City of Ottawa to explore municipal food strategy, but it won’t include city-owned grocery stores

An Ottawa city councillor wants the city to explore the idea of city-owned grocery stores as part of a wider strategy to improve access to food. CTV’s Kimberley

The City of Ottawa is going to develop a municipal food strategy to look at improving access to food and tackling food insecurity, but the council approved motion did not direct staff to explore city-owned grocery stores in the capital.

Council approved a motion from Coun. Marty Carr to explore the feasibility of developing a strategy to look at food access, food waste, food production, and food distribution.

The motion recommends staff report back with information on what a potential municipal food strategy could look like, including examine improvements in “all streams and taking into consideration best practices in other municipalities.”

Carr’s original motion directed staff to examine establishing “food hubs and city-owned grocery stores to improve access,” along with increasing incentives for urban agriculture. However, that was removed from the motion approved by council.

“One thing that we don’t have in this city is a food systems strategy. The majority of major Canadian cities already have one in place,” Carr said during the council debate.

“We have a tremendous amount of food initiatives within the city.”

Carr notes Ottawa has initiatives like the Community Garden Action Plan and the Food Security Motion that advanced a comprehensive advocacy framework to tackle food insecurity.

“We don’t really have a food strategy in terms of what are the ultimate goals of these actions, what are the strategic objectives,” Carr said.

Staff told council the feasibility study would not look at the possibility of a city-owned grocery store.

Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal have a municipal food strategy.

Last month, Toronto city council approved a motion for the city to establish a not-for-profit, city-run grocery store. The proposal would see the city establish four city-operated, not-for-profit grocery stores across Toronto, with one store in each community council district.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told CTV Your Morning Ottawa that he doesn’t believe the public sector should be involved in owning grocery stores.

“We have a food security issue in our city and it’s consistent with what’s happening in cities all over North America,” Sutcliffe said Wednesday.

“The City of Ottawa is investing more money than ever before to support the agencies that respond to the food crisis in our city. The cost of food has been rising dramatically, and it’s impacting many, many residents, including working-class residents, people who are just struggling to make ends meet. More people are relying on food banks than ever before.”

Sutcliffe said while the city needs to do “a number of different things” to support agencies in Ottawa and having the “right food infrastructure in place,” he is not in favour of City Hall running a grocery store.

“I don’t think the public sector needs to get involved in that,” the mayor said.

“There are many, many other ways that we can help the most affected residents without going into the business of running grocery stores.”

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