City Solution To Money Woes? Whining: BENN

“Victim of this, Victim of that … you might feel better if they gave you some cash”

Lyrics from an Eagles song. Also the theme of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s recent state of the municipality speech. Ottawa City Hall has finally acknowledged what has been apparent for more than a decade. The city has spent more than it has collected for pretty much every year of the ex-mayor Jim Watson and Sutcliffe administrations. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, the mayor is saying that there is a $100-million plus hole in the budget. Is he finally acknowledging that the operating and capital reserves are now officially empty?

Business 200 level course content. Over the long term, cash in must be greater than or equal to cash out. Revenue must be greater than or equal to expenses. Capital expenditures may be funded by long-term debt, but long-term debt needs to be serviced out of current expenditures. Any organization that does not follow these business basics is destined to meet a trustee in bankruptcy.

For most people who report to work at the city, their post-secondary education might not have included courses offered by a business school. The same can be said for our elected officials. Still, there are a lot of people working for the city who did spend some time in business school. Consider, for example, current city manager Wendy Stephanson, CPA. Prior to ascending to that position, she spent a long time working her way up the food chain in the finance department, all the way up to chief financial officer.

How did the city get to the point of making a public confession? Where to start? More of a philosophical question, like where does a circle start or end.

Drafting budgets based on pre-set property-tax increases rather than on building it from first elements. Zero-based budgets for those who remember the 1980s and ’90s.

Creating programs with no clear objectives. Never setting metrics to measure success, let alone wondering if the program has come to its natural end. Adding program after program after program in areas that are not the primary responsibility of the municipality.

Financing big-ticket projects with long-term debt, when interest rates were at so-called all-time lows. In which direction did senior managers think that interest rates would go? Seriously? No need to ask that of long time Kanata South Councillor Alan Hubley, who once stated that the $1-billion-plus electric bus fleet was being paid for with free money.

What to do about it? Councillors tasked staff with solving the operating deficits. OC Transpo decided to cut back on LRT service levels. Implicit in this decision is a reduction in staffing costs, power consumption and maintenance costs. How did councillors Jeff Leiper and Laine Johnson respond? Righteous indignation. Outrage. How dare staff cut back on service levels. Just what did these councillors think was going to happen?

So, did Sutcliffe, he of a ‘solid’ business background, acknowledge that these types of decisions have contributed to the city’s current financial disaster? No. Just like the rest of society, the city is a victim. In this case, the victim of the callous decisions of senior levels of government. A victim of an array of inherent bad behaviour. Intersectionality being the buzz word of the year.

Lower payments in lieu, which might or might not be caused by the actual amount of office space the federal government occupies. The results of the long-since-announced decision to further cut back on office space. Not insisting that federal public servants work from the office eight or nine days a week, whilst willfully ignoring the city’s own hybrid work schedules.

Let’s not forget the condemnation of the senior levels of government to refuse to top up capital funding on projects that are so over budget that the budget is no longer in sight. Budgets that were initiated on the back of a disposable napkin, which forced the project to be reversed engineered to meet the budget. And then being absolutely astounded that the project fails to meet expectations.

Nowhere in this lame equation was there an acknowledgement that many of the financial problems the city currently faces were self-inflicted. Nowhere is there a statement that cuts, such as the aforementioned reduction in LRT service levels, must be made. Nowhere is there an acknowledgement that the city is incapable of making those types of decisions because council lacks the political courage to make them.

The words uttered by many an executive of a bankrupt organization might differ slightly, but the theme remains. It’s not my fault. Well guess what Sutcliffe? The fault lies with the city, its senior management, it’s elected officials and nowhere else.

The only question that remains is what are you going to do about it? Aside from whining?

Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.

Get Over It. The Eagles. 

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