The following op-ed by FTO member Donald Swartz was published in the July edition of the OSCAR community newspaper.
The start of the 2026 Municipal election campaign is a good moment to reflect on the City we have, the one we want and what we need to do to realize it.
Step out the door and it is not hard to see the cracks in the city. The streets around my house in Ottawa South, like those across the city, are full of potholes and many sidewalks are so uneven they aren’t useable. Basic services like snow removal are dangerously inadequate and Brewer Arena is well past its ‘best before’ date. It doesn’t get better as you go further. When buses aren’t cancelled due to mechanical failures, they are often late, with the shortage of shelters leaving riders exposed to the elements. Beaches and wading pools are often closed through want of supervision. Children swelter in overheated classrooms. Some 20,000 people languish on waiting lists for social housing, much of which moreover is badly in need of repair. Not surprisingly, a growing number of people are living (even dying) on the street.
Responsibility for this sorry state of affairs lies squarely with our recent mayors and City Councillors. Year after year they’ve chosen to keep tax increases below the rate of inflation, failing even to account for population growth. The transit system is a case in point. Insufficient capital expenditures have resulted in a fleet of buses well past their prime, breaking down so often the service is completely dysfunctional. Those who can have forsaken the service, reducing fare revenues to which the city has responded with further service cuts.
As the election campaign unfolds, we can expect to hear candidates addressing these issues. But no candidate promising real improvements should be taken seriously if their platform doesn’t include a plan for financing them.
The centrepiece of any credible plan has to be measures to increase the City’s revenue by at least 6 %. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has framed low taxes as an affordability measure, but poor public services cost us far more. Adding an additional 1 percent to property taxes costs the average household a mere $45 a year. A 6 percent increase would cost it only $275. By contrast, someone relying on a car for want of public transit is looking at spending some $16,000 a year to keep it on the road. And, absent good public facilities, recreational and cultural participation are unaffordable for large segments of Ottawa’s residents. One has to wonder whether Mayor Sutcliffe’s ‘affordability’ issue is really about limiting the contribution of wealthy Ottawans, with their private schools and clubs, to the public services the rest of us need.
Property taxes aren’t the only source of funds for needed improvements to public services. Substantial revenue could be gained by increasing Ottawa’s parking rates which are among the lowest of any major Canadian city, and free of charge in much of the city. This together with enhanced public transit would also discourage people from reliance on costly automobiles, a major source of the greenhouse gases causing climate change. Development fees on new single-family dwellings could also be increased, discouraging turban sprawl and additional car dependent communities.
Measures to increase revenues ought to be accompanied by others that reallocate current or planned expenditures away from unproductive uses. Much of the police budget falls into that category. What purpose is served by having officers sitting in running cars at construction sites? Spending on quasi military gear only duplicates resources available through the OPP. A police presence in schools doesn’t remedy the policing practices that anger so many young people (and others as well). More policing doesn’t address the homelessness and despair that make parts of the market chaotic and unsafe. Then there is the over policing of rallies and demonstrations. The $50 million. budgeted annually for road widening won’t reduce traffic congestion; it will just attract more cars. There is also the revenue lost through tax rebate programs like ‘Main Streets’ which have been found to be ineffective in altering where companies locate their businesses.
When government treats public goods as “last resort” options, that’s all they’ll ever be. We need a real alternative to the private market options increasingly too expensive for most of us. Do we want a city that primarily benefits corporate landlords, car dealerships, and stadium owners, or do we want a city where good quality housing, public transit, and other services are available to all.