Alayne McGregor
On September 20, Yasir Naqvi was elected as the new MP for Ottawa Centre, with 45.5 percent of the vote in an election with a 64 percent turnout.
The BUZZ interviewed Naqvi on October 1, as he was setting up his office.
This is a slightly expanded version of the story that appeared in the print edition.
Was this campaign different?
“I’ve always enjoyed going door to door, as much as I can and I do a lot of it, and be able to have those really important conversations.
“What was unique about this campaign was that it happened during the pandemic. When I was knocking on doors throughout the community, people were really open to having a conversation. I connect that to the fact that we have not had anybody knocking on doors in about 18 months. We’ve all been living in isolation. It made for a far more interesting and engaging interaction to talk to people about issues. I think people had a lot of pent-up time to talk to somebody else at their porch.”
What are your top priorities for your first six months in office?
Naqvi said dealing with the issues around chronic homelessness in our community would be a priority. He said he wanted to build on his previous experience as an MPP working on this issue, where he was able to secure funding to build not-for-profit social housing. He planned to work with Councillor Catherine McKenney and the Mayor, and wanted to see what projects are in line, from a not-for-profit social housing perspective, and how he could help accelerate funding for those projects.
He also wanted to learn what was happening with housing projects at 1010 Somerset West and with the NCC plans for LeBreton Flats and Tunney’s Pasture.
Secondly, he wanted to work with community associations around climate action, based on the Climate Action Plan he released during the election. This would include issues like the urban tree canopy, encouraging native species of plants, and examining air quality in some of the densely-populated parts of the riding, especially in Centretown.
One of the biggest issues related to affordable housing is its definition – 30 percent of median income versus deeply affordable. When you’re talking about affordable housing, are you talking about deeply affordable?
“I’m talking about deeply affordable housing. The National Housing Strategy – that’s one stream of the program. The other stream is where we’re talking about rent geared to income, and building social housing, as opposed to affordable housing provided by not-for-profit housing providers. I understand the concern around affordability, looking at median income, and some of the challenges associated with that program.
“I’m committed to learning more about that particular program and the policy behind it, especially in working with people like Councillor McKenney who have done a fair bit of advocacy on this – and be an advocate at the federal level to see what improvements can be made to programs so that we’re looking at more deep affordability as opposed to just affordability that may not really help a lot of people, especially those who are on the verge of getting homeless or are chronically homeless.”
What would your protection law for the Experimental Farm consist of?
“There is no legislative protection for the Central Experimental Farm. We know how important it is to our community. I’m proposing to bring legislation that will protect the farm as heritage public lands. So it is protected the way it is, forever.”
The farm would be reserved for purposes like its working farm, agricultural research, the museum, a possible botanical garden, and “for the public use for people to enjoy and to benefit from that important greenspace in the downtown core.”
This would include not selling off any further sections of the farm, he said. When asked about the proposed Baseline Road Rapid Transit Corridor, which was approved by City Council in 2017 and which would take a 10-metre strip of the farm along Baseline Road for a busway, Naqvi said he was not aware of that proposal and would have to look into it. “I would tell you that my inclination would be to protect the farm the way it is right now.”
Naqvi said he would research current federal legislation and consult the community on the new law.
You said you wanted to ensure that Ottawa’s LRT was properly integrated with the future Civic hospital campus. What role can you take to do that?
Naqvi said he had heard from the community that the station needs to be properly integrated with the hospital, and promised to work with the hospital, the city, and the province on this issue, and work to get federal support as necessary.
“In my view, if we are building a modern 21st-century hospital, it has to be integrated with public transit, so that there is that convenience and ease for people to use public transit, whether they are staff who work at the hospital or family members who are visiting. We have to also keep in mind that we are a winter city and there are months covered with snow so you have to again ensure that there is adaptability to the climate as well.”
During the campaign, you wrote to Tobi Nussbaum at the NCC about extending for a full year the pilot project of closing Colonel By Drive to motor vehicles. Have you had any response?
Naqvi praised the NCC’s previous closures of its driveways for active transportation, and its monitoring of how Colonel By drive was used diring the closures.
“I look at major cities around the world, and I see that as we are taking climate change seriously, there is a movement afoot to convert some roads that were meant for motor vehicles and convert them to active transportation. There is an opportunity here with Colonel By, so I think that looking at the data will be important. Part of my reason to propose a year-long pilot is so that we can also look at the winter use as well, [to] allow for better decision-making long-term.”
He said he hadn’t yet heard from Nussbaum.
What can you as the local MP do to preserve the economic vibrancy of downtown Ottawa, and possibly get more people back to working downtown?
Naqvi said he had talked to small businesses and business improvement areas about this issue and recognized its importance. He said that ending the pandemic was essential to a solution, so “the fight against COVID-19 remains paramount.”
He said he expected some federal employees will remain working at home, some or all of the time.
“Whatever that is, one of the clear things that I heard from our small businesses is that they want some predictability. They want to have a better understanding of what the federal government as the major employer in the downtown core is planning to do once the pandemic is over. And I agree with that.
“So what I want to do as MP for Ottawa Centre is to work with the federal government – the Treasury Board I think would be the department – to see if we can come up with a set of guidelines that will apply across the government so that our businesses know what to expect as to what the new protocols are going to be. The concern is that decisions may be made which differ from ministry to ministry, from agency to agency and that does not allow for that clarity which businesses would like. I will be advocating and working towards a more uniform set of guidelines which our businesses can rely on and then do their own business planning based on that.”
And on national issues…
“One of the big areas that I want to focus on is making sure that Ontario enters into an agreement with the federal government on $10-a-day childcare. I heard a lot about that particular issue from young families, especially women who want that system in place in Ontario.”