Submitted by Mark Sutcliffe, Mayor of Ottawa
As your Mayor, I’ve always believed in a fair and collaborative approach to all our challenges. I’m reaching out to you today to ask for your help as our city faces a significant financial crisis, one that has been brought about by the decisions of other levels of government. I want to share some important details with you.
First, the federal government has stopped paying its fair share of property taxes to the City of Ottawa. The federal government is the largest property owner in the city and uses a lot of municipal resources. But while your property taxes have been rising, the federal government has been paying less and less.
That’s because unlike you, the federal government gets to unilaterally decide how much they pay. Unfortunately, the result is that because they aren’t paying their fair share, you have the burden of making up the difference. They’ve shifted $100 million in costs to us in the last five years alone. You’re paying more for police, for fire service, for roads, for transit, for everything. And that just isn’t fair.
Meanwhile, Ottawa doesn’t get the same level of funding for public transit as other cities. The Eglinton Crosstown project in Toronto will cost about $14.5 billion. It’s run over budget and suffered through the same COVID-related legal challenges as our light rail system. But local taxpayers in Toronto aren’t paying any of those costs. The entire construction cost for the project is being paid by other levels of government.
Here in Ottawa, however, local taxpayers were required to share in the cost of construction for light rail. The original deal was that each level of government would pay one third of the bill. While Toronto taxpayers were paying 0 per cent, Ottawa residents had to pay 33 per cent. But the final outcome is even worse than that. Ottawa residents are now paying 56% of the cost, while the federal and provincial governments are paying only 22 per cent each. Again, you’re paying more. And that’s just not fair.
Our city council has done a lot of work to manage our finances carefully and responsibly. In the past two years, we’ve found more than $153 million in savings without cutting services. But the growing financial pressure from the decisions of other levels of government is unsustainable. Without our fair share, we’ll be facing impossible decisions at budget time. We’ll have to significantly increase taxes and transit fares or cut service dramatically.
I was encouraged to hear both Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Ford signal that they are willing to work with the City of Ottawa to address our unique challenges. But we need to move quickly. So I’m hoping you’ll join me in our campaign for fairness.
It’s time for us to start getting the same resources as Toronto and other cities.
It’s time for the federal and provincial governments to do the right thing.
It’s time for Ottawa to get our fair share.
This is our greatest challenge right now and I’m prepared to do everything I can to resolve it. But I can’t do it alone. I need your help.
Please take a minute to join the campaign for fairness by signing the petition at marksutcliffe.ca
Editors note: Mark Sutcliffe is the current mayor of Ottawa. He founded the Kitchissippi Times in 2003 but is no longer involved with the company.