'State of the union' meeting with Community Associations - November 2024

This past week I had my quarterly meeting with the community associations.  We were joined by the city leadership team for the snow removal programme who updated on their preparations, operations, and advice.  Note that if there is a winter parking ban in effect and a vehicle is non-compliant, email 311@ottawa.ca so that they can be removed and it wont adversely affect snow plow operations. I was also able to provide an update on the Budget 2025 process, and if you are interested in this, note that we will have a virtual consultation on Budget 2025 on November 19th from 6:30-8:30pm. You can find details and the link to join that meeting here.  The bottom line at present is that we have a significant hole in our transit budget and Mayor Sutcliffe is lobbying both the Province and Feds for additional funding to offset some of our unique pressures. You can find more information on the Mayor's fairness campaign here.  I assess that we wont see any one financial lever pulled, and that in all likelihood we will see our residential taxes increase a bit more than historically the norm over the past decade, an increase to the transit levy, an increase in fare prices, and reduced spending resulting from an improved cost savings model.  We also spoke to the new Solid Waste Services by-law. Some of the principal discussion from the community association revolved around traffic improvements in the community, the rezoning of the commercial site at O’Keefe, the status of the Cedarhill golf course mediation (this phase has now concluded and the next phase would likely be an appeal from the owner). Contact me if you have more questions on this issue. Youth engagement was a big discussion point, in additon to concerns regarding the year-over-year crime statistics, especially retail theft, vehicle theft, intimidation events, stunt racing, increasing social pressures on the community, and how all of this translates into action from the new district policing model that we will evolve to over the coming years.