Cathryne Milburn

The City’s list of certified candidates shows Cathryne Milburn’s nomination for Councillor in Ward 11 Beacon Hill-Cyrville dated May 1, 2026, with the same date for her registration in the Contribution Rebate Program. The City’s open data file shows no school board nomination in her name for 2026, and she is not on the City’s list of withdrawn candidates. CBC News reported on July 11, 2026 that she registered on the first day of nominations, that she lives just outside the ward, and that she has also spent seven years working for the City, most recently in transit services. CTV News Ottawa describes her as a former school board trustee and current City of Ottawa employee.

The City’s published results for the October 24, 2022 election give her 5,502 of the 12,215 votes cast for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in Zone 12, which is 45.0 percent, in a race of three candidates. An Ottawa-Carleton District School Board document lists her as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for 2023 to 2024, and a board release reported on November 12, 2024 that trustees re-elected her Vice-Chair for 2024 to 2025. The board’s page says the current trustees were elected in October 2022 and were due to serve until November 2026, and that since June 27, 2025 the board has been under supervision by the Minister of Education, so that all decisions normally made by trustees are made by the appointed Supervisor. CBC News reported that supervision suspended trustees’ meetings, honorarium payments and decision-making role. Her trustee website, whose latest post is dated June 23, 2025, says her role is restricted under supervision.

In the CBC News and CTV News Ottawa questionnaires she describes her trustee work as helping to set the board’s direction, joining the Policy Review Committee, and holding town halls and community meetings on the Elementary Program Review, a board plan that changed school boundaries and grades. She says she helped oversee a budget of $1.3 billion, published her voting record, and that her meetings led to changes in boundary maps and grade configurations at some schools in the zone. She also says she began her career in government and non-profit work, helped launch the City’s Engage Ottawa public engagement site, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from the University of Ottawa. These are her own statements, and voche.me has not checked them with the school board, the City or the university. The CBC News article of July 11, 2026 quotes her saying that provincial limits on trustees’ role in budgets were a contributing factor in her decision to run for Council, though not the main reason.

Her platform promises to consult residents on major decisions including Lansdowne 2.0 and the City budget, to publish her voting record online, and to refuse donations from developers and development companies. On her campaign website she says she would not have supported the Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment, but that changing course now could add costs and uncertainty. In the CBC News questionnaire she names affordability as the biggest challenge, supports free transit for children under 18 and a freeze of the EquiPass price, and chooses a transit levy (a separate property tax charge for transit) to cover OC Transpo deficits. She gives no ceiling for a 2027 tax increase and says increases should be affordable and predictable. She gives 4 on a scale where 5 is strongly agree to the statement that building more homes in built-up areas will be important for housing in the ward.

On police funding she selects the answer that the budget should be decreased. Her written explanation says she would maintain current staffing and funding levels, including cost-of-living increases, and add investment in social services and the ANCHOR program, which sends non-police teams to people in a mental health or addiction crisis. The two parts of her answer differ, and voche.me reports both as she wrote them. Capital Current reported on September 21, 2026 that she has pointed to bus routes 12, 24 and 26 and called for schedules that match actual travel times. The sources voche.me read hold no complaint or allegation about her.