GACA Board Meeting – October 12, 2022

1. Call to Order

2. Approval of the Agenda

3. Minutes from the September 14th Meeting

A motion to accept the minutes was made by Robert and seconded by Marni.

4. Business Arising from our last meeting

• There was a good turnout for the fall cleaning the capital in our community. Thank you to everyone who helped.
• We will not be going ahead with a GACA fall social event.
• The Issue of SWOOS will be discussed under Sue’s general update.

5. Rebecca Bromwich, City Council Candidate

• Rebecca is running for city councillor in Ward 17.
• She is attending various community association meetings to introduce herself and find out what is important to communities.
• Issues most important to her include:
  • Housing affordability
  • More reliable public transit
  • Consideration of parking with the new hospital
  • Police consultation, safety, and traffic
• Rebecca took some questions from the board and attended the rest of the meeting.

• Carrie expressed a concern for the vacant buildings on Bell Street, east side by the Queensway.
• There was a serious fire in two of the houses recently, two firefighters were injured.
• These are dangerous and unsafe dwellings. A concern was also raised for residents across the street from these vacant buildings.
• These buildings are going to be demolished for the new proposed build, but we do not know when demolition will take place.
• Sue commented that the fire department does keep watch on vacant buildings, and these buildings are on their watch list.
• Carrie and Joanne will look into the issue of these abandoned buildings and contact the city if required.

6. General update – Sue

6.1 Senior Watch Old Ottawa South – SWOOS

• At the last meeting it was undecided if GACA would support SWOOS.
• Their cause is a good one, and our risk of putting our name on it is low.
• It was commented that we can support them, but we are not a true partner until their activities support people in our neighbourhood.
• The GCA has passed a motion in support of SWOOS.  We would like to ensure if we do put our name forward that we are not also included in the GCA motion.
• A motion was made to support SWOOS, although we do not know all the details surrounding their activities and funding. It was carried.
• In the event of future large-scale changes to SWOOS, such as to programs or funding, the continued use of the GACA logo will be re-examined.

6.2  Membership Campaign

• We have completed our membership campaign and are up to 77 members, one of these being a corporate membership from the Lakelander for $100.00.  Almost 40 of the 77 members are from the Lakelander. A big thanks to Marni and others who canvassed and collected GACA membership dues.
• Our membership numbers are back up to where we were before the pandemic. If we do proceed with a survey of members, it would be interesting to know if people miss seeing us at their door. Gabrielle will take on doing the survey.

6.3 E-Vote on Future GACA Meetings

• In the board’s e-vote survey, the most popular choice was rotating between holding virtual and in-person meetings.
• Additional discussion showed that there was not a large desire to return to in-person meetings.
• A couple of members indicated they would not attend in-person meetings and would require a virtual option.  We will do our best to ensure that this remains an alternative when we do move to in-person meetings.
• It was agreed that we will continue with virtual meetings and revisit our options in the new year.

6.4 GACA Christmas Party

• Marni suggested the possibility of using the Lakelander guest suite for the GACA Christmas party.
• It was decided that we will have a virtual Christmas party.  Gabrielle has some ideas for it; Joanne offered to help.

6.5  Mayoral Debate

• There is a mayoral debate on Monday, October 17th, in the Horticulture building at Lansdowne.   If you wish to attend, you must register in advance.  It will also be live streamed and there will be an option to watch it post event.
• We were initially asked by the GCA to help monetarily, but they have enough funds. About 19 community associations are involved. Gabrielle will put out social media posts.

7 Councillor’s Report – Jonathan

• There is not a lot going on now with the election around the corner.
• Most of the Queensway closures should be open now as of this past weekend.  If there are any big problems, please let the councillor’s office know.
• Paving has been completed on Carling; it is a big improvement. This is remedial work until the rebuild in 5 to 10 years from now.
• The City is talking to OC Transpo about increasing service on route number 10. Now that Carleton is back, the buses are full, and at times people cannot get on.  They are still hopeful that changes will be made to extend the #10 past the Rideau Centre.
• The pedestrian issue of having access from Orangeville through to Rochester was brought up. The sidewalk stretch of Orangeville is supposed to reopen in November according to the sign. Jonathan will follow-up.

8 Renaming of the Dalhousie South Park – Joanne

• The board previously approved GACA applying for the commemorative naming of the Dalhousie South Park to the Abbas Family Park.  Joanne still needs to get the application to Sue, then we can request approval from our councillor and submit it

9 Adjournment

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