As mayoral frontrunners debate light rail and road construction ahead of the Oct. 25 municipal vote, one thing is certain: the outcome will have implications for Centretown well beyond the new mayor’s four-year term.
Transportation has been the key issue in Ottawa’s upcoming mayoral race.
Centretown residents are impatiently waiting for intense traffic congestion to ease, and suburban motorists are hoping to see Highway 417 work, such as a four–lane highway instead of a parking lot.
At a debate geared towards engaging young voters, Mayor Larry O’Brien’s views on how to solve the city’s traffic congestion and OC Transpo woes crystallized in what seemed like an unpopular plan with the young people in the audience.
“As we grow, we have to add drivers,” O’Brien said.
Throughout the race, O’Brien has established himself as the car- and business-friendly candidate, with ambitious deals with developers to build up Lansdowne Park and an unpopular plan to build a ring-road around Ottawa. O’Brien said he hopes to see the urban boundary around Ottawa extended.
Front-runner candidate Jim Watson says O’Brien’s solution is dangerous.
“The biggest threat to the environment is urban sprawl. There’s a clear distinction between Mr. O’Brien and myself: he wants to expand the urban boundary, against the good advice of every environmental group in the city of Ottawa.”
What candidates do agree on is the construction of a downtown Ottawa transit tunnel which would connect Tunney’s Pasture and Blair Road by a light rail tunnel and hopefully ease the congestion in Centretown, including traffic hotspots such as Albert and Slater streets.
In the meantime, Watson wants to axe plans for new roads and add buses to existing roads.
But both plans would see vehicles added to already congested roadways in the short term. Under Watson’s plan, slow moving buses concentrated in Centretown heading to Albert and Slater streets could clog vital traffic arteries.
Under O’Brien’s plan, roads being added in rural areas means more cars filtered into downtown.
Clive Doucet, the dark horse in this mayoral race, says he envisions an entirely different solution with a light rail system from the south end to downtown.
“The (downtown) tunnel is a colossal, misguided waste of money, and it will not change anything for the next 25 years. It’s 2031 before we even start building to Kanata, Orleans or Riverside South,” Doucet says.
For much of the heated debate O’Brien sat squarely, leaning forward in his seat, speaking powerfully and boldly, even offering his less popular plans with confidence. But after the debate, O’Brien lamented in an interview that he had a tough road ahead if he wanted to win the election.
“He’s obviously ahead in the polls. I think the City of Ottawa is going to have a choice, do they want a conscious administrator or someone who’s going to take the city forward?” O’Brien said of Watson.