Doug Ford, End The Fiasco Of This City Government

What University of Ottawa associate professor Evan Potter’s post today shows that the City of Ottawa is not just careless with its spending, has made mistakes worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has repeatedly covered up its actions among other things.

In fact the municipality does not value the opinions of its citizens and patterns its so-called engagements to come to the conclusions that supports the position of the city and its self-interest.

This is a municipal government that functions poorly and, frankly, is out of control. No wonder it can’t get senior executives to come to Ottawa to fill jobs worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Potential executives know through the national and international municipal grapevine what Ottawans are just beginning to learn … that the situation at Ottawa City Hall is so bad that they do not want to go anywhere near it.

You see the results in so many failed projects and in decisions made in the hundreds of millions of dollar that are not in the best interests of citizens and taxpayers of Ottawa.

The City of Ottawa is working for itself and for special-interest-group friends and associates who want what is best for themselves. The City of Ottawa and its revenue is a vein to be mined for self-aggrandizement of staff and the lobbyists they try to satisfy.

This must come to an end … now.

Sometimes democracy gets out of control … particularly when the public is apathetic, journalism is declining and wealth and power are at stake that an elite of people want.

A number of contributors to The Bulldog have said this but it bears repeating. This is a feckless government which is being exploited by a few for themselves. That’s wrong. It’s our government and our money. Ottawans should want democracy, not a government that works for itself and a few.

We have seen the Lansdowne failure, the light-rail failure, the budget failure of the new central library and now a trumped up campaign to blame the city’s budget failure on the senior levels of government rather than themselves where it belongs.

We want our city back.

Once again, we call on the provincial government to restore democracy, fiscal responsibility and competent administration on Laurier Avenue.

It has been long overdue to appoint an administrator and a board of respected people inside and outside our community to pull this municipal government out of the abyss. They should bring with them a team of auditors and experts to turn the City of Ottawa around and become, once again, a government for which the residents of this G7 capital can be proud. If these appointees find untoward actions have occurred, the perpetrators should feel the authority of this board up to and including the full extent of the law where applicable.

The province administers municipal government in Ontario. Premier Doug Ford exercise your duty and responsibility to clean up the City of Ottawa.

This is your job now.

Ken Gray

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