De-Amalgamate The City Of Ottawa: DOUCET

By Clive Doucet

The city’s amalgamation with the towns and townships of Carleton County is now 23-years-old and it’s clear it has never worked.

The only people benefiting from it are developers who use the municipalities outside the Greenbelt to split council and get as many condo towers as possible inside the Greenbelt and as much sprawl outside as possible.

Amalgamation has been a bonanza for the city’s largest developers. Council has now approved subdivisions in Cumberland in wetlands that are so far outside the urban growth line that even city planners working on the developer dime couldn’t swallow it. Inside the Greenbelt public parks such as Lansdowne and public green spaces such as the Central Experimental Farm have been privatized for parking and condo towers.

The disconnect between the municipalities of the old Carleton County and the municipalities inside the Greenbelt has always been there but people (I among them) hoped with time the two sides of the Greenbelt would learn how to live and govern together in the interests of both. It never happened. Stittsville Councillor Glen Gower lists the second Lansdowne Park giveaway under Odds and Ends in his ward newsletter, that’s how little it means to him. Communities inside the Greenbelt have been fighting the original Lansdowne redevelopment and 2.0 giveaways for as long as the amalgamated city has existed. 

Ottawa’s Exodus Begins: PATTON

Friends of Lansdowne took the city all the way to superior court in Toronto to fight the original Lansdowne project. People raised close to a quarter of a million dollars to achieve this. Lansdowne 2.0 is even worse than its predecessor. At Lansdowne city residents get less, lose more and the developers get more.

Under the Ontario Planning Act, the people who live closest to a development are supposed to be prioritized. Their opinions and feelings are supposed to count more, not less, because they are affected more. Prior to amalgamation, this is the way it was. In the amalgamated city, those most affected count the least. When I was a city councillor, suburban councillors would regularly ask for the postal code of those who opposed to Lansdowne so they could dismiss their opinions. Lansdowne 2.0 makes it clear that after 25 years, nothing has changed. Amalgamation has been a tragedy for the capital. The light-rail project was turned away from Carling Avenue to the Ottawa River parkway to satisfy developers who had developable land there which needed rail service. It was the wrong decision for the wrong reasons for the wrong route. The National Capital Commission choice for a new city hospital was turned down for a national heritage site (the Experimental Farm) because it made for richer development pickings.

I used to think a public inquiry could fix things. We’ve had two. Both have condemned city politicians and managers. Nothing happened. I am now convinced, the only way to get the national capital back for the people who live there is to get rid of the amalgamation.

Let the towns and townships outside the Greenbelt run their own affairs. Let those inside do the same. This is entirely possible, but it will take a civic party with a charismati candidate for mayor dedicated to giving the city back to the people who live there. 

Imagine a city where communities are heard and public transit works.

Clive Doucet is a former Ottawa City Councillor and author. His book about Ottawa, City Council Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual was short listed for the Shaughnessy Cohen Award.

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