“We need to look at Bank Street O-Train”

Ward 12 Rideau-Vanier Candidate Julie Fiala

I had a chance to speak with Candidate Fiala of Ward 12 Rideau-Vanier for a few minutes. I asked how she plans to deal with the ongoing lively debate for Bank Street O-Train Subway from Billings Bridge Shopping Centre to Parliament Station if she is elected for the next Ottawa City council:

“As an artist I’ve always been very creative in problem solving to find new solutions for today’s issues, Bank Street is very unsafe and very congested from a traffic point of view. It’s hard to use. Having O-Train there seems like a very good idea. If the city of Montreal can do it, why can’t we? We need to look at Bank Street O-Train. We need to look at above and below ground options for Bank. You know Ottawa is growing into a very big city. Build it now means 2 or 3 years not 25 years, I agree with Aria Alavi the candidate for Gloucester-Southgate. We will need a lot of collaborations to make it happen because Bank Street would be a huge and important project for our city and we should study Montreal Road at some point.”

I ask candidate Fiala to expand her thoughts on O-Train to Vanier and Montreal Road:

“How are they going to deal with O-Train on Montreal Road? With drug users who have needles in there arms and sex workers all over? Montreal Road is kind of weird waste land of construction. I used the Number 12 OC-Transpo bus on a regular basis, I didn’t feel safe on the bus anymore. Using my bike was a safer and more pleasurable experience in Vanier. We have other problems we need to focus on in Vanier and Montreal Road.”