Letter from the President to AGCO Regarding Dime and Dash

February 23, 2026

To: Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO)

Re: File No. 3480064 - Dime & Dash, 366 Bank St. Ottawa

Dear Registrar,

I am a resident of Ottawa and President of the Centretown Community Association (CCA), whose members live, work or own property or businesses in the neighourhood of Centretown. I am writing to submit this formal objection to the proposed cannabis retail store at 366 Bank Street.

The proposed location is within Somerset Ward, one of Ottawa's downtown wards, which includes the neighbourhood of Centretown. This submission is made pursuant to the AGO's public-interest mandate, with particular concern for public safety, protection of youth, and impact on vulnerable populations.

The proposed site sits along Bank Street, a commercial corridor, that has been experiencing significant social, health, and public safety pressures (map provided). Based on cumulative conditions outlined below, the CCA believes this location is not appropriate for an additional cannabis retail outlet.

Proximity to Schools and Youth Activity

Glashan Public School (grades 7 and 8) is located approximately 600 metres from the proposed site. Elgin Street Public School (elementary school) is three blocks east (500 metres) of the proposed site. Both schools are within walking distance of the proposed location and students living to the east and west of Bank St. regularly cross the signalized Bank and Gilmour intersection, immediately adjacent to the site, as part of their daily travel between school and surrounding residential streets. Parents have raised concerns about the safety of children using that intersection due to social disorder, drug related issues including drug dealing and related violence and frequent encampments in front of the proposed site. A number of daycares also operate nearby.

Bank Street functions as a primary pedestrian corridor for residents and is a major transit and business corridor. Locating a cannabis retail store at this site would place it directly along routes routinely used by children, increasing their exposure during daily school travel and pedestrian activity.

Public Safety and Crime Concentration

Somerset Ward has the highest crime rate in Ottawa, with a crime rate that is over 3 times the Ottawa average. The proposed site is located within a well-documented high-crime corridor. The intersections between Bank/Cooper St. and Bank/Catherine St., less than 1 km stretch, contains seven of the ten highest-crime intersections in Somerset Ward.

The proposed location at Bank and Gilmour is in the middle of this corridor and it is well known in the community that it is a problematic intersection. Ottawa Police Service 2024 crime data (which reports by intersection) indicates that 51 crimes were reported in and around the intersection of the proposed site, including 11 assaults. The highest crime incidents occurred a block away at Bank and Maclaren, where 569 incidents were reported, including 16 assaults.

Residents, businesses and visitors along this portion of Bank Street report ongoing concerns about drug dealing, public drug use, aggressive behaviour and violence, street disorder, and other public safety challenges. The area is already under significant pressure from social and public-safety challenges.

Substance Use Activity and Vulnerable Populations

The Bank and Gilmour area has been experiencing substantial substance-use-related pressures. For 2025, Ottawa Public Health reports that over 1000 discarded needles/pipes were collected at the Bank/Gilmour intersection. Ottawa Public Health and community partners conduct ongoing harm-reduction outreach along the Bank Street corridor, reflecting the concentration of need in this area Residents and local businesses regularly report open substance use, public intoxication, discarde paraphernalia, and related disorder conditions. The intersection is also less than 100 metres from supportive housing which houses some of the most marginalized members of our community, some of whom live with complex mental and/or physical health challenges.

The neighbourhood is already under significant social and public-health strain.

Existing Cannabis Retail Concentration

Multiple cannabis retail stores already operate within a short distance of the proposed location, including:

Hunny Pot Cannabis - 206 Bank Street (450 metres)
Cannabis Emporium - 243 Bank Street (300 metres)
OC Barrymore Emporium - 325 Bank Street (45 metres)
Bytown Budz- 373 Somerset Street (210 metres)

The presence of several existing cannabis retailers within a short stretch indicates that local demand is
already being served. Additional approvals would further concentrate cannabis retail activity in an area
already experiencing cumulative pressures.

Conclusion

The proposed cannabis retail outlet at 366 Bank Street is located within a cumulative high-risk environment as noted above. Taken together, these factors raise serious concerns regarding public safety, youth exposure, and the cumulative impact on a neighbourhood already under significant strain.

For these reasons, the Centretown Community Association strongly urges the AGO to reject this application in the public interest.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Rob Dokker, President
Centretown Community Association

CC:
Ariel Troster, Councillor, Somerset Ward
Catherine McKenney, MPP Parliament

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Centretown Community Association Releases City of Ottawa Budget 2026 Recommendations

7 July 2025

The Centretown Community Association (CCA) appreciates the opportunity to participate in the 2026 City of Ottawa Budget process. CCA Committees submitted budget recommendations, the CCA considered the recommendations and what follows are the recommendations we’re asking Somerset Councillor Ariel Troster, Mayor Sutcliffe and Ottawa City Council to consider in their deliberations.

Our Transportation Committee recommends:

• The city funds adequate snow removal and to have streets cleared faster following large snowfalls.

• funding for sustainable transportation improvements, like priority bus lanes and active transportation projects and

• along with SEPAW (CCA Safety Committee), asks for traffic safety, including e-scooter and e-bike safety and education.

• most importantly asks that OC Transpo be adequately and properly funded, with no budget gaps or shortages of funding.

The Heritage Committee would like to see the continuation of funding for the Golden Triangle Heritage District and for grants to refurbish the heritage elements of heritage buildings.

From the CCA SEPAW (Safety Committee):

• We call for an increase in the budgets of our Councillors’ Offices. We see the need for residents of Somerset Ward, and all wards to see increased capacity in the assistance they receive. Increased population across the city without increased capacity in a Councillor’s office does not serve the residents well.

• Centretown desperately and specifically needs more Community/Neighbourhood Police to help residents in the ward feel safe. The crime rates for the ward have increased, there has been a significant increase of people in the ward with mental health challenges, including those with drug addictions: there are not enough resources to meet this need.

• SEPAW also calls for the education of residents in programs like Bystander Intervention Training, Neighbourhood Watch, CPTED reviews for multi-unit buildings, greater promotion of CAMSafe, and much better lighting.

• We recommend special meetings to hear what residents in the community want, need and what they can learn how to assist in making their community safe(r).

The CCA Planning Committee recommends:

• the city fund and facilitate a community-based branch of the Ottawa Public Library, to replace the relocation of the main branch out of our community.

The Planning Committee and SEPAW noted that on January 9, 2020, the city council declared that Ottawa has a housing crisis and emergency. The motion on that day called for “more aggressive targets” to preserve and bolster Ottawa’s affordable housing supply and eliminate chronic homelessness completely by 2024, which the city set as its goal in its 10-year housing and homelessness plan. Since this date, the numbers have significantly increased, and both situations are much worse.

• We ask the city, in the budget, to prioritize people before buildings and to establish more supportive and transitional homes. We call on Ottawa to follow the lead of other cities to build tiny homes and smaller trailer homes.

• Ottawa should follow the lead of other cities and have specific guidelines for landlords when seeking to renovate their multi-unit buildings.

The Trees & Greenspace & Sustainbility Committee, one of the CCA’s most active committees advocates for:

• greater support for our greenspaces with funding for acquisition of greenspace, recreational facilities to match the increased population density in Centretown,

• funding for maintenance of gardens in city parks and quicker replacement of lost trees.

• A recommendation was made to fund a need for McNabb Park to have electricity.

The CCA expressed a need for continued funding for insurance costs for qualified not-for-profit organizations.

The CCA noted Somerset Ward and specifically, Centretown generates a very large pot of revenue through taxes and asks that this is taken into consideration when debating the budget recommendations from the CCA.

We submit these recommendations as a part of the Council's community consultation for the 2026 City of Ottawa Budget.

Robert Dekker, President Centretown Community Association president@centretowncitizens.ca

Community Groups Sponsor Mayfair Marquee to Promote Better Transit

The Centretown Community Association will be providing administrative support to Strong Towns Ottawa, which has sponsored the marquee at the Mayfair to display a message in support of bus lanes on Bank Street. Read the full press release below.

CCA encourages greater density, but worries about lack of overall planning

210 Gloucester Street, Suite 101
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2K4

May 28, 2025

Re: Secondary plan amendments

Royce Fu
Manager, Policy Planning, City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, ON
K1P 1J1

Dear Mr. Fu,

We write in regard of the proposed amendments to the Central and East Downtown Core Secondary Plan.

The Centretown Community Association (CCA) believes greater density is necessary and does not object to the increases in heights per se. However, we are concerned about the lack of planning to accommodate greater density.

We are dismayed to hear of far higher densities in the core, but with no talk of increasing green spaces and the amenities that must accommodate greater density.

The City’s planners seem to work in silos. The people who talk to us about greater housing density will not speak of increases in parks, green space, schools, urban canopy, or the elements of the 15-minute neighbourhood.

Greater density must be accompanied by planning for the elements to make the city’s core liveable.

As well, we hope the new height restrictions will be enforced. At present, it is customary for developers to apply to exceed height restrictions, making a mockery of them. The height maximums should command respect; exceptions must be rare.

We want to mitigate the housing crisis and housing-affordability pain; we want new housing built. We are dismayed at the number of sites where a new building is approved and then nothing happens, sometimes for years or decades. Two prominent examples are Somerset House and 330 Gilmour Street. We encourage the City to create an environment where the approval of an application almost always results in construction within a reasonable time frame. A vacant-property tax is one possible encouragement; there are others.

Finally, we would draw your attention to Dundonald Park. Dundonald is one of Ottawa’s oldest parks, full of mature trees and gardens. It should be respected, its beauty and heritage character protected. We recommend no tall buildings encroach on the park. Specifically, we recommend the north side of the block of Somerset adjacent to the park, Lyon to Bay, be zoned for four storeys. North of that, heights should be tiered. Thus, the permitted height on Cooper between Lyon and Bay should be six storeys. This will protect the heritage character of the gem that is Dundonald Park.

Thank you for time and attention to these concerns.

Sincerely,
Rob Dekker
President,
Centretown Community Association

c.c. Ariel Troster, Councillor
Catherine McKenney, MPP
Yasir Naqvi, MP

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Transportation Master Plan not Meeting Urban Resident’s Needs

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1

May 28, 2025

Dear Mayor Sutcliffe,

We are disappointed with the projects outlined in the most recent update of the draft Transportation Master Plan and believe it will make Centretown residents worse off. It will make the lives of those who live and work here less affordable, less accessible, and less safe.

Centretown is not a parking lot or throughway for commuter traffic. It is a thriving community that deserves the same respect, investment, and access to amenities as any other neighbourhood in Ottawa. The current plan fails to support this, and instead proposes:

• More traffic and reduced safety for residents
• Higher costs and a growing maintenance backlog
• No clear solutions for the failures of the last master plan

The plan projects nearly 10,000 additional cars into downtown and inner urban areas every
morning by 2046. This will worsen congestion, increase dangerous conflicts on our streets, and make it harder for people to walk, cycle, or use transit. Despite this, the plan continues to prioritize expensive road expansions-like the Airport Parkway and Albion Road-while existing roads in Centretown are already riddled with potholes and safety hazards.

Ottawa is struggling to keep up with basic road and transit maintenance. Hundreds of OC
Transpo bus trips are missed each week due to a maintenance backlog and increased
congestion, while road repairs fall further behind every year. Adding new and widened roads will only make the maintenance backlog worse and divert funds from essential city services.

The previous Transportation Master Plan failed to deliver on its promises: transit ridership is below expectations, and sustainable mode share goals have not been met. This draft does not explain why those targets were missed or what will be done differently this time. Instead, it repeats the same approach.

We believe Centretown residents deserve a neighbourhood where children can get to school safely without crossing multiple dangerous, high-speed arterial roads; where everyone can access the amenities their taxes and development fees help fund, regardless of whether they own a car; and where our public spaces aren’t sacrificed to serve as parking lots for traffic from other neighbourhoods.

We urge Council to update the plan so it truly supports the needs of Centretown: maintain our existing infrastructure, invest in reliable transit and active transportation, and recognize that Centretown is not just a corridor for commuters.

The current plan reads like an answer to the question, “How do we get as many cars in and out of Centretown as quickly as possible?” We ask a different question: “How will the City prioritize the hours outside of peak commuting, while wide, high-speed roads sit empty and our neighbourhood remains underserved?” Centretown deserves a plan that puts residents first, not just the convenience of those passing through.

Thank you,

Rob Dekker
CCA President

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CCA co-hosts provincial candidates debate

On February 20th, 2025, the CCA and other community associations hosted the provincial candidates debate for Ottawa Centre.

Invited Candidates included:

Simon Beckett

Scott Healey

Catherine McKenney

Thomas Simpson

The debate was moderated by David Reevely.
Missed the debate?

Letter concerning the development of 267 O’Connor

On March 18, 2025, the Centretown Community Association sent a letter to Ann O’Connor, development review planner for the City of Ottawa, expressing concern regarding the height of a proposed development at 267 O’Connor St. That letter can be read here.

CCA hosts Centretown Community Conversation on Homelessness

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Tuesday January 14, 2025

OTTAWA, ON — On January 6th, a person who is not housed, identified as Roger, froze to death in Centretown.  This makes the event we have organized very timely.  On January 15, members of the Centretown community are invited to join neighbourhood organizations and housing providers for a Conversation on Homelessness in Ottawa Centre. The event will take place both in-person and virtually, providing a platform for open dialogue, sharing ideas and creating solutions to address the ongoing homelessness crisis.

Centretown organizations and members of the public will be joined in this discussion by:

• MP Yasir Naqvi

• MPP Joel Harden

• Somerset Councillor Ariel Troster

Leading housing and homelessness experts panel

• John Heckbert, Operation Come Home

• Peter Tilley, Ottawa Mission

• Mark MacAulay, Salus

• Angela Davis, Options Housing

The following speakers will be sharing the stories of their lived experiences

• Ric Allen-Watson, Chef Ric’s and Ottawa Mission

• Mayor Al, 12 Neighbours, Fredericton, NB (Virtual) on panel 2

• Ashley Clark, member of the Mohawk Nation and lived experience with homelessness

CCA expresses concern regarding 2025 transit budget

The Centretown Community Association has sent a letter with concerns regarding the 2025 draft transit budget. The letter cites 3 specific concerns:

1. Fare increases and cancellation of free transit days for seniors.

2. Cuts to youth fare programs, including ending free transit for 11 and 12 year olds.

3. The $36 million funding gap in the transit budget.

The draft budget will result in more people choosing to drive, worsening traffic congestion, while many—especially seniors, children, and those with lower incomes—will be forced to stay home. The resulting decline in transit usage will only deepen the financial challenges of our system.

Ottawa’s transit system is at a crossroads. If we do not act now to reverse these cuts and increase funding, we risk undermining a system that so many depend on.

We urge the City of Ottawa to prioritize the long-term sustainability of our transit system and ensure that it remains a reliable, affordable, and efficient option for everyone in our community.

For further inquiries please contact: Transportation@centretowncitizens.ca

Download PDF. 

CCA expresses concerns about loss of trees on James Street

The Centretown Community Association has sent a letter expressing concerns regarding the loss of mature canopy trees, on James Street, as part of the current infrastructure renewal project proposed for the street

Comments on the proposed redevelopment of 265 Catherine

On July 20, 2023, the Centretown Community Association provided comments to the City of Ottawa on a proposed redevelopment plan for 265 Catherine, the site of the former bus depot. The CCA urged City Council to reject the application for redevelopment. That letter can be read here.

Letter concerning loud horns on construction sites

On May 15, 2023, the CCA sent a letter to Councillor Ariel Troster requesting that the city of Ottawa take steps to implement a recommendation from the Ottawa People’s Commission that would eliminate the use of loud horns on construction sites in Centretown. That letter can be found here.

Comments on a proposed development at 84 & 100 Gloucester

On May 15, 2023, the Centretown Community Association provided comments to the City of Ottawa on a proposed development at 84 & 100 Gloucester. The CCA took issue with many aspects of the proposal, but focused in particular on a lack of necessary consultation. That letter can be read here.

CCA Letter demanding a Public Inquiry on the Freedom Convoy’s Occupation of Ottawa

On March 15, 2022, the CCA wrote a letter to Mayor Watson, Interim Police Chief Bell, Premier Ford and Prime Minister Trudeau demanding that all 3 levels of government begin an immediate and thorough public inquiry into the handling of the convoy occupation of downtown Ottawa and develop a joint plan to prevent similar events from happening again. That letter can be found here.

Letter concerning the Freedom Convoy's Occupation of Ottawa

On February 6, 2022, the CCA wrote to Mayor Watson and Police Chief Sloly to take immediate and specific actions to assist Centretown residents struggling with the occupation of their community. That letter can be found here.