As Ottawa’s Nightlife Council gathers for its first ever meeting, members of the city’s nightlife economy have some ideas about how to make it easier for people to enjoy evening entertainment.
Mike Estabrooks, owner of Irene’s Pub on Bank Street, said one of the key concerns is parking. He says that a lack of spots along with restrictions, many people are forced to park at Lansdowne Park, which can be expensive. He says he believes people are less likely to come to his bar as a result.
“While I’m absolutely a supporter of public transit and for bike lanes and safe transit, it does discourage customers from supporting small businesses when they can’t park,” Estabrooks told Capital Current.
“There’s got to be some sort of balance there between making easier access to public transit and for traffic flow as well as safe bike lanes, but also preferably not at the detriment to small businesses who are losing customers because they can’t park.”
Getting people outside Ottawa’s downtown comfortable with using transit along with making parking accessible is going to be an important issue, said Tara Shannon, executive director of Ottawa Festivals and one of the members of the Nightlife Council.
“Making it accessible for and easy for people to come together will be a big part of this,” she said, though the council will have to reckon with a public transit system struggling with funding and reliability. She said increasing accessibility to venues will include giving people transit options but also making parking available and affordable.
Jérôme Miousse, director of public affairs at Ottawa Tourism, points to other issues including permitting, noise restrictions and security that can be barriers. He says permitting can be difficult in certain areas and may require additional security in the street which can be expensive for organizers, which in turn limits their growth.
While noise restrictions are important, Miousse says in some place they make less sense, resulting in limits on some events and venues. More flexible noise policies reflective of the interests of the residents and the nightlife in a given area are needed, he believes.
Local businesses, such as hotels, restaurants and attractions, he says, are the lifeblood of tourism.
“Local businesses are tourism,” he says.
Further, he says that tourists are important because of the money they spend money. They also do not use a lot of the city’s expensive infrastructure. Ottawa Tourism says 9.8 million people visit Ottawa every year and put $2.6 billion into our economy.
That said, Miousse says more of this income comes from the daytime economy rather than nightlife, and part of the reason Ottawa Tourism is getting involved with the Nightlife Council is to try to fill this gap.
Miousse says the community needs to fight the narrative that Ottawa is “boring”. “It just doesn’t benefit anyone.”
Miousse says that the boring label goes back many decades when a lot of the nightlife was concentrated in the ByWard Market while outside the core neighbourhoods weren’t connected to downtown through such things as public transit and they did not have a developed entertainment industry.
“Ottawa has made big strides in the past couple decades,” he said. Now, “we have a lot of small businesses all around the city that are trying to make the city fun, and quite frankly, they are successful.”
Tara Shannon says that she thinks Ottawa suffers from a “branding problem” as well as an attitude problem.
“If you’re bored, the problem is not the city,” she said. “The problem is you.”
Miousse says Ottawa’s residents are the best ambassadors for attracting visitors and telling friends and family that the city isn’t worth visiting further hinders its growth and vibrancy despite having a organizations and local businesses working hard to make it a fun place.
Branding and attitudes aside, the city is looking for new ways to make the city more vibrant. Interaction with local businesses and Ottawa residents will be an essential part of this.
Mike Estabrooks said he recently emailed the Nightlife Council introducing himself and Irene’s. He said he got an email from someone who told him the council wanted to connect with local businesses.
He expects the council to prioritize the ByWard Market in the beginning, but he told Capital Current he has an idea for the council.
He envisions a water taxi that travels the Rideau Canal from the Market to Lansdowne and Dow’s Lake.
“If the night mayor was to focus on our area at Lansdowne, I would love to see a bit more of a utilization of the canal system that we have,” Estabrooks said. “It’s amazing to me that we’ve never had some sort of taxi service on the waterway.”
On Nov. 4, the city of Ottawa appointed 18 members to join the new Nightlife Council with Nightlife Commissioner, Mathieu Grondin. The council will be in charge of improving Ottawa’s nightlife economy and implementing the Nightlife Economy Action Plan, which aims to make Ottawa after dark more vibrant, safe, inclusive and viable.
![The Ottawa sign lit up at nighttime in the ByWard Market. [Photo courtesy Juliana Italiano]](https://capitalcurrent.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Ottawa-night-sign-250x141.jpg)
