A city councillor wants Ottawa to study a municipal food strategy that could include urban agriculture and maybe even city-owned grocery stores.
Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr has made the request in a motion attached to the agenda for this Wednesday’s city council meeting. The agenda was posted online this week.
The motion simply asks staff to report back before July 2027 on the feasibility of pursuing such a strategy, not to actually start one.
While her motion does mention city-owned grocery stores as one idea staff could look at, she said she isn’t taking a position on it one way or the other.
“That’s a very contentious idea. I listed it as an example in terms of food access…” Carr said.
“I don’t know myself what the best answer is, but… it’s something that I think is worthy for staff to include and make a recommendation on.”
The idea of city-run grocery stores has taken on more prominence since New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani committed during his election campaign to open one in each of the city’s five boroughs.
Since then, Toronto city council has voted to move forward with a pilot program to open its own non-profit, municipally-owned grocery stores. The new federal NDP leader, Avi Lewis, also ran on the idea of a public grocer on a national level.
But Carr said that possibility is just one small part of a much broader motion that would look at existing city programs and new options.
She noted that many other major Canadian cities already have such a strategy, and that she’s asking city staff to focus on food access, waste, production and distribution.
‘Really needed’
In addition to grocery stores, Carr’s motion mentions food hubs as another idea, as well as “increasing incentives for urban agriculture and promotion of local food businesses.”
She also wants staff to look at food sharing stands that are already running at three Ottawa Public Library branches and consider whether more locations can be added. The stands allow community gardeners to donate produce that will be shared with neighbours.
Rebecca Dorris of the Parkdale Food Centre said the approach in Carr’s motion is “really needed.” She said food insecurity affects roughly one in every four residents in Ottawa.
She said the city can play a role coordinating with community partners like hers and that having a strategy would make food security more of a priority.
In her view, the idea of city-owned grocery stores is “definitely viable.” She said Carr is right to start by asking for a study.
“We really need to see if the city does have existing resources or commitments from other levels of government to make it actually work,” Dorris said.
“We’re kind of at the point where we have to get really creative and really bold,” she added. “Food insecurity is getting worse and worse… We really need to kind of put all hands on deck.”