Completely agree with your points, it's unfair how much more the GTA gets transit funding.
I'm just not sure I see the province or feds stepping up when they may argue that Ottawa hasn't done enough to increase revenue yet. Toronto raised property taxes by 9.5%. Calgary raised by 8%. Vancouver by 7.5%. Ottawa only raised by 2.5%.
I agree with many points in this but remain unconvinced. Consider: historical austerity budgets and decades of too-low tax increases have deprived the city of (around) $1.4b in taxes (had we kept pace with other cities) which would have been in the range of $350m additional this year alone. Additionally, council continues to spend money we don't have on projects that don't make sense: $600m for a new suburb (Tewin) that will lock in forever sprawl; $500m (and counting) for Lansdowne as a direct subsidy to prioritize private profit for sports; over $100m per year, with an 8 year commitment to the tune of nearly a billion dollars on suburban and rural road expansions and widenings. We committed to Phase 2 of LRT because Phase 1 was (in the words of then Mayor Watson "a stunted 12km system that is going to clog in the Tunney’s pasture area and Blair station" so we had no choice (due to poor design) to proceed and we went ahead knowing the funding formula (maybe council should have negotiated harder to get a better deal then or refused to proceed with the project).
My point is: yes, we need a new funding model for cities and yes, we need a better and fairer deal for the nation's capital, but what have we done to deserve it?
And missing from this conversation about fairness is the one-sidedness of it: sure, Ottawa has a disproportionate percentage of downtown office buildings and dependence on federal workforce. We also have billions of dollars in construction investment that other cities don't have (parliament hill, supreme court, other major federal projects); we have the NCC building and maintaining our parks and best tourist attractions while the city does little or nothing in that realm. We have national museums and festivals that attract millions of tourists and represent billions in investments and tourist revenue that no other Canadian city has. Perhaps that should be considered before complaining, in isolation, that PILTs are not equitable.
Completely agree with your points, it's unfair how much more the GTA gets transit funding.
I'm just not sure I see the province or feds stepping up when they may argue that Ottawa hasn't done enough to increase revenue yet. Toronto raised property taxes by 9.5%. Calgary raised by 8%. Vancouver by 7.5%. Ottawa only raised by 2.5%.
I agree with many points in this but remain unconvinced. Consider: historical austerity budgets and decades of too-low tax increases have deprived the city of (around) $1.4b in taxes (had we kept pace with other cities) which would have been in the range of $350m additional this year alone. Additionally, council continues to spend money we don't have on projects that don't make sense: $600m for a new suburb (Tewin) that will lock in forever sprawl; $500m (and counting) for Lansdowne as a direct subsidy to prioritize private profit for sports; over $100m per year, with an 8 year commitment to the tune of nearly a billion dollars on suburban and rural road expansions and widenings. We committed to Phase 2 of LRT because Phase 1 was (in the words of then Mayor Watson "a stunted 12km system that is going to clog in the Tunney’s pasture area and Blair station" so we had no choice (due to poor design) to proceed and we went ahead knowing the funding formula (maybe council should have negotiated harder to get a better deal then or refused to proceed with the project).
My point is: yes, we need a new funding model for cities and yes, we need a better and fairer deal for the nation's capital, but what have we done to deserve it?
And missing from this conversation about fairness is the one-sidedness of it: sure, Ottawa has a disproportionate percentage of downtown office buildings and dependence on federal workforce. We also have billions of dollars in construction investment that other cities don't have (parliament hill, supreme court, other major federal projects); we have the NCC building and maintaining our parks and best tourist attractions while the city does little or nothing in that realm. We have national museums and festivals that attract millions of tourists and represent billions in investments and tourist revenue that no other Canadian city has. Perhaps that should be considered before complaining, in isolation, that PILTs are not equitable.