Katherine Hobbs is a former

Ottawa city councillor Ottawa City Council () is the governing body of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is composed of 24 city councillors and the mayor. The mayor is elected at large, while each councillor represents wards throughout the city. Council member ...

Kitchissippi Ward Kitchissippi Ward (Ward 15) is a city ward in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It gets its name from the Algonquin name for the Ottawa River, meaning ''Great River''. The ward is slightly west of downtown, and covers the neighbourhoods of Ch ...

. She won the ward in the

2010 Ottawa municipal election The 2010 Ottawa municipal election was a municipal election that was held on October 25, 2010, to elect the mayor of Ottawa, Ottawa City Council and Boards of Trustees of Ottawa's English public, English Catholic, French public and French C ...

, defeating the incumbent Christine Leadman, and was defeated by

Jeff Leiper Jeffrey Leiper (born 1970) is the current Ottawa city councillor for Kitchissippi Ward. He was first elected in the 2014 Ottawa municipal election, defeating the incumbent Katherine Hobbs. Early life and career Leiper was born and raised in Otta ...

in 2014. Hobbs lived in the

Hintonburg Hintonburg is a neighbourhood in Kitchissippi Ward in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located west of the Downtown core. It is a historically working-class, predominantly residential neighbourhood, with a commercial strip located along Wellington Stree ...

neighbourhood of the city, and was raised in Ottawa. She graduated from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

in Business Administration and received a certification in Internet Marketing from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. Prior to being elected, she worked for Novotech Technologies from 2003. She has also worked for

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

, Aastra Telecom and

Scotiabank The Bank of Nova Scotia (), operating as Scotiabank (), is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada's Big Five (banks), Big Five banks, it is the ...

. Hobbs is a cycling advocate who sold her car in 2012 in favour of other modes of transportation, including cycling, walking, shared car services and public transit. She was involved in creating more

cycling infrastructure Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of bicycle pedal, pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the ...

in Kitchissippi, most notably Churchill Avenue reconstruction, the first complete street design in Ottawa, incorporating raised segregated pedestrian and cycling lanes. During her first term on the council, Hobbs secured $500,000 worth of funding for five community design plans. Incorporating community input, these plans provided guidelines for how the ward will develop, protecting low rise residential areas and increasing greenspace in the study areas around transit. Hobbs is a transit advocate who supported extra stations in Kitchissippi for the city-wide LRT project, and on the expansion of the O Train. Hobbs has prioritized parks. New park projects during Hobbs' term included Evergreen Park, which incorporated the first dog run in the ward, and Ottawa's largest dog park in Hampton Park; and a $1 million upgrade of Fisher Park to provide a splashpad and renewed basketball courts. Two fieldhouses were planned for Reid Park in the Civic Hospital neighbourhood and Westboro Beach. Hobbs was a member of the Planning Committee, Transit Commission, Confederation Line working group, the Board of Health, Heritage Sub-Committee, Governance Committee, Development Charge Review Sub-Committee, and Film Development Corporation Board. She was a board member on the Westboro BIA and West Wellington BIA. Hobbs was appointed city co-chair of the 2017 Committee, a group of Ottawa's business community who planned the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Canada, an initiative to boost Ottawa's economic viability.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbs, Katherine Living people Ottawa city councillors Year of birth missing (living people) Cycling advocates Pedestrian activists Public transport activists