Ottawa 2025 budget day: Police budget passes on split vote

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It’s been four months since Mayor Mark Sutcliffe began preparing residents for a difficult 2025 budget.

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“It is not an exaggeration to say Ottawa is facing a financial crisis,” Sutcliffe told reporters in a special briefing in August, when many residents were lounging by a lake on summer holidays. “And I want to be clear that it’s a crisis that is not of our own making.”

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That crisis comes to a head Dec. 11 as city council debates and votes on Ottawa’s nearly $5-billion budget.

On that hot August day when Sutcliffe launched his “Fairness for Ottawa” campaign, saying the federal and provincial governments weren’t paying their fair share of the city’s costs and warning warning that the soaring cost of transit alone could mean a seven per cent hike in property taxes.

That worse case scenario, of course, didn’t come to pass. In September, council backed Sutcliffe’s plan to hold the tax increase to 2.9 per cent, excluding the cost of transit. Add in OC Transpo and its projected $120-million operating deficit, and the tax increase will be to 3.9 per cent.

It’s OC Transpo’s plan to put much of that burden on transit users, with a five-per-cent fare increase and steep $120-per-cent increase in the cost of a senior’s transit pass.

Reeling back those increases will be a contentious debate around the council table. More than three dozen speakers gave members of the transit commission an earful about those moves. Hearing those complaints, the transit commission pushed back against the draft budget, proposing reducing the seniors’ fare increase from $108 to $78.50 and reinstating free rides for seniors on Wednesdays.

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In his opening remarks Wednesday, Sutcliffe said that the debate was missing the point of his Fairness for Ottawa campaign.

“As everybody knows, the toughest part of the 2025 budget is transit,” Sutcliffe said. “And I have to admit there’s one part of this process that’s left me a little bit frustrated.

“Over the past four weeks we’ve been talking about how much our residents can and should contribute to the cost of transit when we should be talking about how much other levels of government can and should be contributing to public transit in Ottawa,” Sutcliffe said.

“We’ve been talking about the right transit levy, the right adult fare, how large the discount should be for student use and seniors, whereas we should be talking about how the federal and provincial governments are still not paying their fair share.”

Sutcliffe noted that the transit budget is increasing to “historic levels” with an 11 per cent increase from the year before and that despite the operating deficit, transit service has not been cut.

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 the federal government ponying up $1 billion for public transit in Toronto.

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The provincial government has said that it will help Ottawa if the federal government does. Sutcliffe says he’s been talking continually with Kanata-Carlton MP Jenna Sudds, minister of families, children and social development and the ranking minister for Ottawa and a former city councillor, who said she will help the city’s budget challenges.

“These are very positive signs,” Sutcliffe said.

Councillors approved the Ottawa Police Service budget, which rises by 4.4 per cent from a year ago, with 2.9 per cent of that coming from a tax increase and the remaining 1.5 per cent coming from the growth in Ottawa’s assessment base. The budget, which passed despite five “nay” votes from councillors, adds 50 new employees of whom 22 will be sworn police officers.

The budget includes a new mounted unit and police helicopter — both of which will be paid for with provincial money.

The budget provides for a $388-million budget, an increase in policing costs that will add about $20 to a typical resident’s property tax bill.

More to come…

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:

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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 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.

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