Meet Jeff
Family. Community. Results.
“If I had to describe myself in one word, it would be family. That is the same approach I want to bring to Barrhaven West.”
Jeff Balys is a Barrhaven dad who raised two children here, and he has spent more than two decades working directly with families on the decisions that matter most to them.
He began his career in financial services with Investors Group and later Edward Jones, where he built a growing client practice in Ottawa's Blossom Park community. In 2001 he took an entrepreneurial step and co-founded NetWealth Realty Inc., which grew substantially in the Canadian mortgage brokerage industry before being acquired by Centum Canada in 2006.
From 2007 to 2012 Jeff dedicated much of his time to raising his two children, while staying active in commercial lending and mortgage financing. In 2012 he moved into real estate full-time, and has since built and led teams and held senior leadership roles as a team leader, coach, mentor and trainer.
That work is why he sees transit, housing and development as one connected problem rather than three separate ones. When a commute does not work, Barrhaven does not work for the family weighing whether to move here or stay.
Family first
Jeff is a single dad who raised two children in Barrhaven. His son Anthony attended Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School, and his daughter Samantha attended Mother Teresa High School, both right here in the community.
Raising them here is how he came to know this ward the way residents know it: the schools, the fields, the commutes, the waiting lists, and the cost of everything going up faster than the services around it.
Barrhaven shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought
Barrhaven has grown tremendously, but too often our infrastructure, recreational facilities, roads, community services and local amenities have not kept pace. Residents should not have to accept:
- More congestion every year without enough transportation improvements.
- Higher taxes without seeing better neighbourhood services.
- Children being turned away from sports because facilities are full.
- Families driving across Ottawa to find ice, fields or recreational space.
- Community organizations struggling for resources while the population they serve keeps growing.
- Development arriving before the infrastructure needed to support it.
- Residents feeling that City Hall listens only after decisions have already been made.
If Barrhaven is going to continue growing, our share of City investment needs to grow with it.
Alongside all of it he has volunteered and coached in this community for years, including football, baseball and soccer, and a term as General Manager of the Ottawa Sooners.