Open Letter from Councillor Chiarelli - Thank you
Dear Residents of College Ward,
It has been my honour and privilege to serve as your elected representative since amalgamation at the City of Ottawa and before that as your Councillor in the City of Nepean. As early as elementary school, I was enthralled with politics and read up on, watched and worked with as many local politicians as I could. In 1982, while still a teenager, I got elected to the Carleton RC School Board and became the youngest person ever elected in Ontario. I never expected that my passion for politics would lead to such a wonderful vocation.
Over the more than 30 years I have been in public life, I have always strived to help each constituent to the best of my ability and to provide oversight on important city initiatives. Looking back, I am very proud of the connections I made with individuals in our city and I am glad I was part of many vital improvements, fun activities and community building events.
I always took my role as guardian of your tax dollars very seriously. In my position as Chair of the Audit Committee, I encouraged the creation of the Auditor General position for the City of Ottawa to help find savings in the City. I questioned the City of Ottawa's partnership in Plasco and Orgaworld (an audit later proved that these partnerships had been ill-advised moves). I demanded and fought to get information about the decisions made concerning Light Rail in Ottawa having to go so far as to fight the City at the Province of Ontario and push for a Freedom of Information hearing. As the citizens of Ottawa see the problems with LRT, it becomes clearer and clearer that the project was pushed through without the proper checks and balances being in place - and my information requests have still not been fully answered. This year, I participated in the Provincial inquiry into Light Rail whose final report has not yet come out.
Since the last election in 2018, many of us have had a lot to live through with COVID and all the stresses of the pandemic keeping us apart while at the same time bringing us closer by encouraging innovative ways of staying community and continuing to move forward.
On a personal level, there were some challenges in my life. I had open heart surgery, followed by a serious chest infection and stroke in 2020. My father-in-law and my mother passed away in 2021 and 2022. But there were positive things as well. Two of my daughters got married, the youngest has started her PhD in Cognitive Science and I'm a grandfather now.
During this term, contrary to what my political adversaries have been saying in the media and at doors, apart from being at every council meeting after recovering from my open-heart surgery, my staff and I have continued to serve you. The Mayor and Council did not allow me to have sick leave to recuperate from my serious illnesses and surgeries, so I worked along with my staff even while I was still hooked up to IVs, etc. I wanted to and did fulfill my duty to you as your representative on Council. As well, the College Ward budget was cut and I had to deliver flyers, etc. personally - something I have always enjoyed doing and something that allowed me and my wife to meet with many of you in person.
Once again, thank you for the honour of being your elected representative for the last 30+ years. My wife, my daughters and I will miss the interactions in the formal role of a city councillor but right now, my health has to be my first priority. However, the passion I have for our community and City means that a time will come when, God willing, I will again step forward to work formally on your behalf. In the meantime, I will continue to update content here.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Rick Chiarelli
It has been my honour and privilege to serve as your elected representative since amalgamation at the City of Ottawa and before that as your Councillor in the City of Nepean. As early as elementary school, I was enthralled with politics and read up on, watched and worked with as many local politicians as I could. In 1982, while still a teenager, I got elected to the Carleton RC School Board and became the youngest person ever elected in Ontario. I never expected that my passion for politics would lead to such a wonderful vocation.
Over the more than 30 years I have been in public life, I have always strived to help each constituent to the best of my ability and to provide oversight on important city initiatives. Looking back, I am very proud of the connections I made with individuals in our city and I am glad I was part of many vital improvements, fun activities and community building events.
I always took my role as guardian of your tax dollars very seriously. In my position as Chair of the Audit Committee, I encouraged the creation of the Auditor General position for the City of Ottawa to help find savings in the City. I questioned the City of Ottawa's partnership in Plasco and Orgaworld (an audit later proved that these partnerships had been ill-advised moves). I demanded and fought to get information about the decisions made concerning Light Rail in Ottawa having to go so far as to fight the City at the Province of Ontario and push for a Freedom of Information hearing. As the citizens of Ottawa see the problems with LRT, it becomes clearer and clearer that the project was pushed through without the proper checks and balances being in place - and my information requests have still not been fully answered. This year, I participated in the Provincial inquiry into Light Rail whose final report has not yet come out.
Since the last election in 2018, many of us have had a lot to live through with COVID and all the stresses of the pandemic keeping us apart while at the same time bringing us closer by encouraging innovative ways of staying community and continuing to move forward.
On a personal level, there were some challenges in my life. I had open heart surgery, followed by a serious chest infection and stroke in 2020. My father-in-law and my mother passed away in 2021 and 2022. But there were positive things as well. Two of my daughters got married, the youngest has started her PhD in Cognitive Science and I'm a grandfather now.
During this term, contrary to what my political adversaries have been saying in the media and at doors, apart from being at every council meeting after recovering from my open-heart surgery, my staff and I have continued to serve you. The Mayor and Council did not allow me to have sick leave to recuperate from my serious illnesses and surgeries, so I worked along with my staff even while I was still hooked up to IVs, etc. I wanted to and did fulfill my duty to you as your representative on Council. As well, the College Ward budget was cut and I had to deliver flyers, etc. personally - something I have always enjoyed doing and something that allowed me and my wife to meet with many of you in person.
Once again, thank you for the honour of being your elected representative for the last 30+ years. My wife, my daughters and I will miss the interactions in the formal role of a city councillor but right now, my health has to be my first priority. However, the passion I have for our community and City means that a time will come when, God willing, I will again step forward to work formally on your behalf. In the meantime, I will continue to update content here.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Rick Chiarelli
Some Highlights from over 30 years of Public Service (1988 - 2022)
- Rick Chiarelli’s Alcohol-Free New Year’s Eve where my family and staff provided an opportunity for people to celebrate together as a community (and all for free thanks to our work and the financial contributions of many local businesses)
- community barbeques every summer to bring people together and to hear their concerns in an informal setting
- being part of the Nepean City Council to make that City debt-free and built Ben Franklin Place as a people place, complete with an outdoor skating rink, theatre and library
- liaising between Algonquin College and the neighbourhood to ensure safe and respectful growth including the overpass at Woodroffe, landscaping and the ACCE building
- working with young people in the west end, and the Centrepointe community in particular, to get the Skateboard Park at Ben Franklin Place built
- persuading City officials to move the LRT Maintenance Centre from the backyards of Crestview residents to a less intrusive location close to the Queensway and Moodie which resulted in the additional benefit that Light Rail will come to Bells Corners earlier than planned
- fighting for Canadian unity by organizing busloads of "NO" supporters to go to Quebec during the referendum in 1995 to show that we in Ottawa wanted Quebec as part of our great country
- organizing and participating with a city twinning with the city of Brno in the Czech Republic after the fall of communism in 1989.
- initiating, along with my daughter, the collection of books for libraries in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Coordinating the delivery of the books collected (thank you to Two Small Men with Big Hearts Moving) and personally delivering those books in 2005
- advocating for the revitalization of Lansdowne Park as I took a leadership role on the Planning Committee for that initiative
- continually working to improve parks in the Ward like the first-ever splash park in Leslie Park and also in Centrepointe Park many years ago up to the revitalization of Briargreen Park and introduction of new playstructures this year
- designed, in co-operation with hundreds of residents, the Centrepointe Master Plan
- improved the library system to one of the most utilized library systems in the province in my role as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Library system for over 15 years
- supporting the improvements to the Meridian Theatres at Centrepointe and ensuring that the Studio be named in honour of Les Lye, a local actor and a world-wide legend in the entertainment industry
Some Highlights from this term (2018 - 2022)
- my wife and family helped my staff host the Rick Chiarelli's Alcohol-Free New Year's Eve in 2019 which was held only days after my open-heart surgery and then we hosted a virtual Rick Chiarelli's Alcohol-Free New Year's Eve in 2020
- provided food, toilet paper (remember that crazy time?) and help to constituents who needed it, especially at the beginning of COVID-related lockdowns
- helped secure funding from the Blue Jays to revitalize and upgrade Doug Frobel Park to facilitate "challenger" baseball for children with disabilities including those in wheelchairs (Thank you Bruce Campbell and team for all your dedicated work on this initiative for kids!)
- dedicated funds toward a new swing for disabled children in Centrepointe Park that will allow them to swing without having to be transferred from their wheelchair or mobility device
- achieved approval for a new dog-owners meeting place/gazebo at Kilreen Park in Queensway Terrace South/Ridgeview
- held many well-attended consultations (over 200 participants at each) regarding development in various parts of the ward including infill townhouse development in City View, apartments in Copeland Park and on and near Merivale Road and Baseline Road
- renamed several streets in the ward to commemorate the contributions of trail-blazing women including Menton Place (organic chemist Maud Menton) and Alison Korn Private (Olympic rower and medalist from our ward)
- worked with different communities in the ward on various traffic calming initiatives including flexstakes in many neighbourhoods like Graham Park/Qualicum, Bells Corners, City View, Leslie Park and Viewmount, etc.
- attended community association meetings virtually and in person (when invited)
- ensured that major traffic calming was started and will be completed in the Centrepointe community including combined traffic calming and drainage gardens on Hemmingwood
- helped locate a developer and worked with the developer and City planning staff to ensure that the Stillwater Station application will provide a significant number of new homes in Bells Corners enabling current residents of Bells Corners who wish to downsize to stay in their community while also providing new homes and freeing up existing homes for the many DND employees who wish to move in to this neighbourhood from Orleans so that they can be close to the new DND headquarters at the old Nortel building on Moodie Drive. Held public consultations on this initiative and ensured that the application addressed traffic concerns brought forth by residents by ensuring access to the new housing would be via Moodie Drive instead of Robertson Road.
- supported effort to have emergency well-being response workers accompany paramedics to emergency scenes (This is a better option that having police officers replaced by mental-health workers.)
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