SHELTERS: A Little Knowledge Goes A Short Way

Published 04/14/2025 · Updated 04/14/2025

Here is how democracy works in the world or councillors Jeff Leiper and Ariel Trotter.

If I want it, then consultations aren’t necessary because I’m right and everyone wants what I want.

If I don’t want it, well then consultation and debate are very necessary.

That’s a problem.

Consultations provide scrutiny which should be viewed as positive by the likes of the councillors and City of Ottawa staff. The reason for this is that people can be wrong. Councillors can be wrong. Even city staff can be wrong. Consultations can help prevent those wrong things for sneaking through.

Consultations should be viewed as positive endeavours. They should help staff and councillors get a feel for the community.

But that’s not how it works.

Some city departments think of the public as an obstacle to be overcome on the way to getting what that organization wants. Empire building. Some departments (planning for one) are absolutely hostile to the public. Less so to developers. Developers good. Public bad. So much for Troster’s comments that city staff consults and is in tune with the public.

Did she miss the whole sprung structure debate? Staff didn’t consult with the public and thrust an unwanted tent project on residents when a better alternative was available. Surely in the course of a real consultation, someone would have mentioned the downtown YMCA building as a viable alternative. When the city realized it had a tiger by the tail, it didn’t consult. It held meetings telling the public this is what we are doing and this is why you are wrong. When residents asked on one occasion if they could participate in a discussion, they were told by an elected official (yes, a public representative) “absolutely not.” Yes Troster, democracy and consultation in action.

Are comments and participation destructive? No. In the past 16 years of The Bulldog, we have received roughly 24,000 comments and we’re still standing. The Bulldog welcomes comments and discussion. In fact, we encourage it. And we’re a lot smaller, and thus much less resilient, than the City of Ottawa. If the wee Bulldog can take it, surely the huge City of Ottawa can take it. Encourage consultation, city hall. Participants find weaknesses in city programs. Better to discover them in consultations rather than afterward when they can’t be fixed. Take Lansdowne for example.

A bylaw or new initiative can only be successful if the public buys into it. People support traffic signals because the alternative is chaos. People think idling bylaws are foolish because, not only are they pretty much useless, they’re impossible to enforce. Still we plow on with idling bylaws because of their political virtue-signalling value, not their utility. A waste of money and, even more precious, time.

Leiper thought that steamrolling e-buses through committee and council was the right thing to do because the city could get a low-interest loan quickly for the vehicles. So public consultation, for the most part, was abrogated. That could have shown problems with the e-bus purchase.

And oh yes, there are problems. Huge gas-powered generators mush be used (not exactly environmentally sound) to provide electricity to charge the vehicles because Hydro Ottawa doesn’t have enough capacity to do it.

Then there are the practicality and limitations of e-buses. They take a long time to charge. They have limited range. They do not stand up well in cold weather or very warm weather. The key to successful transit is getting people out of their cars no matter if the buses are diesel or electric. The environmental gains are to be had with both diesel and electric. Diesel has the advantage of the fact that it works. Electric buses that need to be charged with natural gas are not environmentally friendly. E-buses that don’t work are not environmentally friendly. E-buses whose delivery is delayed and thus are not on the road are not environmentally friendly.

Yet, Leiper pushed for e-buses due to a simple lack of knowledge and experience. A little knowledge goes a short way.

This is what happens when you don’t consult with the public and rush through ill-considered moves.

They don’t don’t work. Leiper and Troster need to learn that.

Ken Gray