Sutcliffe Predicts Transit Sky Is Falling: GRAY
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is telling Ottawans that OC Transpo is in even worse shape than he knew before he was elected. Sutcliffe must have been the last person to find out.
The suggested cuts at OC Transpo are draconian. And that’s because the situation is even worse than he thought … he says.
If I had a nickel for every time a politician said something like that after being elected, such as … It’s the other guy’s fault and now I have to clean up this mess. I’m sorry, but this will be very difficult. It’s even worse than I thought. Give me a break.
Wow. That kind of thinking is the oldest trick in the book. The public and the media are being played. Sutcliffe is painting the worst possible scenario so that he can ride in on his white horse in the weeks to come to say something like: “Yes, we must make some cuts but I have been able to save so many vital items that were on the chopping block. I’m a hero. I’ve done my best to save OC Transpo and I have succeeded. Vote for Mark Sutcliffe for mayor … next time.”
Cullen Blames Watson For Transit Decline
Then he makes the cuts he was already going to make. All of a sudden, they don’t seem so bad. Sorry, but this old dog has seen all the tricks. And tricks? Sutcliffe’s people are former mayor Jim Watson’s people and the former mayor was a master of old tricks and playing the media. Watson could steal your eyeballs and you wouldn’t notice.
And just in case you missed it, the media, politicians and the public have fallen for the ploy completely. Scare headlines, panicked stories and ‘opposition’ politicians predicting the end of the transit world as we know it.
That said, you can make a pretty good argument that transit in this town has been badly wounded. And that’s because it has been badly wounded. Both rail lines were down a few weeks ago and one still is. Buses have been pulled from real routes to compensate for the core of the transit system not working.
Real things happen when you do that. Like having a rail line not working and the entire bus system not working well.
So you adjust. In the Watson/Sutcliffe world, you ‘fix’ these things by manipulating the message.
The transit system is not working if the media says it’s not working. The dire situation surrounding transit is dire if the media says it is dire. It’s not the reality but that’s the message.
It’s not the truth but if you can make people think it is the truth, well, then it’s the truth. That’s how Watson governed. For example, “on-time and on-budget” until the screaming reality of light rail became apparent to hundreds of thousands of riders equipped with phones, cameras, the internet and Twitter. In effect, hundreds of thousands of reporters with access through the internet to the public.
Ottawa Considers Drastic Changes To OC Transpo
Funny, but city communications when light rail started banned the media from taking pictures inside the LRT system. Perhaps the hundreds of thousands of rider reporters didn’t get the memo.
Sometimes … rarely … old tricks don’t work anymore. Maybe a new reality coming? Doubtful, but we can dream.
So let’s look at what Sutcliffe and city staff are saying and the rather inexperienced media are parroting:
A Changed Economy: This has been happening since the pandemic struck. Did the city only discover this now? Inflation? Work-at-home? Higher interest rates? This just in city staff … we’ve all been experiencing this. When did OC Transpo become so special?
Reduced Ridership: You just noticed this? It has been going on for years now.
Budget pressures: We’re not looking at next year’s budget here. Staff has given council (and the public) the accumulated pressures until 2048, so all the figures are measured in billions or parts of billions. Makes it look pretty bad.
Raising the transit tax: This is what Sutcliffe plans to do. It’s easy and effective … except for taxpayers but then they are a perpetual waterfall of money … unlike the waterfall at Lansdowne. And it’s simple. Innovative? No. Simple.
Delaying Stage 3 of light rail: How much more can you delay it? Most of us will be dead and gone by the time light rail reaches Barrhaven and Kanata. And that’s because the city has no money, the federal government is pouring its money into the housing problem, and province knows its votes come from Toronto and area, not Ottawa.
Increasing development transit charges: That way new homeowners can pay for the Transpo shortfall.
Revisiting future busways and bus-only lanes: Revisit busways planned for the far-off future which might or might-not happen. And revisiting bus-only lanes? The cost of paint must have really escalated with inflation. It’s an outrage.
Get funding from senior levels of government: Capital costs in this country are shared three ways and one way doesn’t have any money. This is not reality.
Find other sources of revenue: Notice they aren’t listed in the press release. That’s because they haven’t thought of any.
One other thing. The city is showing operating costs for light rail to Barrhaven and Kanata in its budget pressures. If a line doesn’t exist and won’t exist, how can it have operating costs? Look, your agent, by noticing that, just saved $1.1 billion or that pressure doesn’t exist. I’m betting it doesn’t exist.
Why Won’t Sutcliffe Sweep City Hall Clean? THE VOTER
What is the easy, practical and no-effort way of paying for OC Transpo costs? The same as it always is. More taxes. Raise the transit tax.
All these other scenarios are about vapour, dust, smoke-screens, mirages and scaring the daylights out of you so you will except what staff and Sutcliffe really want … higher transit taxes.
So Sutcliffe will announce, somewhere down the road, that he has fought hard to save us from all these catastrophic alternatives that were considered by practising brilliant budgeting and incredible intelligence. Sutcliffe will be a hero, a tax-saving hero. God bless ‘im.
But he will have to raise the transit tax … maybe markedly. Which is what he planned to do in the first place but is trying to hide it with all these atmospherics like including the operating costs of a rail line that won’t be built.
Somewhere, Jim Watson is smiling.
Bulldog editor Ken Gray has been a journalist at five major Canadian newspapers over a career that has spanned four decades.
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When I was part of the full-time workforce I moved into a variety of roles as I struggled my way up the corporate ladder of success. As I climbed the ladder, the person whose job I moved into always left a couple of skeletons in the closet (as did I). I had a personal rule – blaming the other guy for one fiscal quarter was okay, after which a way to resolve the problem sat squarely on my shoulders. Mr. Sutcliff has been mayor of Ottawa for more than 3 months now and should be aware of all the skeletons that were left behind. Finger pointing is no longer an acceptable solution to any problem he has to deal with.
Seems all that ‘quality time’ he spends with the development community is rubbing off on him. Everybody knows that if you want to build a 24 storey high rise where the zoning allows 10, you put in a plan for 35 storeys and then, because you’re a good guy and listen to the community’s strenuous objections, you drop it down to 27. That still leaves you with three floors to either “give up” further along in the process or the revenue from three extra floors. No matter how it plays out, you’re still a winner, not to mention a good guy.
Sutcliffe has adapted the strategy to transit and we know who’ll be the losers here. The residents of the city whether or not they ride transit.
Bang on Ken . Sutcliffe has been a fraud since day one of his campaign , now by his own admission he is out of his depth and will go to any length to prove that he fixed transit.