By Kate Heartfield
There’s a story that Henry Ford offered the Model T in any colour — as long as it was black. Voters who care about poverty may face a similar choice as they elect a mayor on Nov. 13.
Front-runners Claudette Cain and Bob Chiarelli are almost indistinguishable in their policies on social services, housing and jobs.
Both call for committees and partnerships. Neither has come forward with many substantive solutions.
Neither can deny that poverty is an issue. According to the Canadian Council on Social Development, 19 per cent of people in Ottawa-Carleton are living below Statistics Canada’s low-income line.
In Somerset Ward, 1,700 families are on a social housing waiting list, and 36 per cent of families spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, according to the Social Planning Council of Ottawa.
These figures, and others, were raised again and again by social services representatives at a public forum Oct. 12. All the mayoral candidates were invited, but only half showed up.
A debate on social issues Oct. 19 hardly resembled a debate at all, as neither leading candidate disagreed with the other on anything but details.
“Tonight, they’ll talk about social issues because they’re supposed to talk about it,” said Ken Clavette, of the Ottawa District Labour Council, in an interview before the debate.
“If they talk to business people, they’ll talk about business issues. But we need someone in office who can integrate those things. Solving social issues is good for business. Homeless people are bad for business.”
At the debate, Regional Chair Bob Chiarelli focused on his record of increasing funding for community services and a program called Partners for Jobs, aimed at taking people off welfare.
Gloucester Mayor Claudette Cain also praised existing programs and said she would seek new partnerships with the private sector and other levels of government.
Both criticized the provincial government for downloading the burden of social housing to municipalities.
When asked how money would be found to sustain social services, Chiarelli said money for expansion of green space and for recreational programs would be easy to find.
“Capital dollars are not a problem for this city,” he says.
But when the topic switched to social housing, he said the new city can’t afford new projects.
“We cannot build huge blocks of social housing on a property tax base.
“There are not enough dollars there to do it . . . . The only way the new city will be able to generate new housing stock is with creative new partnerships — with the private sector, with other levels of government.”