This month, Ottawa city council voted to put more of the funds collected by the city’s cash-in-lieu of parkland program into use.
The decision came despite some Centretown residents’ concern about the rules governing how that money will be used. As Somerset ward councillor Catherine McKenney explained, many fear the changes will divert money from much needed parkland expansion and used for simple maintenance.
“You put a thousand more people into a condo, you have to expand the parks nearby,” she says. “(Maintenance) needs to come out of our overall budget.”
Usually, land developers in Ottawa must set aside some land from their new developments to be used as parkland by the city.
But under the cash-in-lieu program introduced in 2011, the city may accept financial compensation instead.
The program brought in nearly $29 million from its creation to 2014, according to a city hall report. All that money is earmarked to fund work on the city’s parks – either acquiring new land, or more commonly adding new equipment and facilities to existing land. The wards which collect the money split it 60/40 with the city.
On Sept. 9, city council voted on a revision to the rules about how officials could spend that money which would have prevented them from using it for park maintenance.
The revision failed, meaning money that was once useable only to add to parkland facilities can now be used to maintain them as well.
McKenney was one of the five councillors who voted for that revision. She says letting money go to lifecycle repairs will take it away from expansions needed to accommodate a growing Centretown population.
“Now we have an expectation that ‘well, I have an old swing, I’d like that (replacement) financed’ and there’s no guarantee that money will ever be returned,” she says. According to McKenney, the problem is that maintenance hasn’t been factored into this year’s budget.
Ottawa’s parks, buildings and grounds budget – which includes parkland maintenance expenses – has steadily increased across the past few years, growing from about $149,000 in 2013 to just over $159,000 in 2015.
The 2016 budget isn’t out yet, but McKenney says cost cutting will take money away from parks that need it, leaving the cash-in-lieu funds to fill the gap.
Until now, much of the cash-in-lieu money remained in reserve in city accounts.
McKenney says her ward’s account had about $900,000 at the last tally. She stresses that the money wasn’t sitting idle; rather, it was waiting to be used when projects like new playgrounds and sports facilities came up.
“To redo a park might take $800,000. It’s the same as if you need new hardwood floors in your home, you may have a few thousand sitting there, but if you need $10,000 it’s not just sitting idle,” she says. She explained that now the cash-in-lieu money won’t be available when new projects come.