With the holidays behind us, a new session of Council is officially under way, and I look forward to fighting for our community, during what I am sure will be a busy 2025 at City Hall.
Over the last month, I have been pointedly working to get out and visit small businesses in the east end. Speaking with owners, hearing their concerns, and learning more about their needs to grow and succeed. Small businesses are the backbone of any economy, and we are fortunate to have had so many successful small and medium businesses choose Orléans as their home.
This past week, I sat down with Sonya Shorey, the CEO of Invest Ottawa, to discuss how City Hall can help to further support and grow our neighbourhood economies, as well as support companies across the city. Invest Ottawa continues to be the lead economic development agency for knowledge-based industries in the National Capital Region. Their mission is to realize Ottawa’s full potential as a globally recognized, innovative, inclusive, and future-ready city. Based on my numerous conversations with Sonya over the years, it is clear that we share the same goals: growing our economy and ensuring that Ottawa is competitive on the world stage.
These have been some great conversations, and I look forward to continuing to hear from local businesses owners, and working to advocate on their behalf. When our small businesses thrive, our entire community benefits.
As important as hearing from business owners is, I also want to be hearing from you. As your representative at City Hall, I always strive to make sure that I am raising our community’s concerns and fighting for us. Connecting with residents directly has always been a priority of mine, and I know that sometimes an email is not enough. With that in mind, I will be holding pop-up office hours at local coffee shops across Ward 2 in the coming months. My next one will be at Blackburn Tim Hortons on January 25th from 11:30 am – 1 pm. Thank you to everyone who has come out to previous ones, these pop-ups have been so helpful for me to hear directly from you and understand more about your concerns. 
