Ottawa is facing a financial crisis. 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. It's time for the federal and provincial governments to recognize the scope of the crisis in our city. And to recognize that we didn’t create this mess.
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We’ve been managing our city budget very carefully. In the past two years, we’ve found more than $153 million in savings and efficiencies, without cutting services. The decisions of the federal government have an enormous impact on our city, more than any other city in the country. And because we’re not Toronto, we have historically been overlooked by the provincial government, getting less than our fair share of support.
Here’s how:
Did you know that the Federal government has been underpaying its property taxes to Ottawa for decades?
The unpaid bill is close to 100 million dollars over the last five years alone. That’s 100 million dollars that you - local taxpayers - have had to make up because the Federal government hasn’t paid up.
What do you think would happen if you didn’t pay the full amount of your taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency? They’d be all over you. But the federal government gets away with it.
Ottawa doesn’t get the same level of investment as Toronto, even on a per capita basis.
But did you know Ottawa doesn’t get its fair share of the taxes you pay? If you’re a typical Ottawa taxpayer, about $5,250 of your Ottawa taxes has gone toward Toronto transit projects. Meanwhile, only $285 of your provincial taxes have paid for Ottawa projects. So for every dollar of your provincial taxes that’s invested in transit in Ottawa, more than 18 dollars goes to transit in Toronto. That’s just not fair.
You might remember that when we started investing in Stage 2 of light rail, the deal was that each level of government would pay one third of the cost: one third municipal, one third provincial, one third federal.
But what’s really happened? Municipal taxpayers have actually paid 56% of the cost. The federal and provincial governments? They’ve paid about 22% each.
With all the changes that are coming, we need help to transition to a better and brighter future. Otherwise we’ll have to dramatically raise taxes and transit fares and cut service — We can’t keep going like this.
The federal government’s decisions about closing downtown office buildings have had a huge impact on our city. Those decisions aren’t up to me. But the consequences for our public transit system and the future of downtown are enormous.
If this were another city where the largest employer was making such sweeping changes, the federal government would be there to help. And in this case, it’s the federal government that’s actually the big employer who’s making changes.
This is about basic fairness.
We need to stand up for fairness and demand that the federal and provincial governments fulfill their responsibilities. Our city shouldn’t have to struggle because of the decisions made far beyond our control.
It’s my job to fight hard on behalf of Ottawa to make sure we get our fair share of federal and provincial funding.
We’ve done our part, finding tens of millions of dollars in savings and efficiencies without cutting programs and services. But now it’s time for the federal and provincial governments to do their share to support Ottawa.
Join me in the fight for fairness for Ottawa. Sign the petition.
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