro and Tim Tierney did not fill out this survey and have been removed from the table.

Ward 11 - Beacon Hill-Cyrville
	Questions	Answers
		Miranda Gray
1	Will you commit to fully funding and implementing the City of Ottawa’s Energy Evolution Plan?	Yes
2	Will you commit to no more extensions of the urban boundary, and support building more 15-minute neighborhoods throughout the City of Ottawa, not just in the urban core?	Yes
3	Will you commit to phasing out natural gas infrastructure and prioritize conservation and efficiency over new, renewed or expanded gas infrastructure?	Yes
4	Will you commit to investing in energy efficient housing for lower income communities, and ensuring that the costs of retrofits are not passed down to tenants?	Yes
5	Will you commit to prioritizing climate adaptation planning for the city, including measures to protect people, infrastructure and city services, and to ensure that the city's most vulnerable populations are supported during extreme climate events?	Yes
6	Will you commit to building a public transit system that is rapid, reliable, affordable and accessible for all users, with proper transit routes within rural, suburban and lower income communities?	Yes
7	Will you commit to an active transit network with interconnected and protected bike lanes and multi-use paths City-wide (not just in the downtown core)?	Yes
8	Will you support our target for a 40% tree canopy cover per neighborhood and protection of mature trees through the new Tree Protection By-Law?	Yes
9	Will you ensure that the City of Ottawa prioritizes the conservation of existing greenspace, as well as biodiversity on both city and privately owned lands by actioning the following: amending the property standards by-law, as well as increasing targets for and allocating more funds towards naturalization?	Yes
10	In addition to improving recycling, will you support ambitiously collecting organic green bin waste for composting in multi-residential buildings as well as curbside, to ensure that Ottawa can avoid replacing the Trail Road landfill site with either a new landfill or an incinerator for residual waste for the foreseeable future?	Yes
11	Will you support the introduction of a user pay system for curbside residual waste collection, where residents pay for the bags or containers that they put out for collection, according to the actual level of service that they use?	Yes
12	If elected, would you intentionally include, and work in partnership with, the Algonquin Anishinaabe people and other Indigenous people in the creation and implementation of environmental policies?	Yes
13	Will you commit to developing strategies that bring Ottawans at all diversity intersections together on environmental issues?	Yes
	# Yes	13
	# No	0

Q1 - Will you commit to fully funding and implementing the City of Ottawa’s Energy Evolution Plan?

Miranda Gray

Yes. I support fully funding / implementing the current Energy Evolution Plan. I also support re-evaluating the plan after the new council to act faster and more aggressively on this issue.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q2 - Will you commit to no more extensions of the urban boundary, and support building more 15-minute neighborhoods throughout the City of Ottawa, not just in the urban core?

Miranda Gray

Yes. I spoke against the expanding of the urban boundary. I would like to explicitly end the Tewin development as anything other than a rural village development. I would love to live in a 15-minute community but it is hard to reverse decades of development rules at once. I am in favour of a series of zoning and planning changes to make it easier, cheaper and faster to add the critical elements of 15-minute communities throughout the city including suburbs.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q3 - Will you commit to phasing out natural gas infrastructure and prioritize conservation and efficiency over new, renewed or expanded gas infrastructure?

Miranda Gray

Yes. I am not sure if this is within the power of municipalities to ban the installation of natural gas in new homes. But it is something we must investigate and accelerate. For our own buildings, yes, we ought to be phasing out natural gas appliances as they reach end of life. Conservation and efficiency should already be a key priority.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q4 - Will you commit to investing in energy efficient housing for lower income communities, and ensuring that the costs of retrofits are not passed down to tenants?

Miranda Gray

Yes. We can help keep people housed by investing in their homes to lower the cost of their utilities. For tenants where utilities are metered, it should be easy to confirm that the costs are not pass on the tenants as a lump sum but are pay for by energy savings. For units where they aren't, it is going to be harder to show the data and confirm. We need to balance the desire to keep low-income housing against letting the cheapest units degrade. It is going to take a lot of collaborate/discussion/fighting with property managers to get to where we need to be.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q5 - Will you commit to prioritizing climate adaptation planning for the city, including measures to protect people, infrastructure and city services, and to ensure that the city's most vulnerable populations are supported during extreme climate events?

Miranda Gray

Yes. The derecho highlighted that not every lesson we could have learned from the tornado was learned or applied in our next mass weather event. I am committed to ensuring councillors, their teams, and community groups get training to assist first responders during events like cold snaps, heat waves and days long power events. While some wards have mastered pulling together in emergencies, other took days to react. We can and must do better by planning, training and role-playing emergencies. The next "once in 100 years" emergency is likely less than 2 years away.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q6 - Will you commit to building a public transit system that is rapid, reliable, affordable and accessible for all users, with proper transit routes within rural, suburban and lower income communities?

Miranda Gray

Yes. My decade of advocacy on transit issues should speak to my desire to improve reliability, frequency and network design.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q7 - Will you commit to an active transit network with interconnected and protected bike lanes and multi-use paths City-wide (not just in the downtown core)?

Miranda Gray

Yes. During the pandemic, we have seen city transformations in Paris, Montreal, and many other cities. We too can act to rapid build safer streets if we have the political will. I want to be part of the council that transforms the city into a place for people first and vehicles second.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q8 - Will you support our target for a 40% tree canopy cover per neighborhood and protection of mature trees through the new Tree Protection By-Law?

Miranda Gray

Yes. We will need much more action than just tree planting to achieve our goals. We need to work to protect mature trees, ensure the survival of streets and reforest areas where large swaths of trees were lost in the Derecho.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q9 - Will you prioritize the conservation of existing greenspace, as well as biodiversity on both city and privately owned lands by amending the property standards by-law, as well as increasing targets for and allocating more funds towards naturalization?

Miranda Gray

Yes.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q10 - In addition to improving recycling, will you support ambitiously collecting green bin waste in multi-residential buildings and curbside, ensuring Ottawa avoids replacing our landfill site with either a new landfill or an incinerator anytime soon?

Miranda Gray

Yes. I was part of the public consultations for the multi-residential site Solid Waste Master Planning process. I support revising the property standards for new buildings to a higher standard as soon as possible. We will need several different models for existing residences. In older apartment buildings, the garbage chute encourages residents to put all items in the same bin. These units will take a lot more engagement to change the culture around waste. Other buildings have so little space for waste, they can’t support a multi-bin collection. We will need site visits to work our unique solutions for these types of buildings. In townhome complexes, like mine, the issue is waste is anonymous so folks who don’t sort properly are untraceable. Here we need to nudge people in the right direction using social engineering and by linking behaviour to charges.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q11 - Will you support the introduction of a user pay system for curbside residual waste collection, where residents pay for the bags or containers that they put out for collection, according to the actual level of service that they use?

Miranda Gray

I do not support a bag quote system for single family homes because other jurisdictions have seen increased garbage dumping in parks and vacant lots when these systems are started. I would support a wheelie bin system. (I also think a wheelie bin system is safer for our employees as they have less lifting and less risk of sharps.)

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q12 - If elected, would you intentionally include, and work in partnership with, the Algonquin Anishinaabe people and other Indigenous people in the creation and implementation of environmental policies?

Miranda Gray

Yes. Our land acknowledgement is hollow if we are not prepared to listen and learn from the traditional waterkeepers and land guardians of this place.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q13 - Will you commit to developing strategies that bring Ottawans at all diversity intersections together on environmental issues?

Miranda Gray

Yes. Our programs will be much more successful if they are designed and promotoed by a wide variety of people from diverse backgrounds.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Q14 - Is there anything else you would like to share regarding your ideas, goals or commitments to improving the City's performance on climate change and environmental issues?

Miranda Gray

Yes. We need to teach hope rather than preaching despair. We can't help people change behaviour if they believe the future is hopeless.

Nicolas Castro

Did not participate.

Tim Tierney

Did not participate.

Ward 11 - Beacon Hill-Cyrville

Q1 - Will you commit to fully funding and implementing the City of Ottawa’s Energy Evolution Plan?

Q2 - Will you commit to no more extensions of the urban boundary, and support building more 15-minute neighborhoods throughout the City of Ottawa, not just in the urban core?

Q3 - Will you commit to phasing out natural gas infrastructure and prioritize conservation and efficiency over new, renewed or expanded gas infrastructure?

Q4 - Will you commit to investing in energy efficient housing for lower income communities, and ensuring that the costs of retrofits are not passed down to tenants?

Q5 - Will you commit to prioritizing climate adaptation planning for the city, including measures to protect people, infrastructure and city services, and to ensure that the city's most vulnerable populations are supported during extreme climate events?

Q6 - Will you commit to building a public transit system that is rapid, reliable, affordable and accessible for all users, with proper transit routes within rural, suburban and lower income communities?

Q7 - Will you commit to an active transit network with interconnected and protected bike lanes and multi-use paths City-wide (not just in the downtown core)?

Q8 - Will you support our target for a 40% tree canopy cover per neighborhood and protection of mature trees through the new Tree Protection By-Law?

Q9 - Will you prioritize the conservation of existing greenspace, as well as biodiversity on both city and privately owned lands by amending the property standards by-law, as well as increasing targets for and allocating more funds towards naturalization?

Q10 - In addition to improving recycling, will you support ambitiously collecting green bin waste in multi-residential buildings and curbside, ensuring Ottawa avoids replacing our landfill site with either a new landfill or an incinerator anytime soon?

Q11 - Will you support the introduction of a user pay system for curbside residual waste collection, where residents pay for the bags or containers that they put out for collection, according to the actual level of service that they use?

Q12 - If elected, would you intentionally include, and work in partnership with, the Algonquin Anishinaabe people and other Indigenous people in the creation and implementation of environmental policies?

Q13 - Will you commit to developing strategies that bring Ottawans at all diversity intersections together on environmental issues?

Q14 - Is there anything else you would like to share regarding your ideas, goals or commitments to improving the City's performance on climate change and environmental issues?

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