Give Us City Services, Not Frills: WHOPPER WATCH

“Ottawa deserves a vigorous contest of ideas, visions, and future directions. Jeff Leiper’s mayoral bid guarantees just that. Lace up, Ottawa — the race is on”

uOttawa Professor Evan Potter

That’s where the problem at Ottawa City Council begins.

Sure we should be looking for leadership the embraces “ideas, visions and future directions.”

But those should come after the basics are done. Cities are about services and minute details that are too small for a national or provincial government to undertake. Municipalities do the practical things in small jurisdictions that would overwhelm the senior levels of government with huge national and provincial scope.

Ottawa City Council, with Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper being one of the major offenders, likes to focus on big ideas while the basic needs of Ottawans suffer.

Here’s one example which is characteristic of council. Leiper championed a plan that would build a fleet of electric buses using a low-interest federal loan plan. Sounds something like “ideas, visions and future directions.” But those are just words, images and deflections. Practically, e-buses don’t work. Our climate is a challenge for batteries, critical to the operation of e-buses. Hydro Ottawa doesn’t have the capacity to charge them so staff recommends giant natural gas generators which pump out greenhouse gases to power green buses. The generators are so big that they could power a city the size of Brockville. The mind wobbles.

But there’s more. Buses powered by electricity don’t matter. They’re a nice-to-have rather than a need-to-have. What matters for a functional public transit system is not diesel or electricity or natural gas or coal or wood or fairy dew or horses. It’s butts in seats. One reliable stinky diesel bus is better than 25 stinky cars. But at least the diesel bus shows up, now and then, pre-New Ways To Bus. Commuters are taking two hours (one way) to get from the suburbs to downtown. The train is technically faulty and yet hasn’t been fixed since its first problems in 2019. Stage 2 is being built with a technology that has been proven not to work in Ottawa.

The bus system doesn’t work but we’re spending millions of dollars on a technology that has caused huge problems in climates similar to Ottawa’s. That’s a frill and and a failing transit system is most certainly not climate friendly. Transit is a necessity and it must work. Ottawa’s doesn’t.

Forget the left or right or one of many ‘isms that accompany politics. We need one ‘ism. Utilitarianism. Practicality. We aren’t getting it.

The roads aren’t flat and they are congested. The budget has an illegal hole in it. The city can’t make a decision on what to do with our garbage. Things are so bad administratively at city hall that good people run screaming from good job openings. We want an expensive frill at Lansdowne when the basics are suffering. Our new central library is woefully over-budget and late. Hydro Ottawa’s capacity is being challenged by AI -hungry technology and electric cars.

Ottawa is getting worse rather than better. Big ideas fail because the details are ignored. Council wants a better climate but instead has hindered progress through its lack of competence.

Residents have had a snootful of “ideas, visions and new directions.” Those high-minded concepts don’t work because the progress is lost in the details, a faulty staff and an appalling lack of oversight by council.

Were it time for mayoral endorsements today, The Bulldog could not support Mayor Mark Sutcliffe or Leiper. They are part of the past problem, not the future solution. Sutcliffe has orchestrated the current mess. Leiper has contributed to it. We need someone else to run.

The city is about services. The frills come later when the basics are fixed.

Don’t give the public “vision”. Give them a bus that works or a flat road.

The City of Ottawa is teetering on the brink.

Ken Gray

For You:

Our Self-Absorbed City Council: BENN

Sutcliffe Versus Leiper: The Basic Strategy

Bad Council Wants Good Raise: PATTON

Our Councillors Show Their Inner Avarice

Oversight? Council Spends Time On Its Salaries

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