March 13, 2026 Newsletter

This week, the City of Ottawa announced that ANCHOR, the Alternate Neighbourhood Crisis Response program, will expand its services into Overbrook and surrounding east-end neighbourhoods by the end of June. It is good news for Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward, and a sign that this model is ready to grow.

ANCHOR is a 24/7, community-led program that dispatches trained crisis response workers, rather than police officers, to people experiencing mental health and substance use emergencies. Launched in August 2024 in Centretown and Somerset West, it was built on a straightforward principle: the right response to a health crisis is a health-centred one.

The results in year one were striking. ANCHOR received 4,464 calls, and in 92 per cent of the dispatched responses, no police involvement was required. Those are real people who received care without the added stress and stigma of a police encounter at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

In December 2025, City Council approved $700,000 to accelerate ANCHOR's expansion. Overbrook was identified as a priority neighbourhood through a rigorous, equity-centred analysis conducted by the Guiding Council's Implementation Working Group, which examined population density, overdose rates, mental health emergency department visits, and the specific barriers facing racialized and Black residents in accessing care. The data pointed clearly to our community.

Overbrook is a community of tremendous resilience, and one that has long deserved better from our city's crisis response systems. As I told CBC News this week, we have an elevated level of mental health crises in Overbrook and in other areas of Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward, and it is important for us to have a better and more complete set of tools to address those challenges in our neighbourhood. ANCHOR's expansion here is exactly that.

Two new post-crisis response workers will be embedded directly in the expansion area, helping individuals access ongoing support and stable pathways to care after their initial interaction with ANCHOR teams.

A mid-term program evaluation will be published by the end of the second quarter of 2026, and City staff will continue building the evidence base for further expansion citywide. A full business case for the future of ANCHOR is expected before Council in early 2027. The question is no longer whether this model works. The data has answered that. The work ahead is making sure it reaches every corner of Ottawa: a position I championed during 2026 budget deliberations.

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This week, I was also successful at Transit Committee in passing a motion that addresses one of the most consistent frustrations I have heard from residents over the winter: finding out too late, or not at all, when your bus has been cancelled or your route is unreliable.

The motion directs OC Transpo staff to implement a standardized communication protocol, using existing tools and resources, to notify all Councillors' offices when trips are cancelled as part of service adjustments or recurring reliability patterns, when routes experience ongoing reliability issues, and when significant schedule changes are expected to affect riders. The goal is straightforward: when service is disrupted, our office should know about it so we can help constituents navigate the impact.

The motion also requires OC Transpo to report back to Transit Committee on how real-time service information is actually managed, including what triggers updates in trip-tracking apps, where delays in those updates occur, and how riders who depend on specific trips are proactively informed when cancellations are introduced, extended, or reassessed. Too often, the gap between what is happening on the ground and what the app shows is the source of real hardship for people who rely on transit to get to work, medical appointments, or school.

I will report back to residents once OC Transpo's full response to the motion is before the Committee.