Downtown Action Plan Lacks Action: STANKOVIC

A massive proposed revitalization of downtown Ottawa has stalled.

When the Ottawa Board of Trade released its 2024 report A Living Capital, it was described as an urgent “transformative Action Agenda” to deal with the post-pandemic challenges faced in the downtown core.

That hasn’t happened.

The Action Agenda proposed a $500-million investment fund to “kickstart a series of catalytic projects”. The Action Agenda also placed emphasis on a collaborative approach involving key business, government and community-based stakeholders or what the OBOT called a “coalition of the willing”.

Described as a pivotal moment for Ottawa, the OBOT next established the Downtown Ottawa Champions Table  and a Vibrancy Office in March of 2025 representing a who’s who in the private and government sectors. The Champions Table was given the task of implementing the now almost one-year-old Action Agenda. According to Sueling Ching, president and CEO of the OBOT, the Champions Table will also “calibrate action items in the plan and communicate them to the community” and will work on raising “seed funding” of $350,000 through a “combination of public and private funding”.

So how far has the kickstart fund gone to reach its initial target of $500 million? Apparently, not very far at all.

Nothing has yet come either from the Champions Table on their project initiatives and costing. It has only been three months since its members were formally announced but we are also past the one-year mark of the five-year Action Agenda. The urgency seems to have waned a bit.

So, what has the City of Ottawa done to support the Action Agenda priorities?

For one, it has sent its own Downtown Tactical Team to coordinate city initiatives and support related to downtown revitalization. The one thing the city seems to like doing is creating committees with this one perhaps also providing credence that it is indeed part of the “coalition of the willing”.

The city is currently undertaking a redesign and construction of William Street and the ByWard Market Square. This initiative is actually part of the $129-million ByWard Market Public Realm Plan approved by Ottawa City Council back in 2020 just before the pandemic hit. Moreover, it is unlikely that even this project would have started without the $11.8 million (over three years) the city received from the province under the December 2024 Ontario-Ottawa New Deal.

The fact is that the only funding directly associated with downtown revitalization to date comes from the province through the New Deal totalling $20 million mostly over three years. The New Deal includes a number of initiatives under the downtown revitalization umbrella including the establishment of an “Arts, Culture and Entertainment District” ($1.35 million over three years) and the development of a “Downtown Marketing” campaign ($400,000 in 2005-06).”

Interestingly and maybe oddly, the New Deal also provided the OBOT with $150,000 annually over three years to support the startup and follow-up work of the Vibrancy Office / Champions Table which is even more than the president was looking for at the time. And so much for raising the seed funding through a “combination of public and private funding.”

It is very obvious one year after the action agenda was released that the creation of the $500-million kickstart fund is nowhere near to becoming reality. The only substantive investment to date has been the $20 million from the province and there are no signs of where future funding might emanate.

Invest Ottawa is not able to contribute anything to the kickstart fund as the agency itself strongly depends on funding from government. The same applies to Ottawa Tourism. Even the OBOT ended up relying entirely on provincial funding for its start-up efforts related to the Champions Table / Vibrancy Office.

Meanwhile the federal government and in particular PSPC have not been very helpful in pushing the urgent button on downtown’s revitalization.

The federal auditor general published a report in June 2025 that found that the government has made limited progress in its multi-year effort to reduce its office space portfolio that could be repurposed for housing or towards PSPC’s goal to achieve a 50-per-cent reduction in office space by 2034. Two properties in Ottawa’s downtown core were identified as being surplus in 2023 and suitable for housing – the Jackson Building at 122 Bank St. and the L’Esplanade Laurier complex on the Bank Street / Laurier Avenue / O’Connor Street block. The repurposing of both properties were considered transformative in revitalizing downtown. Neither property is currently for sale.

Virtually every major city in Canada has designed and implemented a downtown revitalization strategy in response to the pandemic and in most cases, local governments have taken the lead role particularly on the funding side. Take for example two metropolitan cities of similar size to Ottawa – Calgary and Edmonton. The City of Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan was approved by city council in 2021 during the pandemic, and was supported by a $325-million investment to revitalize the downtown. Edmonton City Council will soon consider a $553-million Downtown Action Plan over the next five years.

Ottawa, on the other hand, has taken a low-key position with the “coalition of the willing”. Perhaps this is not surprising given the enormous budget challenges the City faces with Lansdowne Park, OC Transpo and the $11 billion infrastructure gap – to mention just a few examples.

Dan Stankovic is an Ottawa consultant and former municipal public servant in economic development and housing.

For You:

Homelessness Takes A Sad Turn

Oops … Champlain Park Missed Booze List

Macleod Speaks Out On Holocaust Incident

City Employee Charged In Holocaust Monument Incident

Kettle Island Bridge A Non-Starter: KING

Bookmark The Bulldog, click here