The Ontario government’s decision to cancel the provincial bus replacement program in 2011 leaves the City of Ottawa in a difficult spot, according to city councillors.
The program, which the provincial government will continue for 2010, subsidizes one- third of the city’s costs for replacing aging buses. In 2009, that meant the province covered $9.7 million of the city’s $29.6 million budget for bus replacements.
Alex Cullen, chair of the city’s transit committee, says without that money, the city faces a difficult trade-off. Does it cut back on bus replacements, which would add to operating costs because older buses means more maintenance, or does it raise property taxes to replace the aging buses?
The problem is neither option is popular. Cullen says that property taxes will probably go up to cover the costs.
“This bus replacement program was very helpful to us,” says Cullen. “It just means that with this cancellation the costs of future bus replacements will have to be shouldered by the taxpayer.”
But Ade Olumide, the leader of the Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group, says raising property taxes is unacceptable.
“We believe raising taxes by one per cent is too much because we are already the highest- taxed city in Canada,” argues Olumide. “We are 50 per cent above the average in Canada.”
Hypothetically, if the city were to raise property taxes to cover the $9.7 million the province is no longer providing, it would only mean a one per cent increase. But Olumide says the problem is city council’s mentality.
“There’s an ideology that when they have a budget problem . . . rather than figure out where they can find savings, their immediate reaction is let’s raise taxes,” says Olumide.
Olumide says one way the city could save money is to support College Ward Coun. Rick Chiarelli’s motion to freeze wages. The proposal, which could save the city $1.2 million, would freeze wages of councillors, city managers and other non-unionized staff for two years.
West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry, who seconded Chiarelli’s motion, says the savings could help with the bus replacement costs.
“If you freeze wages and you save $1.2 million, you can put that towards buses,” says El-Chantiry. “Who’s to say you can’t reinvest it in other areas where the province is going to cut on us?”
But, he says replacing buses isn’t the only option. Twelve per cent of the bus fleet is currently out of service and waiting for repairs.
“If we can shorten the period that those buses are off the road, hopefully we won’t have to buy new buses,” says El-Chantiry. “We can refurbish them, fix them on time.”
One councillor who won’t support the wage freeze is Cullen. He thinks it will reduce consumer spending and hurt economic recovery. But if city council does approve the freeze, he says it’s not fair to allocate any of the savings to bus replacements because bus drivers are unionized and wouldn’t have their wages frozen.
“You might have to think yourself of the ethics of cutting back on non-unionized staff so that you can maintain buses,” says Cullen. “You don’t do that.”