ottawa 2025 budget day: council rolls back seniors' transit fare increase
meanwhile, ottawa city council passed the transit budget on an 18-7 vote. here's which councillors voted for and against.
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ottawa city council debated the 2025 budget at city hall in ottawa on dec. 11. mayor mark sutcliffe during the meeting.
tony caldwell
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ottawa city council passed its 2025 budget wednesday, but not without a revamp to the troublesome transit portion that walks back a proposed jump to the cost to seniors’ transit passes. the budget will increase property taxes by 3.9 per cent, just as called for when originally drafted a month ago. alone, the rising cost of municipal services accounts for a 2.9 per cent hike. adding in the levy for oc transpo, with its $120-million operating deficit, pushes the total increase to 3.9 per cent.
council approved the budget by a vote of 22-3 after nearly seven hours of gruelling debate at its dec. 11 meeting. laine johnson, jeff leiper and sean devine were the only councillors to vote against the budget.
ottawa city council debated the 2025 budget at city hall on dec. 11.
tony caldwell
/
postmedia
as expected, public transit was the most contentious issue, but a last-minute motion by coun. tim tierney that was hammered out by a small working group of councillors did offer some relief.
a proposed 120 per cent increase for a senior’s monthly pass is off the table. instead, tierney’s motion holds the cost of a senior’s pass at $49 until feb. 1, when it will rise to $58.25 — the same as the discounted upass for university and college students.
council is also asking for a comprehensive review of how oc transpo fares and discount rates are calculated, including comparing them to transit fares in other municipalities.
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“we all put a little water in our wine,” tierney said. “this is, i won’t sugar coat it, a seniors’ budget. it also helps us project to the future. we had some very heated discussions, but we’ve come up with a great motion.”
fares are set to rise by five per cent in the new year, which will push a single adult fare on oc transpo to $4, when paying by card, significantly higher than other canadian cities. an adult fare in toronto is $3.35, in montreal $3.75, in calgary $3.70, in edmonton $3.50 and in vancouver $3.20.
tierney’s motion passed unanimously. the transit budget as a whole was approved with a vote of 18-7.
mayor mark sutcliffe during the meeting.
tony caldwell
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the budget still includes a $36 million placeholder that mayor mark sutcliffe hopes will come from the federal and provincial governments. since august, when he launched his “fairness for ottawa” campaign, sutcliffe has been arguing that those higher levels of government haven’t been paying their fair share to the city. it was a call he reiterated on wednesday.
“we’ve been talking about the contributions our residents make to public transit,” sutcliffe said. “what’s the right level for the transit levy? what’s the right adult fare? how large a discount should we offer students, youth, and seniors?
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“what we should be talking about is how the provincial and federal governments are still not paying their fair share.”
sutcliffe pointed to recent announcements that the higher levels of government will pay in full for a $3.4-billion transit project in hamilton and that the federal government is ponying up $1 billion for public transit in toronto.
the provincial government has said that it will help ottawa if the federal government does. sutcliffe says he’s been talking continually with kanata-carleton mp jenna sudds, minister of families, children and social development and the ranking minister for ottawa and a former city councillor, who has said she will help the city’s budget challenges.
“these are very positive signs,” sutcliffe said.
ottawa coun. riley brockington during the meeting.
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river ward coun. riley brockington was one of those who voted against the transit budget. he aggressively questioned transit general manager renée amilcar about the unreliability of bus service and demanded to know how it would be improved.
at one point, brockington asked city manager wendy stephanson if she assessed amilcar’s work performance, prompting sutcliffe to intervene and coun. matt luloff to suggest the meeting move in-camera if an individual’s performance was being questioned.
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brockington backed off, but continued to raise his concerns about the transit budget.
“for me, there are yellow and red flags in this budget that have a significant monetary value in them,” brockington said. “there’s the $36-million hole. the prediction that ridership is going up to 80 per cent that’s based on optimism, not because there’s a great cohort coming that are not currently riding.”
ottawa city council 2025 budget debate at city hall in ottawa.
tony caldwell
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postmedia
he said people are being driven away because buses are late or don’t come at all.
“when every downtown parking lot is filled at 7:45 a.m., it’s because people are making choices. they’ve decided not to take public transit,” brockington said.
amilcar was asked by reporters after the meeting about brockington’s comments.
“it was a personal attack and i’m going to stay focused with my team to do what i love the best, which is deliver a good service,” she said.
file photo: renee amilcar, general manager of transit services at oc transpo
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“it’s clear that people have very strong opinions about public transit because it’s one of the most important services we provide,” added sutcliffe.
“we’ve faced a lot of challenges with public transit with the light rail system over the last few years, no question about that,” sutcliffe said. “i understand the frustration in the community and the frustration around the council table. i think we also have to look at the progress we’re making, the progress the team at oc transpo at building a better service for customers.”
coun. cathy curry during the meeting wednesday.
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how councillors voted
some votes for individual parts of the budget came down to split vote. here’s how your councillor voted on those sections:
ottawa police service budget, passed 18-5
those for: mayor mark sutcliffe, coun. matt luloff, coun. laura dudas, coun. david hill, coun. cathy curry, coun. clarke kelly, coun. glen gower, coun. sean devine, coun. jessica bradley, coun. tim tierney, coun. stéphanie plante, coun. riley brockington, coun. marty carr, coun. george darouze, coun. david brown, coun. steve desroches, coun. allan hubley, and coun. wilson lo.
those against: coun. theresa kavanagh, coun. laine johnson, coun. rawlson king, coun. jeff leiper, and coun. shawn menard.
didn’t vote: coun. ariel troster, and coun. catherine kitts.
ottawa police chief eric stubbs during the meeting.
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ottawa transit budget, passed 18-7
those for: mayor mark sutcliffe, coun. matt luloff, coun. laura dudas, coun. david hill, coun. cathy curry, coun. clarke kelly, coun. glen gower, coun. jessica bradley, coun. tim tierney, coun. stéphanie plante, coun. marty carr, coun. catherine kitts, coun. george darouze, coun. david brown, coun. steve desroches, coun. allan hubley, coun. theresa kavanagh, and coun. jeff leiper.
those against: coun. laine johnson, coun. rawlson king, coun. ariel troster, coun. riley brockington, coun. sean devine, coun. wilson lo, and coun. shawn menard.
coun. ariel troster during the meeting.
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coun. david hill during the meeting.
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coun. glen gower during the meeting.
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coun. marty carr during the meeting.
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coun. laine johnson during the meeting.
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