Quality of Life in the Crosshairs:
How the 2009 City Budget Target Quality of Life

In recent years, responsibilities are being passed down to municipal governments without adequate resources, so services are being cut.

To make up for a $35 million shortfall, the City Draft Budget proposes increasing user fees, raising bus fares, cutting city programs, reducing city jobs, reducing funding for community agencies and raising taxes by 5%. This would mean the broadest, deepest cut in services in the history of Ottawa.

City residents are being encouraged to attend councillor led Ward Consultations and to make deputations to Council of the Whole Dec 1st or 2nd.

THREE SIMPLE STEPS... AND SOME IDEAS...

Ottawa's proposed city budget is unbalanced - in every way. With three simple, principled decisions, Council can pass a good budget instead of one that does harm to our city.

SHARE THE LOAD FAIRLY ... DON'T TARGET PARENTS, TRANSIT USERS AND THE ELDERLY
Instead of having all of us pay the cost of city government through our taxes -- businesses, landlords, homeowners and the crown -- this budget piles the entire burden almost exclusively onto families with kids, transit users, the elderly and others on fixed incomes. Reversing all cuts and eliminating all fee increases would cost only $9.61 per month, if we all pitched in.

FIGHT THE RECESSION ... DON'TATTACK YOUR RESIDENTS
At a time when our economy is hurting, many of the cuts in the budget will simply multiply the bad news. Many of the dollars city staff want to cut trigger more investment by private companies, other governments and individuals. The city budget should be encouraging others to invest in Ottawa at this troubled time, not chasing investment away.

MAKE PEOPLE MATTER AS MUCH AS ROADS AND SEWERS
Three-quarters of all the cuts in this unbalanced budget come from one-quarter of city operations. That's just wrong. Services for people bear the brunt of reductions and future revenues are slated for infrastructure only. It's wrong to cut back services for you and me in order to build sewers and roads. A balanced city needs to supports both its people and its pipes; the proposed budget misses that mark.

BRINGING BACK BALANCE: SOME IDEAS FOR CLOSING THE BUDGET GAP
Ottawa's proposed budget is unbalanced -- it doesn't share the load fairly, it makes bad economic times worse and puts people's needs behind the needs of sewers and roads.
Reversing all cuts and eliminating all fee increases would cost only $9.61 per month, if we all pitched in. But even that cost would be cut nearly in half if Council applied some basic fairness to its budget-making. Some ideas for more fairness include:

1. Limit Police Services to a 2% increase like the rest of city operations ... Savings: $9.5 million
2. Limit Paramedic Services to a 2% increase like the rest of the City .... Savings: $4 million
3. Limit Financial Services to a 2% increase like the rest of the City .... Savings: $1.1 million
4. Delay growth-related increases to the Information Technology budget .... Savings: $1 million
5. Cancel annual subsidy to the Ottawa Senators for operating the Bell Sensplex ... Savings $250,000
6. Suspend automatic annual budget increases for the Auditor-General's office ... Savings $100,000

Total savings from these alternatives is 15.95 million

Multi-ward public consultations

Individual ward Councillor public consultations

On December 1, 2, 3 and 4, City Council (sitting as Committee of the Whole) will listen to public delegations on the draft budget. Residents and businesses can make a five-minute presentation at this meeting. To register, contact the City of Ottawa at 613-580-2424, ext.12487. For the session, please provide a copy of your presentation, preferably in electronic format, to BudgetDelegations@ottawa.ca .

For more information call the City at 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401), or e-mail 311@ottawa.ca .

Click here to download the public consultations poster

A better Ottawa is possible.