Hersh: City of Ottawa lacks vision and leadership on budget
Mayor Jim Watson and city council are starting the process for the next municipal budget. Photo by Wayne Cuddington /Postmedia
Sam Hersh, Ottawa Citizen
On Wednesday, in a packed agenda before they settle down for the summer, Ottawa councillors are geared to vote on a motion that will set the stage for the next budget.
The motion seeks to set out the parameters by which the city will be able to raise revenue for specific services, in particular the police, public health, libraries and transit.
Just as it has been for the past decade since Jim Watson has been mayor, most budget increases will not change and are set at around three per cent — and that is exactly the problem.
Last fall, as representatives of the Ottawa Coalition for a People’s Budget, a coalition of 18 grassroots organizations from across the city, we wrote an op-ed signalling the need for change when it came to how our city spends and raises its revenue. Since then and since the subsequent approval of yet another status quo budget, things have not gotten any better.
Homelessness has risen by 67 per cent in Ottawa; the price of rent continues to skyrocket; essential neighbourhood transit routes have been unnecessarily cut; and opioid overdose deaths have almost tripled since 2017. If things have not gotten any better, why are the mayor and city council continuing to consider a budget that is not in the least bit reflective of the realities and multiple crises we face?