September 29, 2026
This October municipal election will be the sixth for the Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition’s (KGPC) across all levels of government. Each one is important because every representative you elect makes a choice as to how much effort and leadership they offer in support of any issue in front of them. Today, however, we should be clear. There is no more consequential vote on our Greenspace issue than your choice for Ward 4 Kanata North City Councillor.
It’s that time of year again. I love election season… reminds me of my mom and dad and ‘kinder’ times. Why you ask? My parents were not particularly political, but they were democrats. That’s democrat with a small ‘d’. We’d notice and talk about the signs popping up on lawns and why. Over the weeks that followed, they’d explain simply an issue or two and the candidate positions and perhaps why they were on or offside. More about the people than political parties. Voting day would come and my dad would come home early from work to walk to the local arena. There were tables behind curtains (way before the white cardboard boxes) where no one could see how you marked the ballot. It had to be an X … and only within the margins of the box! And every time their message was the same – the right to vote was the best of gifts. With every election came new issues and thoughts and more discussions and, of course, deeper understanding. And with every election, I became increasingly fascinated with what distinguished the candidates one from another along with what drove them and their wins and losses.
This October municipal election will be the sixth for the Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition’s (KGPC) across all levels of government. Each one is important because every representative you elect makes a choice as to how much effort and leadership they offer in support of any issue in front of them. Today, however, we should be clear. There is no more consequential vote on our Greenspace issue than your choice for Ward 4 Kanata North City Councillor. While the KGPC will continue to support the City of Ottawa in opposition to this development, the right City Councillor is key to amplifying our message and doing the hardwork on our issue everyday. We must have an energetic, informed, and committed individual in this key role. We ask you to ensure your vote gives the KGPC a representative at City Council who will work for us and with us to win this fight once and for all. Now… on to the Q&A.
We emailed our questions to the candidates on Tuesday, September 22 with a response deadline of Monday, September 28 to ensure we were out to you before the first Advance Poll on Thursday, October 1. Their answers are not edited and are published in the order received. Meet your candidates!
Question 1:
In which corner of Ward 4 Kanata North do you live?
Tell our supporters about yourself and why you chose to run as our City Councillor.
Cathy Curry
For 33 years, I have lived in what has always been considered rural north Kanata. I moved to Kanata in 1992 to teach English at Sir Guy Carleton, Sir Robert Borden, A.Y. Jackson and West Carleton secondary schools. Kanata North is where I raised my four children. I went on to serve as a school council chair, Chair of the Kanata Inter-School Council, Kanata’s school board trustee, and Chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. I hold a BA in English Language and Literature, a Master of Science in Education, and a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, and I’m a Registered Psychotherapist working mostly with teenagers, young adults and seniors.
Before joining Council, I spent six years on the CHEO Board and served on the boards of the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre, Ronald McDonald House, the Caldwell Family Centre and Ottawa Fusion Volleyball. I also chaired the Strategic Advisory Committee of the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health and sat on the Ottawa Community Foundation’s Grants Committee. As your Councillor, I sit on the Ottawa Police Services Board and the Invest Ottawa Board, chair the City’s Audit Committee, and have been appointed to numerous other City committees in addition to the Hydro Ottawa Board. All of that experience means I know how to get things done at City Hall, and whom to call when something needs to move.
I’m running again because the work isn’t finished. For five years I’ve stood with this community on the Kanata Lakes lands, and I’ve also delivered new and repaired sidewalks, progress on the Beachburg Rail Corridor pathway, the reinstated crossing to Trillium Woods, new bus routes to and from Kanata North and the Tech Park, a new Hydro Corridor policy and dog park, the Beaverpond Project with the KLCA, and support for flood-affected residents. I want to finish what we started, especially on protecting our greenspace.
James Murchison
I was born in Ottawa and lived in pre-amalgamation Kanata when I was younger, and then growing up in Carleton Place, driving out to Kanata was “going into the city” for us and a routine activity. After college in Toronto I moved back to Ottawa and bought a home here 10 years ago. I do not currently live within the ward boundaries. My wife and I were having dinner at Kanata Centrum before catching a movie, and we spoke about how Cathy Curry was, at the time, running unopposed. We decided that if nobody else registered by the final week before the cutoff that I would register, and now here we are. As for why I would want to run for council in Kanata North, I follow municipal issues very closely, watch just about every committee and council meeting, and frankly I don’t like the job Cathy Curry is doing as City Councillor. I think I would do a much better job. I want to focus on the big issues that affect residents the most, affordability, housing, transportation, transit, community safety, and especially our aging infrastructure. I’ll be able to do this because I won’t be wasting my time and resources fighting a losing battle with the golf course or cheerleading financially disastrous projects like Lansdowne 2.0.
Rob Millan
The northern half of the ward, in the Morgan’s Grant area.
I grew up in Kanata from the age of eight. I went to St. Isidore and All Saints and stayed here through my undergrad at uOttawa. I then went to Toronto for my master’s at U of T’s Rotman School of Management and worked on Bay Street in Treasury, then equity derivatives structuring on the trading floor. After starting my own businesses in technology and international trade, I came back to Kanata. Life has a way of bringing you home.
Spending time away gave me a greater appreciation for what we have here: greenspace and trails most of the city can’t match, the largest technology park in Canada, and neighbourhoods where people want to raise their families. I think we’re the best ward in Ottawa.
That’s why I’m running. As much as Kanata already offers, I believe its potential is still enormous. I want it to become a real economic powerhouse while protecting the greenspace that brought most of us here. That means infrastructure built alongside new homes, transit that can compete with driving, and taxes kept in check.
Question 2:
Accessible abundant greenspace and nature is perhaps the primary reason many choose to call Kanata home. The right to use the open space of the former Kanata Golf Club (KGC) lands was deeded to thousands of surrounding homeowners by the singular 40% Agreement.
Our community continues to rely on the City of Ottawa to oppose the proposed Kanata Lakes Development of the lands in every possible manner to protect its infrastructure (an ever more fragile stormwater management (SWM) system and the health and safety of our community.
If successful on October 26, will you commit to publicly supporting our community in opposition to this development?
Tell us what you will do to help the KGPC and lead the community’s opposition?
Cathy Curry
Yes, without reservation. I’ve been on record since the day I was appointed, and nothing has changed.
The 40% Agreement is a promise made to thousands of homeowners who bought here because of it. I brought a motion to Council calling for provincial intervention, and it passed 23–2 with the Mayor seconding it. That vote matters: it shows that this isn’t just a Kanata issue. It’s a question of whether agreements in this city mean anything.
There is real reason for hope. Premier Ford has publicly offered a land swap that would return these lands to public ownership. If re-elected, securing that swap will be the first thing the mayor and I work on when the election is over, with protections strong enough to outlast any future Council or owner.
Stormwater is the strongest ground we stand on. The developer still has no approved stormwater plan, and residents along the lowest part of the lands have just watched their homes flood. Any plan that adds hard surfaces to a fragile system has to answer to that reality, and any approval will be challenged.
I’ll keep doing what I’ve done: working directly with KGPC, KLCA and the Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association so we move together; pressing By-law Services to hold the owners to full maintenance standards while the lands sit neglected; and using every lawful tool the City has to keep this land open for the people who were promised it.
James Murchison
I don’t like the current proposal for the golf course lands, but that’s exactly what we’re going to get if the city doesn’t stop wasting all this time, money and resources on a losing fight. I will not continue to oppose this development. We should be focused on trying to improve the proposal as much as possible, retain more of the pathways, increase the size of the parks, improve the stormwater management, etc. We won’t get any of this by fighting, we need to work constructively with the developer. The courts have ruled that this land can be developed, so at this point we should be talking to existing residents about concessions they’re willing to accept to get closer to the outcome they want. Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition is probably the best organized community group I’ve seen in the city. It’s unfortunate for affected residents that the courts ruled as they did, but this organization and the energy people have brought to it should now be directed at improving the development as it goes forward. But to that point I want to address something. KGPC said in the email for this questionnaire that the plan “benefits only that company’s landowners, ClubLink, Minto and Richcraft.” I completely disagree with this statement. This plan is for 1500 homes, that’s 1500 families that will benefit. The city will also bring in approximately $10-million in property taxes every year from this development, providing city services and keeping property taxes low for everyone. The Development Charges on this development, approximately $77-million, will go towards all that missing growth related infrastructure that residents in new growth areas are demanding and that we’re already lagging far behind at providing. And the existing community will benefit from more neighbours, more families, year-round parks, and more amenities. By my calculation, the approximate value of the finished development will be upwards of $2 billion. The land value alone is at least half a billion. So as for buying the land or a land swap, these ideas makes zero sense to me. It’s incredibly expensive, hundreds of thousands of dollars per home surrounding the golf course. And if we have other valuable, developable land someplace else in the city to trade with, we should just develop that land not trade it. The City already can’t afford to maintain our current parks adequately; there’s no way we could absorb a park of this size into our current parks budget. So where is the new money coming from to look after it? If there’s no development, there’s no tax revenue to maintain a new park. Cathy Curry and Rob Millan are both running on platforms of low taxes, but the ideas they’re putting forward will result in residents paying higher taxes. If we want low taxes it takes smart investment, not wasting money fighting homes from being constructed.
Rob Millan
Yes. I am unequivocally opposed to development on the former Kanata Golf Club lands, and I will publicly support our community in opposing it.
At the Rogers TV debate, I supported a land swap and raised concerns about whether the surrounding infrastructure could accommodate the proposed development. My support for housing elsewhere in Kanata North does not change my opposition to building on these lands.
The City’s own September drainage review found that the Beaver Pond system has limited capacity for additional development, and that the cumulative impact of this project alongside other nearby builds has never been assessed. After the July 1 storm, which generated 427 flooding and other storm-related 3-1-1 requests across Ward 4, those questions deserve clear answers. The development would also remove important greenspace that is part of everyday life for the surrounding community.
Residents made major decisions about their homes and families with the understanding that this greenspace would remain. Whether your home backs onto the course or sits a few streets away, this affects your family’s quality of life and the value of your home.
As councillor, I would:
- Continue the work already done. I’ll build on the work Councillor Curry and the KGPC have undertaken, working with provincial representatives and the Premier’s office to pursue a land swap or another workable agreement. Any swap should have independent valuations and permanent protection for the former golf-course lands.
- Hold the line. I’ll insist on independent stormwater and environmental review and enforce every condition to the letter.
- Keep the KGPC involved. You’ll get a heads-up whenever anything moves on the file.
Question 3:
Our roads are congested and our central spaces are being developed at the expense of woodlands and tree canopy. We are asked often, is there a future for a “Natural Kanata”?
As our next City Councillor, what should the City do to manage the positive and negative impacts of this growth?
How do you see yourself driving the change that everyone seems to want as our newly elected Councillor?
Cathy Curry
Yes, there is a future for a “Natural Kanata,” but only if we plan for it instead of hoping for it. Kanata North will keep growing, with thousands of units already approved. The question is whether infrastructure and nature are part of that plan from the start.
The City should put three things in place. First, transit that arrives before the housing, not years after. That means March Road BRT and Stage 3 LRT on a real timeline. Second, protecting what we already have: the Kanata Lakes lands, Trillium Woods, South March Highlands, Bill Teron Park, the Hydro Corridor, and our ponds and trails. These should be treated as infrastructure, not as leftover space. Third, density in the right places, like the Tech Park and along transit corridors, where growth brings amenities and services with it, not in our woodlands.
Voters don’t have to wonder what I’ll do. I brought in the Kanata North Hydro Corridor policy that turns a utility strip into shared community greenspace, and I pushed for the pathway links that help people get around without a car. My plan is to keep doing that and to hold developers to the commitments they make at Planning Committee.
James Murchison
If we’re serious about protecting greenspace we need to stop expanding our urban boundary. We can’t keep spreading outward, consuming forests, wetlands, and productive farmland with low density, car-oriented development. Families are being forced to live further and further out from already built up areas, away from work, away from shopping, away from their extended families even. This means more driving and worse traffic for everyone. We cannot afford to keep widening roads. We cannot afford to keep extending services. We need to build where it’s most affordable to the city to provide services, not just where it’s cheapest for developers to build. Ottawa’s Official Plan, Zoning By-law, Development Charges By-law, Transportation Master Plan, these policies reinforce the status quo and incentive greenfield development over infill. It’s already more expensive for a developer to build infill, the city shouldn’t add to those costs with unnecessary charges and red tape, particularly when it’s far cheaper for the city to provide infrastructure and services to infill development If we want to protect greenspace, if we want to ease traffic congestion, if we want low taxes, if we want reliable city services, infill is the solution. We need to update our policies and by-laws to reflect the city we want to build.
Rob Millan
There’s a future for a Natural Kanata, but only if the City plans growth instead of letting it happen to us.
- Fix transportation. Make Stage 3 LRT to Kanata a funded, committed project, advance the March Road transit corridor, and widen roads where growth requires it, built to full capacity the first time. Terry Fox between March and Centrum shows what happens when we don’t.
- Put density in the right places. The Tech Park and the March Road, Terry Fox and Campeau corridors near transit are where higher density belongs, if the traffic it brings is planned for.
- Be selective about infill. It can work in some locations, but a building’s scale, design and infrastructure demands need to fit its surroundings. I oppose arbitrary major upzoning throughout established low-rise neighbourhoods.
- Build greenspace in from day one. Parks, pathways and tree canopy should be ready when the first families move into a new development, and significant trees lost to construction should be replaced. A sapling won’t match the shade of a mature tree for decades, so protecting the trees we have comes first.
- Protect the natural areas we already have. Places like the Beaver Pond and the Shirley’s Brook corridor are part of what makes our neighbourhoods home. New development next to our ponds, creeks and woodlands should come with real buffers, and the natural drainage these areas provide should be protected. They absorb stormwater, which matters more than ever after the July 1 storm.
On driving the change: a ward councillor has real influence over what gets built in their own ward. I’ll be at the table early with developers and City staff, before plans are locked in, and make trees, stormwater, parkland and road improvements part of the deal. When an application doesn’t meet that bar, I’ll say so publicly and fight it at committee and Council. I’ll also build alliances with other west-end councillors because Kanata, Stittsville and Barrhaven share the same growing pains and too often get treated as an afterthought at City Hall.
Question 4:
A July 2026 survey by Liaison Strategies indicates 51% of respondents believe Ottawa is moving in the wrong direction.
In your opinion, what are the key contributors to this negative view?
How should Ottawa reverse this trend? What will you do as an elected City Councillor?
Cathy Curry
I think people feel they’re paying more and getting less. They see LRT reliability problems, a downtown still finding its footing, visible homelessness and addiction, rising costs, and a Province making decisions about our neighbourhoods over our heads. In suburban wards like ours, there’s also a real sense that growth is happening to communities rather than with them.
Ottawa reverses this by delivering the basics reliably and being honest about trade-offs. That means transit that shows up, roads and sidewalks that are maintained, tax increases that people on fixed incomes can manage, and planning decisions that respect the agreements and promises residents relied on.
As your Councillor, I’ll keep doing what builds trust: showing up, answering questions directly, and following through. As Chair of the Audit Committee, and as a member of the Service Review Working Group that saved the City and its taxpayers $252 million, I push for value for money and accountability in how the City spends. On the Tech Park, I’m working to make sure the Bloomberg Associates recommendations are actually implemented, so that Canada’s largest tech park, now with over 800 companies, gets the investment and governance it needs. A thriving Kanata North is one of the best things we can do for Ottawa’s direction.
James Murchison
If we dug more into the reasons why people think this is the case we would certainly see a lot of contradictory reasons. I don’t necessarily think we’re heading in the wrong direction, but something I think everyone would agree with is that the current system isn’t working. We aren’t able to maintain our existing infrastructure, we aren’t able to provide the expected infrastructure to new growth areas, and these particular issues only seem to be getting worse each year. Perhaps our current system of arbitrarily low taxes through service cuts, deferred maintenance, costly sprawl, lowest bidder procurement, and shifting costs onto new development just isn’t a sustainable model for growth. We’ve spent decades trying to find “savings and efficiencies” instead of fixing the structural issues. We have built much of this city with more infrastructure to maintain than the area returns in tax revenue to cover those costs, and the city’s current strategy is to hope that one day the province or the feds will just bail us out — but there’s only one taxpayer. We need to start thinking about how we build, not who’s going to bail us out because we built our city so poorly. We should look towards the cities all around the world where residents think their city is heading in the right direction, and rather than try to reinvent the wheel, just copy what they’re doing.
Rob Millan
I believe much of the frustration comes from the gap between what residents pay and what they experience. They see traffic congestion, unreliable transit, pressure on infrastructure and rising costs, without feeling that everyday services are improving. The same Liaison survey points to part of the answer. After housing affordability, traffic was the top issue across Ottawa, and in the west end it ranks even higher.
Bad transit makes traffic worse because every rider transit loses becomes another car on the road. Ten years ago, the 63 got me from Kanata to downtown in 50 to 55 minutes at rush hour. Today the same trip can take an hour and a half, even though much of it now runs on its own dedicated right of way.
Then there’s the cost of living. Housing is expensive, and when property taxes rise faster than inflation while services get worse, residents see waste and mismanagement, and they’re usually right. We’re the capital of Canada, and our transit and City Hall should reflect that.
City Hall’s decisions also contradict each other. The City declared a climate emergency in 2019, then made five days in the office the standard for its own staff, putting more cars on the road and more riders on a system that already can’t keep up.
What I’ll do:
- Transit. Make Stage 3 LRT to Kanata a funded, committed project this term, and improve west-end bus service now.
- Transparency. Publish route-by-route transit performance, including cancellations and actual versus scheduled travel times.
- Taxes. Hold ordinary property-tax increases to inflation, and require major projects to show lifecycle costs, with a public ledger of budget versus actual spending.
- Revenue. Grow the commercial tax base through the Tech Park so homeowners aren’t the only place Council looks for money.
Change at City Hall must start somewhere. I’ll represent Kanata North’s financial, economic, public safety, greenspace and quality-of-life interests at every vote.
Kanata North All Candidates Debate – Date coming soon
Your Kanata North community associations ( KBCA, KLCA, Arcadia, Morgan’s Grant) will bring you another All Candidates Debate via YouTube in October. The date and time will be out on social media in the coming days and, as always, expect a recording to be available if you miss it.
Remember, we’re better together! And we’re best when we vote!
Barbara
Chair, Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition
E – chair@ourkanatagreenspace.ca
C – 613.725.4345 Get involved by following us on Facebook or Instagram.