The City of Ottawa’s list of elected officials for 2022 to 2026 shows Catherine Kitts as Councillor for Ward 19 Orléans South-Navan. The City’s list of certified candidates shows her nomination for the same ward dated June 29, 2026, with the same date for her registration in the Contribution Rebate Program. The City’s page for her says she was first elected in 2020 to represent the ward when it was called Cumberland Ward. Global News reported that she won the Cumberland Ward byelection on October 5, 2020, to replace Stephen Blais, who had become a member of the Ontario legislature, and CTV News Ottawa reported that she won 54 per cent of the vote. The City’s published results for the October 24, 2022 election give her 9,466 of the 12,378 votes cast in Ward 19, which is 76.5 percent, the most votes in a race of 3 candidates (Yvette Ashiri received 2,716 and Shamsa Sheikh Ahmed 196). Her campaign website says she was re-elected in 2022 “with close to 80% of the vote”. The City’s figure is 76.5 percent. Jason Wing is the other candidate on the 2026 ballot.
The City’s page for her, CBC News and CTV News Ottawa describe her as a graduate of Carleton University’s journalism program and a former editor of the Orléans Star newspaper. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she adds that she later worked in communications and strategic planning at Carleton and then started her own business. Global News reported in 2020 that she had run in Orléans Ward in the 2018 election and finished a few hundred votes behind Matthew Luloff. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she lists her roles on Council as Chair of the Ottawa Board of Health and Vice-Chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. Her campaign website says she served on nine committees and boards this term, also as Vice-Chair of Finance and Corporate Services and of the South Nation Conservation Authority. voche.me did not check these roles against committee minutes.
The Council minutes of four meetings record her votes by name. On December 10, 2025 she voted for the 2026 Ottawa Police Service budget (carried 20 to 5, with Councillors King, Menard, Johnson, Bradley and Troster against). She voted against a motion by Councillor King that would have matched a $5.4 million police reserve allocation with $5.4 million for ANCHOR (a program that sends non-police crisis teams) and community hubs (lost 9 to 16), and for the second part of that motion, which carried 17 to 8 and asks staff to report on how to fund ANCHOR and the hubs in the long term. She voted for the motion that adopted the 2026 budgets (carried 21 to 4), and against the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee part of the budget (carried as amended 23 to 2, with Councillor Luloff also against). That day she moved two motions that carried: one extends the Innes Road traffic study to cover Orléans South more widely, and one asks Public Works staff to work out maintenance costs road by road. On April 22, 2026 she voted for the Safe Access to Social Infrastructure By-law (carried 20 to 4, with Councillors Menard, Devine, Bradley and Troster against), against an amendment that would have removed the by-law’s ban on demonstrations inside safe access zones (lost 6 to 18), and against an amendment that would have limited the by-law to times when a facility is used for its main purpose (lost 10 to 14). She seconded Councillor Carr’s motion on a municipal food strategy and Councillor Kelly’s motion on response times for councillors’ requests to City staff, and both carried. On July 15, 2026 she voted for the Development Charge Reduction Program report (carried 23 to 1, with Councillor Menard against) and the minutes record her dissent on its first recommendation. She voted against Councillor Menard’s motion to refer that report to a special meeting of Council (lost 11 to 14), and for the Rental Renovation Licence By-law review (carried 20 to 5), with a recorded dissent on its third recommendation. On September 9, 2026 she voted for a motion by Councillor King that asks the federal government to extend its consultation on the Eastern Bridge Project (carried 23 to 2).
Her campaign website says that in the next term she will push to turn plans into construction on Brian Coburn Boulevard, the Renaud Road Realignment and Innes Road transit priority measures, keep tax increases as low as responsibly possible, make growth pay its fair share, expand frontline and community policing, and keep investing in rural roads and ditches. She says she opposes any Alto high-speed rail corridor that sacrifices the Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail or farmland, and Capital Current reports that she has spoken out against the Alto plan. In the CBC News questionnaire she says the most tax increase she could support in 2027 would match inflation, gives no answer on how to cover OC Transpo deficits, and supports more frontline police officers together with more transparency from the Ottawa Police Service. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she says she is wary of a new infrastructure levy. These are her own statements, and voche.me checked only the votes, motions and election results described above. The sources read hold no complaint against her.
