City Has Champagne Wishes, Caviar Dreams: MULVIHILL
Hat in hand, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe met with Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the AMO conference in Ottawa and had a little chat about Ottawa’s dire financial situation.
According to Sutcliffe, the two had a good discussion. He thinks Ford understands Ottawa’s unique challenges and wants to be part of a solution. Unique challenges. Really.
Perhaps Ford reminded the mayor that he is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the city’s financial house is in good order? That would be a good start. Right? Ford might have questioned the need to spend about $500 million on Lansdowne 2.0 supporting a private developer in the process. He could have wondered out loud about the wisdom of proceeding with the $500-million Tewin development, again, supporting a private developer. Maybe he inquired about the secret multi-million dollar settlements for LRT-related claims? Could the premier have mentioned the ridiculously overpriced central library? There’s so much that jumps off the page, it’s hard to settle on one.
In any event, Sutcliffe must know that he has played his last hand. There might not be additional funds for the city, however residents are facing a substantial hike in property taxes to cover Ottawa City Council’s affluent spending habits. Sutcliffe has no choice but to take that off-ramp on a number of feel-good projects. The City of Ottawa can’t afford champagne tastes on a beer budget.
Donna Mulvihill is a community activist and former hospital coordinator
Champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
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This is where we find out if there really are viable “off-ramps” as we’ve been assured and if council has any intention of taking one. It is more likely that those off-ramps were thrown up as a sop to people who disagreed with Lansdowne 2.0 to push their concerns into the future. Meanwhile, staff and council are solidifying and locking in the commitments, both contractually and financially, that will make it impossible to ever back out of or even modify the project.