Across The Table with Dionysius
Oct 9, 2026 · 27 min · 9 segments
Send us Fan Mail Catherine Kitts joins the Across the Table podcast to discuss her campaign for the upcoming municipal elections in Orléans.As we…
So what is the single biggest reason housing costs so much in your ward and what would you do about it your first year in council?
So, interestingly, Orleans has historically been a little bit more affordable than some of the other suburbs, but I think that gap is closing.
And I think part of the reason for that is all of the sort of plug and play, easy land has been taken.
So what developers are working with now is more challenging lands that have different flooding mitigation concerns, for example, or tougher soils or their servicing isn't there.
They're going to need to bring major infrastructure in and able to service the land.
But even that said, Orleans South is one of the fastest growing wards in the whole city.
About one fifth of active development applications at one point in time were in my ward.
Now we're seeing a lot more density, a lot more townhouses, row houses, that kind of thing.
But still, you'll see some, you know, single family home development as well.
And I think, you know, the i've been on city council now for a number of years every level of government is trying to work on housing affordability part of that is supply um but you know the other thing is density and you know i i think density and we'll probably get into this even more but density belongs near high order transit and unfortunately in my ward we don't have really good transit so I think, you know, we have actually really taken on a lot in terms of increasing the housing supply in Ottawa.
And now we're going to need to, you know, when we're looking at that density piece, it's probably not Ward 19.
Where in your ward should density go? And I think more importantly, maybe for some listeners, where shouldn't it go?
So what is the single biggest reason housing costs so much in your ward and what would you do about it your first year in council?
So, interestingly, Orleans has historically been a little bit more affordable than some of the other suburbs, but I think that gap is closing.
And I think part of the reason for that is all of the sort of plug and play, easy land has been taken.
So what developers are working with now is more challenging lands that have different flooding mitigation concerns, for example, or tougher soils or their servicing isn't there.
They're going to need to bring major infrastructure in and able to service the land.
But even that said, Orleans South is one of the fastest growing wards in the whole city.
About one fifth of active development applications at one point in time were in my ward.
Now we're seeing a lot more density, a lot more townhouses, row houses, that kind of thing.
But still, you'll see some, you know, single family home development as well.
And I think, you know, the i've been on city council now for a number of years every level of government is trying to work on housing affordability part of that is supply um but you know the other thing is density and you know i i think density and we'll probably get into this even more but density belongs near high order transit and unfortunately in my ward we don't have really good transit so I think, you know, we have actually really taken on a lot in terms of increasing the housing supply in Ottawa.
And now we're going to need to, you know, when we're looking at that density piece, it's probably not Ward 19.
Where in your ward should density go? And I think more importantly, maybe for some listeners, where shouldn't it go?
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