By Amelia Clements
Ottawa’s newly proposed budget plan has Centretown residents concerned they will lose many of their community programs and services.
Last week, a packed public consultation meeting at Lansdowne Park saw various groups and individuals voice their opposition to the proposed budget, which includes a plan to freeze property taxes at zero per cent and cut $6 million in funding for libraries, community centres and programs.
“The years when council brought forth zero per cent budgets were a mistake,” Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes said.
Holmes said that the plan was “undermining communities” and that this would result in a “major problem for low-income families who cannot afford recreation facilities.”
Paul Fortin and other residents said they would not tolerate a zero per cent tax rate, and would prefer a 1.4-per-cent increase, another one of the options set forth by the budget plan.
“I live in Centretown, and it seems like we’re going to get the brunt of it,” he said.
“We have a lot of historical sites that are not getting their full usage and are becoming dilapidated. These cuts are taking the livelihood out of the neighbourhood and the city.”
City council has proposed a multi-year budget plan starting from next year until 2010. The city hopes this will help it attain “fiscal sustainability,” said Marian Simulik, treasurer at the City of Ottawa.
The most prominent option in the plan for 2008 is the zero-per-cent tax rate, something that Mayor Larry O’Brien hopes to achieve.
Jeff Morrison, who works at the Centretown Community Health Centre, told the meeting that council needs to “make health care the sacred cow” and make sure that nurses and sexual health programs continue to be available in schools.
Stephen Geurts, a teacher, expressed concerns about the effects of budget cuts on Ottawa’s youth.
“All of these cuts contribute to delinquency; they take away developmental opportunities and allow the risk to go up,” he said.
Many people at the meeting also voiced their concerns about the city’s plans for public transit. Operating costs are expected to increase by 7.1 per cent in 2008, and the city has cited that maintaining and updating the current transit system is at the top of its list of priorities.
Phyllis Thatcher was unimpressed by this proposal.
“I don’t want my money to be used for a pollution-friendly plan to maintain buses, existing roads or any roads,” she said.
She said she was also disappointed in a lack of initiative when it came to the oft-discussed light-rail system, and the fact that it was not brought up in the budget plans.
“I wish the mayor and city council would . . . move into the 21st century. Care of the environment is imperative for survival,” she said.
The city is also planning to increase fees for Ottawa transit, raising bus fares by five per cent starting July 1 in order to bring in over $4 million in revenue.
Shellie Bird stressed that focusing on transportation isn’t enough.
“It’s clear that we need to strike a better balance between hard infrastructure and social infrastructure,” she said, citing child care and care for seniors as major responsibilities. She said she wants to see the city recognize that “ . . . the huge gaping holes in our social infrastructure are as important as the potholes in our roads.”
The city expects to save $79 million in revenue from these various cuts and user fees.