The City of Ottawa is looking for public representatives for 14 committees and boards to advise city council.
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In the last term, the city aimed for equal gender representation in appointed public members. This term, in response to the city’s five-year anti-racism strategy, the city’s goal is to increase the representation of Black, IndigenousThis advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
In 2018, the city received just over 500 applications for such positions. The city started its recruitment process this term on Dec. 1 and by this week had received about 540 applications, said Caitlin Salter-MacDonald, manager of council and committee services. But there are also frustrations. “Our role is to advise. Elected officials make the final decisions,” said Turcotte.Sarah Wright-Gilbert wanted to represent the interests of transit users when she applied to be one of four citizen commissioners on the transit committee. As a public servant who commutes daily from her home in Orléans, she believed she had insight to contribute.
But Wright-Gilbert believes city hall found her kind of contribution disruptive. She said she battled to get timely and transparent information about progress on the LRT. She live-tweeted a delay when her train stopped between stations with no explanation to riders. She was a guest on a radio call-in show, drawing the ire of senior city managers and then-mayor Jim Watson.“I didn’t set out to become a figure in Ottawa. I brought a perspective that was sorely lacking,” said Wright-Gilbert.
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