Area taxpayers and businesses can breathe easy – for now. The province has rejected the city’s bid for a new City of Ottawa Act.
The city’s plan would have granted them sweeping powers to raise taxes and impose fees.This was supposedly necessary to offset rising costs and cut down a hefty property tax increase in the coming budget.
The act would have given the city the power to slap an additional $25 fee on every license plate sticker sold, charge a land transfer tax, raise taxes on businesses without restriction, and impose a three per cent tax on hotel guests visiting Ottawa.
This latest raft of fees and taxes would have been smoke and mirrors, gouging Ottawa taxpayers without the increase showing up all at once on a property tax bill. Even though the act didn’t pass the same people will bear the cost. City council knows that.
City council also knows that the 2006 budget is the last before the next municipal election. They know that small fees and tax increases inflicted over time won’t burn into voters’ collective psyche quite like a double-digit property tax increase would.
In July, when the city introduced the suggested act, Ottawa business groups warned it would discourage new businesses from opening and force established businesses to close.
This is hardlyseems like a reasonable way to broaden the tax base and build Ottawa into a prosperous city.
Instead, the city must stop acting like they have money to burn.
A classic example is the O-Train. Even long-time supporters like lobby group Transport 2000 are saying the current expansion plan is wasteful.
The city is planning to build the entire 28-kilometre route with urban streetcars on a double track, a style necessary only for downtown. It will cost $30 million per kilometre. Simpler trains and a single-track line would work well for most of the route and would cost $5 million to $10 million per kilometre
The federal, provincial and municipal governments have each pledged hundreds of millions to the O-Train expansion. But what is it about government that demands we spend every dollar allocated to any given project? Would it be so bad to finish with a surplus for once?
The city’s bureaucracy is another problem. Last year 414 civil servants took home bonuses totalling $1.5 million just for doing their jobs. City council, which instated the “merit pay” in 2003, now seems unable to reverse it.
Not all the problems are municipal. The provincial government is also guilty of dropping expensive responsibilities such as ambulance service on municipalities. Meanwhile, the Ontario Liberals have been raising spending by nine per cent a year, compared with the former, Conservative government’s average of 4.5 per cent.
McGuinty has passed the buck to the federal Liberals, claiming they owe Ontario $5 billion from their budget surplus.
Wherever the guilt may lie, the fact remains that the citizens of Ottawa are paying enough to cover the services we need, whether that money is going to the federal, provincial, or municipal government. It just needs to be allocated properly and spent responsibly.
Both city council and city managers need to look for other options besides automatically dipping into taxpayers’ pockets yet again. That band-aid solution is getting tiresome.