Reports from the City of Ottawa detailing what roadways received funding from development charges show that communities in the east end are receiving less of that money.
In a planning meeting on Jan. 15, numbers that Orléans South-Navan Councillor Catherine Kitts requested from staff show the total roadways in east Ottawa that received funding through development charges related to growth.
The funding in question is a fee placed on developers that have projects in the city that help the municipality fund the necessary infrastructure related to growth in the region. The funding goes to the city which then decides where money will be applied.
However, Kitts said there is a major discrepancy between where the money is being applied and the pace at which her community is growing.
“Development is rapidly outpacing infrastructure,” she said. “We have experienced explosive growth without any new significant infrastructure to support it and I know that I am a broken record on this issue.”
In 2022, the city’s ward boundaries changed, which Kitts says “dramatically” changed Orléans south, where almost all the greenfield development happening confined into that community, something that was “not the case previously.”
According to the reports, in the last decade east Ottawa has received less development charge funding from the city compared to other areas. The last time the community saw significant money applied through charges was in 2015, when roughly 33 per cent of money was sent to roadways in the area.
Since then, the east has seen less money from development charges despite being one of Ottawa’s fastest-growing communities, according to its ward councillor.
“I’ll be honest, I feel a little bit gas-lit by staff on this issue because when I raise these concerns, I hear ‘There are growing pains and growing communities,’” Kitts said. “I often feel like I’m the only one who’s banging the drum on what I see as a serious quality of life issue that is bad and getting worse.”
For several years between 2018 and 2022, council did not plan any development charge money for roads in the east end, a report from the city notes. Over the last 10 years, council only budged $15,077,000 from funds earned through development charges for infrastructure in the communities, accounting for just 31.1 per cent.
“The response to this inquiry reveals that I’m not crazy and we did not spend what the Transportation Master Plan says we needed on our arterial new road construction,” Kitts said.
The councillor also noted in the meeting that she pulled the number of building permits from “growth areas” from 2013 to 2022, which according to her are as follows:
- Kanata-Stittsville: 7,200 permits
- Orleans-South: 7,100 permits
- Nepean-Barrhaven-Findlay Creek: 4,800 permits
“There’s a funding discrepancy, but not a growth discrepancy,” she said. “There’s a perception that the east end gets less, and this inquiry response confirms it.”
Staff responded to the councillor by acknowledging the “tremendous growth out east and that the infrastructure that will reflected in the transportation master plan —which is a longer-term outlook of at least 2046 — will consider the growth rates.”
As a result of the discussion, Councillor Kitts presented a motion that will have staff look into how development charges are being applied across the city.