City of Ottawa

[DTcrawler]

We love to shoot ourselves in the foot. In a city where every penny spent is endlessly scrutinized, we’re turning down potentially millions of dollars from developers to help pay for initiatives. Comical.

[Williamoforange]

Good, it's not a councillors job to extort devs trying to build housing, there are already dev fees, school fees, Parkland fees, and etc to pay for these things. If council wants more then that raise property taxes.

Also find it funny that is Menard, Leiper, and what do you know Brockington asking for them being allowed to "ask" for donations up there ward before housing can be built.

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

We love to shoot ourselves in the foot. In a city where every penny spent is endlessly scrutinized, we’re turning down potentially millions of dollars from developers to help pay for initiatives. Comical.

Staff can still negotiate and if anyone thinks that this will result in less "donations", I would say, maybe ask why it would.....

[Truenorth00]

Lansdowne going to cost all of us a 1% property tax increase.

The AG reported that:

The City is not following its own costing guidelines, and as a result, is underreporting the construction costs of Lansdowne 2.0 by $74 million. Total project cost should be $493 million, not the $419 million the City has been saying.

There is considerable risk in the financial projections, which could significantly reduce the revenues available to the City to pay down debt. For example, RedBlacks revenue projections are far beyond what the team has been able to achieve in recent years. And the RedBlacks owners have only committed to keeping the team in Ottawa until 2032. There is a material risk that the CFL franchise could fold, as has happened twice before in Ottawa.

....

$493 million in construction costs amount to about $20 million a year in debt servicing for 30 years. That $20 million is equivalent to a 1% property tax increase for all residents and businesses in Ottawa.

Lansdowne will produce no significant revenue for at least a decade. It is possible that after a decade or two there will be some revenue to cover a share of that debt servicing. But if Lansdowne 2.0 turns out anything like the original Lansdowne proposal, taxpayers can expect to see only a small amount of what we were promised.

The best case scenario is that we all shoulder a 1% tax increase now, and maybe we get some of that back in the future. Maybe it’s only our kids who see any significant return.

....

https://the613.substack.com/p/lansdo...dRedirect=true

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Lansdowne going to cost all of us a 1% property tax increase.

Sunk Cost fallacy. We need to focus on what is critical and build housing to pay for it. Stop the sleight of hand.

[Lakeofthewood]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Sunk Cost fallacy. We need to focus on what is critical and build housing to pay for it. Stop the sleight of hand.

You're not wrong, but I do think it is worth calling these things out in Ottawa, where for so long the current and previous mayors have run on keeping property taxes low, while public services go to crap.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Lakeofthewood

You're not wrong, but I do think it is worth calling these things out in Ottawa, where for so long the current and previous mayors have run on keeping property taxes low, while public services go to crap.

Municipal cheapskatery is rampant across the country. It's a political cultural problem.