Budget 2024: Greenbank realignment, district parks, and more

Newsletter: December 8, 2023

Here we are in December, and this means City Hall has just gone through its annual budget cycle.  My team and I have been working hard to advance the promises that I made to you, and I am very happy to come back to you with some updates that I think will have a significant impact on our community: 

• It was confirmed that the Greenbank Realignment programme will receive $20,197,000 in additional capital funding to go towards planning and implementation of the first phase of the project. This investment should lead to shovels in the ground by 2026, four years ahead of schedule. The detailed project can be found here, a recent CBC article here, and you can find my engagement at the transportation committee here and the Mayor’s comments here. 

• The Police Board will see an increase in funding that will allow for the construction of a new South Ottawa Facility on Prince of Wales Drive, and they are advancing their strategic plan that will see the establishment of a district policing model that will better allow for police presence and traffic enforcement in all areas of the City – especially the suburbs.  See my delegations in support of these initiatives at the Police Services Board on October 23rd and on November 27th. Furthermore, I hosted the President of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturing Association and Ottawa Police Deputy Chief Ferguson last week on the topic of spiking vehicle theft statistics. We highlighted the importance of the auto industry taking their responsibility for improved cryptological technology, improved tracking, and improved collaboration, and shared advocacy to the Provincial Solicitor General, and to Public Safety Canada (Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP)  I will be following up with all of these parties quarterly and will be demanding improved targets.  I am very concerned that if we don’t reduce our car theft statistics, we will see this bleed into an increase in more violent crimes and break & enters.  See the recent CTV article. 

• Barrhaven parks were a big winner in the budget this year. $9,517,900 will be spent towards developing the Jock River North District Park, an increase of $2,375,000. This new park, which will be between Greenbank Road and Longfields Drive North of the Jock River, is planned to include a full-sized sports field, a tennis and pickleball court, dog parks, a trail system, a splash pad, and playground. Public consultations on the park ended this October and work will now begin on developing the final plan and soon, construction! You can find more about the project here. 

• Additionally, this budget will begin the process of developing the Jock River South District Park, which, appropriately, will be on the South side of the Jock River between Borrisokane and Greenbank. While this project is now in its very early stages, it’s exciting to see $10,994,000 of the project’s $12,216,000 total budget being unlocked in this budget cycle. This means staff won’t face any hurdles preventing them from getting a running start on the planning process. 

• I also had the opportunity to vote for the OPL budget which includes $1.5 million in additional funding for the new Barrhaven Library, which will be the cornerstone of the Barrhaven Civic Centre. This funding, partnered with previous city contributions and grant funding from the provincial and federal governments, will allow staff to proceed with the preliminary designs of the project. I remain concerned that the initial costing was done pre-pandemic and that we may need further support from other levels of Government in order to complete this project, but I am on it. More to come but this is an important step to allow for the initial land acquisition and start-state architectural renderings for the project. See link for more details on the Barrhaven Civic Centre Project. 

• We’ll be hiring 9 new paramedics from City funds, and another 17 paramedics conditional on Provincial funding, as part of this budget cycle. This pairs nicely with a motion I presented at Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services Committee in the Spring that instructed staff to hire 14 new paramedics in 2023. The budget will also bring forward two new ambulances. With Provincial support, Ottawa will see 40 new paramedics by the end of 2024. I think we can all agree that these members of Team Ottawa can’t start soon enough! 

• As a result of the delegation from the Ottawa Professional Fire Fighters Association at Emergency Preparedness Committee, I tabled a direction to staff for them to look at options to better address mental health concerns in 2024 and beyond.  

• The City will also be investing $62 million to make our transportation networks safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. That includes better traffic controls, local Barrhaven traffic calming programs, automated speed enforcement cameras in 20 new locations across the city in 2024 (including locally on Longfields Drive at Strandherd), and implementation of our Road Safety Action Plan.  Note that I am taking a very deliberate approach to new speed enforcement cameras as they should only be sited in areas with a disproportionately vulnerable population (schools).

• The City will be spending nearly $22 million to build resiliency in our power grid to attempt to limit the power outages that we have been seeing more of due to extreme weather events. You can learn more about how the City is improving climate resilience here. I will also be writing an article in the Barrhaven Independent on the topic of our new Cambrian municipal transformer station.  

• I tabled a motion to focus our Environment budget resources on corporate assets and City resilience. My concern with the current iteration of the Climate Change Master Plan is that does not differentiate between the responsibilities and jurisdictions of the three levels of Government. This is particularly concerning when the total costs associated of this policy are approximately $57 Billion. We, the municipality, can in no way fund this programme without other levels of Government supporting us.  To try and do so endangers us in that we are duplicating investments and tripping over other (larger) governmental programming.  Having lived through the derecho, tornadoes, flooding, and power outages as a result of weather events, and from my previous experience as a soldier involved in a multitude of crisis operations, I want to see us focusing municipal dollars to ensure that we are going to be safer and stronger when dealing with the reality of increased extreme weather events. If the City doesn’t take the actions within our jurisdiction because we’re too busy pretending to be the Federal Government, we’ll leave residents ‘holding the sandbag.’ My motion passed unanimously.