Ottawa needs to focus on the funding and costs it can control
Yesterday Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe called out the federal and provincial governments for not funding Ottawa adequately and paying their fair share for Ottawa’s transit. I agree with the mayor, Ottawa is given the short end of the stick when it comes to transit funding from higher government. However, the City of Ottawa needs to focus on the things it can control, and right now it’s not helping itself very much when it comes to fixing our financial situation
Below are a few things that Ottawa can do to improve its transit and financial situation, while at the same time showing higher levels of government that we are fiscally responsible and well organized.
Improve transit ridership
One way to improve the financial state of OC transpo is to increase transit ridership. By cutting service and raising prices, OC transpo is doing the exact opposite. I’ve spoken and will continue to speak a lot on transit ridership, so here are some quick ideas:
Improve service in busy and dense areas, like Bank Street, Baseline, and Carling. Provide bus lanes so more riders can be served quickly.
Run adequate LRT service.
Densify around transit stations. Don’t expand LRT service to non-dense areas, especially the middle of the highway!
Invest in reliability and redundancy for the system. OC transpo is so unreliable and often cancelled that many people don’t ride the bus because they don’t trust it.
Determine costs before revenue
Despite knowing its precarious financial situation, previous high inflation, and having a large transit funding deficit, Ottawa only raised property taxes by 2.5% in 2024. When setting our budget, we need to decide our costs first and then decide how much revenue we need. By setting an arbitrary tax cap before knowing what costs would be, Ottawa set themselves up for a funding shortfall.
I have no idea why the federal or provincial government would bail out Ottawa, who refused to raise taxes to catch up with inflation, when other cities like Toronto raised property taxes by 9.5%.
During the Toronto municipal election, Olivia Chow didn’t provide a set figure for a possible tax increase, the exact opposite of Sufcliffe’s 2.5% tax increase promise.
Ottawa hasn’t tried to solve its revenue problem, and yet is asking for help.
Don’t waste money on expensive projects
Despite a projected $50 million budget shortfall for OC Transpo in 2024, the city is still moving forward with expensive projects that cost a lot up front and are almost certain to lose our city more in operating costs in the long run.
Lansdowne 2.0 is looking like it’ll cost the city almost $500 million, and the first phase appears to be losing significant money for the city, and yet it still looks like Ottawa will move forward with Lansdowne despite claiming to be short on funds for transit.
Another example of a big project that won’t bring in nearly enough money to justify the cost is the Bank Street widening south of Leitrim Road. The project is projected to cost $50 million, which is almost the entirety of Ward 22’s yearly property tax revenue of $64 million. This is for a single road in a big ward.
There are all kinds of projects like this across the city, and if Ottawa is going to ask other levels of government to help, it needs to make sure it is not wasting the money that it does have.
Ottawa has to at least appear to be helping themselves before asking for help.
Thanks Derrick for sharing your take on this. One of the biggest challenges is demonstrating the importance of transit investments to the ~90% of residents who don't regularly commute by transit. As much as we advocate to the other levels of government, we also need to advocate to our family, friends, co-workers, etc. on why good transit is fundamental to a great city.
These are great points, and I hope Ottawa will take them into consideration. I've learned quite a bit about urbanism in Ottawa over the past year because I was highly considering moving there from the Toronto area, so it's interesting to see similarities and differences between the two cities. It's a little discouraging to hear that the city will spend $50 million to expand one section of a road, but will do things like reduce Line 1 frequency from every 5 minutes to every 10 during off-peak hours to save a relatively small amount of money. I think Ottawa is a great city with great potential, and even though I don't live there, I like hearing positive news regarding transit and densification. I hope to see more improvements in the city, especially those that will benefit people not in a car.