Centretown residents urged their councillor, Diane Holmes, along with the other three central ward councillors, to challenge short-sighted policies aimed at appeasing residents outside the Greenbelt, while ignoring the long-term interest of the city’s urban areas. Downtown residents had their last opportunity Wednesday night to consult with their councillors over this year’s proposed budget.
The budget includes a 3.9-per-cent property tax increase, which would mean an average household in Centretown would be paying $142 more than they did last year.
Holmes said she is fairly happy with this year’s budget, specifically because it did not target child care, social housing or the arts, which she pointed to as areas usually cut.
However, she agreed with several residents that every year council becomes rigid on an acceptable tax increase and consequently cut programs that are in the downtown’s long-term interest.
“For some councillors going from 3.9 per cent to four per cent would mean the sky is falling down, that would be a difference of like 10 dollars per household,” she said.
Two Centretown priorities that will be getting the axe if council approves the budget are the $1.8 million to manage urban trees and the elimination of the $400,000 in Crime Prevention Ottawa funding.
Holmes used these examples to highlight what she says is wrong with this budget.
“By reducing the tree service we’re talking about residents saving $4.20. How much do you think it will cost for individual residents to pay for tree removal when their tree becomes diseased or too big?”
Holmes was also critical of the city’s decision to eliminate the Crime Prevention Ottawa funding. She said last year the group more than returned the city’s investment by successfully leveraging $930,000 from senior levels of government to help local crime prevention.
Resident Phil Robinson said he’s been working on creating a universal student pass (UPASS) for the last 10 years. He said he was frustrated that as soon as the city and council seemed ready to approve it, that it has once again been left out of the budget. “The city has greatly overestimated the cost of the UPASS, because they haven’t factored in increased enrolment over the next few yeas which would in a couple of years make the program cost neutral,” said Robinson.
Other residents were angry that the proposed budget includes a 7.5-per-cent fare increase, a jump more than twice the inflation rate over the last year.
Holmes said that the reason the UPASS was left off the agenda was because some of the suburban councillors saw it as an unfair subsidy to downtown transit users.
“The reality is that downtown residents have been subsidizing suburbanites for years, their tickets cost the same for longer rides, and less ridership,” said Holmes.
She said that the suburban opposition to the pass is yet another example of how the city is wrongheaded on many issues.
Glebe resident Michael Tiger agreed. “The transit system in Ottawa is meant for the rich, not the poor.”
He said that the bus system works well during the peak hours when suburban residents need to get out of the city, but outside of those hours it becomes impossible to get around in a reasonable amount of time.
Holmes dismissed the notion that this year's budget process was more political because of the upcoming municipal election.