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On the face of it, Vanier’s status as one of the region’s least wealthy neighbourhoods makes little sense.

The former city is just minutes from downtown and bounded by 150 acres of green space to the north and the Rideau River to the west. In the core districts, roughly half the population is fluently bilingual compared with less than 40 per cent in the rest of Ottawa.

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Yet, somehow Vanier consistently ranks in the bottom tiers when it comes to income and housing values.

Commuters in the past chose to bypass Vanier in favour of leafier suburbs and new housing developments in Blackburn Hamlet and points further east. More recently, with the ongoing shift of 8,000 Department of National Defence employees to a new headquarters in Ottawa’s west end, Vanier once more is losing out.

Industry and high-tech have also largely ignored the district. Indeed, the clear message in the most recent national census is that Vanier requires an economic catalyst. Whether the latter should be provided by the Salvation Army — which is planning a new facility at 333 Montreal Rd. to consolidate city-wide social services — is a matter of great debate.