Province Must Step In To End City Hall Rot

The time has come for a third major provincial inquiry into misdeeds at Ottawa City Hall.

First there was the judicial inquiry into the light-rail project from which, apparently, Ottawa’s municipal government learned absolutely nothing.

Second and at present, there is a special coroner’s inquiry into the horrific 2019 Westboro bus crash that claimed three lives and injured 23 … many with terrible, life-changing wounds.

Now for a third. A group of municipal employees has ignored a provision of a council decision that would see funds from city traffic cameras plowed into road safety. Instead, these people moved the very lucrative funds from this initiative into general revenue and into the Ottawa Police Service. That decision flew in the face of Ottawa City Council that represents the people of this community. This group of unknown people, employees of the City of Ottawa or funded by the city, deliberately disobeyed a direct provision of council.

The people of Ottawa, whose funds were misallocated, have a right to know and a need to know who broke the law, exactly how this money illegally distributed, when did this occur, why did it occur, how much money was illegally misallocated and why the movement of the money, when it was proposed, didn’t return to council for approval.

These are the same kind of actions that were revealed in the light-rail inquiry. And unfortunately, LRT misdeeds such as withholding information from council, lying, illegal use of an outside communication and sheer, unadulterated incompetence continue at city hall. The rot runs deep on Laurier Avenue.

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This is not the kind of government the people of Ottawa wanted, nor the kind of government the people of Ottawa deserve. Residents expect legislation from city council to be obeyed, not dismissed without permission of council.

Worse than the situation surrounding the misallocated money is exactly how deep the lack of principles goes in other areas of municipal government. We now have three major examples of misdeeds: one that made of mockery of the importance of billions of dollars of taxpayer money and flew in the face of democratic government; a second that cost the lives of three people and injured 23; and now the misallocated of tens of millions of dollars in public money raised from traffic cameras.

The lack of ethics, the incompetence, the dangers to citizens and treatment of public revenue as though it is a toy to be fiddled with by an unknown group of people shows the municipal government in this community is dysfunctional, disturbing and an utter failure. It simply does not work in so many areas that it engenders a level of mistrust among residents that cannot be allowed to continue.

One more culprit can be added to this failure of municipal government. That is the provincial government.

Queen’s Park did not step in to ensure that the misdeeds from the hopeless light-rail project did not continue. The province took six years to get a coroner to probe the hideous crash at Westboro. We await what action the province will take in the misallocated of tens of millions of dollars of public revenue raised by red-light cameras.

But let’s not wait for the slow wheels of government in Toronto develop a plan. Here’s what the province must do.

Again, this publication calls for the appointment of a commissioner and board to take control of Ottawa City Hall (as the province did with the Ottawa Hospital and with the city during amalgamation) to run the municipal government and thoroughly probe and change personnel who are found wanting. It should not be difficult to find them. To paraphrase Mark Twain, just throw a brick … it is certain to hit one.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford can no longer allow the rot at Ottawa City Hall to continue.

Ken Gray

Journalist Ken Gray has worked at five major Canadian newspapers. He is an educator, broadcaster and at present is the editor and founder of the 16-year-old internet publication, The Bulldog.

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