Today, Mayor O’Brien made a presentation to City Council to showcase January 2010 as Heart Month in the City of Ottawa. Mayor O’Brien was also proud to welcome John deHooge as the City’s new Fire Chief.
Pictures from the event can be found here:
Gallery - Heart Month & Fire Chief deHooge
Today, City Council approved the Recommended Plan for the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel (DOTT) Planning and Environmental Assessment Study, by a vote of 19-4.
Approval of the Recommended Plan represents the next major step toward the transformation of public transit in Ottawa by constructing a light rail transit (LRT) link between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair Road, with trains passing below downtown through twin 3.2-kilometre tunnels.
This decision is another milestone on the way to a cleaner, more efficient transit system that’s going to benefit the economy, the environment and the people of Ottawa for decades to come.
We’re talking about a vision for a better Ottawa, and I’m proud to work with a Council that sees the importance of realizing that vision.
Good morning Councillors, ladies and gentlemen. I am honoured to provide a few remarks to start the year 2010 and to mark the beginning of the next decade of the 21st Century.
The first decade of the 21st Century was a decade of change and also a decade of much challenge. We experienced two economic recessions, a major terrorist attack on North American soil and a fundamental reorganization of the global economy. Ottawa lost Nortel and JDS to the changing tide of global economics.
Also in Ottawa, we saw ten municipalities and a regional Government merged into a single City. In ten short years our world and our City have changed. But with change and challenge comes new and exciting opportunities for Ottawa.
As your Mayor I believe that Ottawa is blessed with an enormous amount of opportunity. Ottawa has all the ingredients to become a model creative class City in the 21st Century. So does Dr. Richard Florida, who states that Ottawa ranks number one in Canada and number three in North America using Technology, Talent and Tolerance as metrics in his book—Who’s Your City.
Firstly, Ottawa has a highly educated population, with 51% of our residents having a College education or better and 43% of our workforce is employed in creative occupations. That’s a better number then New York, London or San Francisco. We have a strong and growing arts community, with new facilities being built to cultivate a wide range on interests in our community, and to foster creativity and multiculturalism in our City giving us high marks in Tolerance. And finally, new economic opportunities in fields such as digital media, health sciences and clean-tech have started to flourish in Ottawa and I believe this is just the beginning.
I recently attended the first meeting of a digital media cluster and listened with excitement to market opportunities they have all over the world. It reminded me a lot of the excitement around boardroom tables in the eighties as Technology companies saw endless opportunities in the market place as it existed then. They are building companies and financing growth with their own cash flow and they are building companies they believe will last forever. That is a sign of entrepreneurs who have a long-term belief in the companies they run and that is a very good sign for our City.
As Mayor I have the catbirds’ seat for other long term projects and trends that give me much cause to be optimistic about our City’s future. The new Conference Centre, when completed in 2011, will be a magnet for convention business from all over the world. By next summer its glass exterior will be visible for all to see and the magic of iconic architecture will brighten the heart of Ottawa.
The Rideau Canal is becoming more and more recognized across the world, and as it does our tourism industry will continue to blossom, creating jobs and opportunities for many of our Citizens. Our Universities, Colleges and Health Research centres continue to rise in stature with world class facilities bringing the latest of medical technologies and breakthroughs to our residents. And of course, as the Capital of Canada we will continue to enjoy a stable employment base and the International recognition of being the Capital of the greatest Country in the world in which to live, work and invest.
Not only that, but we also have a friendly and safe community with one of the lowest crime rates in North America. As someone who was born in Ottawa, started a business in our City and raised my family here I can tell you that I have never felt more optimistic about our long term future as I do standing here today as Head of Council.
Let’s look at some examples of the long-term investments we have made or will make this term:
First, we approved the increase of funding for the Conference Centre to a grand total of $40M dollars to make that project a reality.
After pressing the reset button on transit in 2007 we prepared and developed a new transit plan based on LRT and a tunnel to ensure a faster more reliable transit for our Citizens from the east to the west ends of our City. We have chosen the long-term solution to transit that will last and grow for the balance of the 21st Century.
Just before Christmas, Premier Dalton McGuinty made a very strong statement of support for our new transit plan. He acknowledged the hard work that has been done and backed up that support with a commitment of $600 million. It was the best Christmas gift the city could have received and with the support of the Federal Government we are on pace to begin construction on schedule.
Today, in Council, we will take the next important step by debating and approving the functional design of this world-class transportation system.
Another piece of City hardware that will contribute to our lifestyle and long-term prosperity is 38 acres of land along the Rideau Canal called Lansdowne Park. Over the past fifteen years Lansdowne has fallen into disrepair to the point we literally had to blow up part of stadium in 2008 to ensure the safety of our residents. This Council has taken on the tough political and economic issues associated with the restoration of this facility. As one wag put it Lansdowne Park has been the Bermuda Triangle of Ottawa politics for many years.
Last November we started an exciting and formal course of action that will see Lansdowne Park restored to its former or, dare I say, even grander glory. I also believe we have exactly the right partners and exactly the right process in place to ensure that Lansdowne Park once again becomes the jewel of our wonderful City in a timely and cost effective manner.
The partners include the NCC, Parks Canada, The City of Ottawa and the private sector organization we call OSEG. There are familiar names in OSEG, — Greenberg, Shenkman, Ruddy, and Hunt — and they too have faith in Ottawa’s long-term future.
The process consists of a design competition that will be judged by a panel of independent experts, and extensive public consultations that will ensure that residents are comfortable with the quality and aesthetics of the plan. In June of this year we will be in a position to make a firm and binding commitment to our OSEG partners to move ahead on this exciting project. This will be yet another long-term decision made by Council that shows we have a belief in the future of our City.
We have also invested in our aging infrastructure at a record rate, including authorizing the spending required to address the troublesome and long-standing problem of pollution in the Ottawa River. Today with the NCC and the City of Gatineau as our partners we are searching for the long-term solution that will end this problem once and for all.
This Council has also made a commitment to finally fix the flooding issues that were partially a result of merging the sewage systems of the different municipalities over the past ten years. Before the end of this term of Council we will be receiving the engineering studies and evaluating solution options and I know that we will make the right long term decision. We owe it to the citizens of Ottawa to correct this problem.
I would now like to address 2010 budget — the final budget of this mandate.
This year the draft budget was prepared and challenged by the new Audit Budget and Finance standing Committee (ABF) which is comprised of the various committee chairs. The ABF committee determined that the tax increase for 2010 should not exceed 4%.
I personally believe the city could get to inflationary tax increases or even lower, but not without fundamentally changing the nature and extent of services that we offer.
But that debate can be left to another day.
Even with a 3.9% tax increase we are still asking much of our residents, particularly those on fixed incomes, and pensioners, who will see next to no increase in their incomes this year.
In January as we complete the budget process I will ask Council to carefully mull over any additions to our current draft budget with caution and if they feel strongly about additions I ask them to identify corresponding deletions that will offset that charge. On a related note, I have seen the new financial presentation format and I am delighted to inform you that this new format will clearly explain the very strong financial position that our City is in.
For the first time since amalgamation, there exists a business-friendly balance sheet for the Corporation of Ottawa and that balance sheet is strong. The recent AAA rating from Moody is no accident and we have more then enough capacity make the investments required to continue growing our City.
Another important file we will need to address before the end of this term is the refresh of our economic development plan for the City of Ottawa. My office has had meetings with the Chambers, with OCRI, and with a number of other agencies to ensure that we do what is necessary to capitalize on the natural advantages we have in Ottawa.
Last night I congratulated the East Ottawa Chamber and the Ottawa Chamber for merging their organizations in order to speak as a single voice in the economic refresh. The Corporate services committee will be bringing refresh plan to Council by June and I believe it is time to be bold on this file as well to help define Ottawa’s future.
And lastly, our City is literally leading the world when it comes to doing better with trash. At the being of this term of Council the Plasco Energy plant was in the early stages of construction. Now the plant is operating and responding to strong demand from right across the globe, including China, Poland, California, and Britain.
Final emissions testing is underway by the province which is one of the last steps in the demonstration at Trail Road. I am optimistic that the City can complete its negotiations with Plasco in the next few weeks, and it is my hope that construction will begin by this fall.
As you see, our dance card is full from now until at least June- and at that time we will break for summer and prepare for the fall election. I hope that this Council will continue to focus on moving these important projects ahead for the Citizens of Ottawa.
Thank you and lets get started.
Before we adjourn I would like to make a brief comment to the citizens of Ottawa who I know are interested in the status of the transit strike.
Today Council received an update in-camera on the ongoing strike and has passed a resolution to provide additional supports regarding our mitigation measures.
Regarding the status of the strike I have a short statement that has been agreed to by both parties, the City and the ATU, which I will read before we adjourn and I will not be speaking to the media outside this chamber.
“Since last week, the parties have held informal discussions with the federal mediators in an effort to keep a dialogue open on a possible settlement. The parties have also agreed to a media blackout regarding these discussions.”
Regarding mitigation measures, we are continuing to implement supports previously approved by Council and we have today increased the financial assistance by $500,000. The first $200,000 approved by Council last week has been allocated to our social service partners and we continue to receive new requests for assistance.
The City continues to encourage those who are in need of support to contact 3-1-1.