Who is Neil Saravanamuttoo?
Neil Saravanamuttoo is director of non-profit CitySHAPES and an advocate for housing, transit and climate action. “I grew up in Ottawa, I love the city,” he says. “[It’s] like a house that’s got a terrific foundation. But we really have not taken it to the potential it could have.”
What’s his background?
Saravanamuttoo is an economist who has held senior roles at the Department of Finance Canada and at the G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub. He and former city councillor Catherine McKenney founded CitySHAPES, which aims to “make cities better […] healthier, greener, and more vibrant,” after working as an economic adviser on McKenney’s 2022 mayoral campaign.
Making the switch to the municipal level from the federal one has been “really fun,” he says. “Federal and international work is very abstract — big numbers, big ideas. Whereas when you’re doing municipal, it gets down to street level very quickly.”
What is he known for in Ottawa?
Saravanamuttoo is a vocal supporter of several community initiatives including one which supports making the Queen Elizabeth Driveway a national urban park.
He’s attracted attention for launching a counter-petition to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s “Fairness for Ottawa” campaign. Saravanamuttoo’s “Better Ottawa” petition calls for a city-wide binding referendum on Lansdowne 2.0 and its use of city funding. “I think we need fiscal responsibility — getting our own house in order before asking for money from elsewhere,” he says.
CitySHAPES runs workshops on effective city hall advocacy, and its program BuildingIN provides a municipal framework for intensification instead of urban sprawl.
What do others say about him?
CBC’s Joanne Chianello identified Saravanamuttoo as a key part of McKenney’s 2022 campaign, surmising that the bike path upgrades in that mayoral platform were “likely his idea.”
In 2021, he received Apartment 613’s Awesome Ottawa Award for “Putting the Park in Parkway.”
Saravanamuttoo’s X posts garner mixed responses: many users laud his approach to active transit, which includes championing bike paths and alternate revenue sources for OC Transpo; others push back on his ideas.
What’s something people don’t know about him?
With his two dogs, Saravanamuttoo enjoys skijoring. “Jasper and Tenley are pulling, I’m skiing as fast as I can — it’s just the most ridiculously fun thing you’ll ever do.”
