City of Ottawa

[harls]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Isn't there insurance that deals with this kind of loss? Contractors with the government are often required to have E&O (errors and omissions) insurance.

I think she would have to be a professional to have that sort of coverage (professional liability insurance, E&O).

Not sure if being a city employee would be enough. In the end, it's on her.

[rocketphish]

With Château, Ottawa's urban councillors lose another one

Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: July 11, 2019

In the last couple of weeks, two of the most contentious planning files ever to hit Ottawa city hall have followed the same plot line: urban councillors fight the good fight; urban councillors lose.

Since all politics are local, is there a worrisome division of interests among 23 councillors that doesn’t serve the city as whole, now and for the next three years?

Look at the Château Laurier vote. Every downtown-ish councillor — we could argue geographic definitions all day — wanted the city to revoke the heritage permit given to Larco Investments for its seven-storey addition on the edge of Major’s Hill Park.

This includes Mathieu Fleury, the mover of the motion, Shawn Menard, Catherine McKenney, Jeff Leiper and Rawlson King. They were joined by urban/suburban-ish councillors Diane Deans, Theresa Kavanagh, Riley Brockington and Carol Anne Meehan.

The further the ward is from the Château, roughly, the less likely the councillor was to support a last-ditch effort to stop the $100-million plan to add 147 rooms in a boxy building widely mocked across the city, if not the country.

(As if to drive the point home, the same councillors, plus Rick Chiarelli, lost again Thursday in a 15-minute re-do meeting that will go down in history as one of the most bizarre the city has ever held.)

The Greystone Village item, in which the developer was asking to build to nine storeys in Old Ottawa East, instead of the six promised in a community-based plan? The vote was 14 to 9 to permit the greater height, with the same nine inner-city councillors against.

The attempt to revisit the proposed Salvation Army shelter and homeless centre in Vanier? The vote was 12 to 10, all the same characters in favour, with Chiarelli thrown in.

And in each case, ward councillors trying to advocate for constituents closest to the sites were on the losing side. The optics are bad: you stand with your people on a hot-button issue, you lose.

It may have nothing to do with geography. It may simply be a matter that Mayor Jim Watson has his allies on council and goes into any important vote with his ducks in a row. No one survives in politics that long, after all, without checking which way the wind is blowing.

But one has to wonder if the councillor for Constance Bay, or Greely or Navan or Burritts Rapids, is as invested in debates about inner-city issues as, say, Fleury or McKenney or Leiper. There is no Château Laurier or homeless shelter in Munster to rip the community apart.

I have a lot of respect for West Carleton Coun. Eli El-Chantiry, for instance, and he was ever-present during the spring flooding as a calming, helpful influence for people in major distress. But I have a hard time believing that “his” residents — fighting to save their waterfront homes, their tornadoed lives — are worried about whether a billionaire family is going with a flat or peaked roof on the addition to a hotel that charges $250 a night, 50 kilometres away.

So it may not be top of mind on his agenda.

The roots of this isolation reach to amalgamation in 2001. Ottawa was once a smallish city that had to annex its neighbours to grow in the 1950s. Then it swallowed 10 of its neighbours. Now it has 1,300 farms and some 10,000 horses. It is a big, big municipality, with a huge rural sector that grapples with its own set of problems.

So, naturally, we’re not always on the same page. Fine, it’s not a perfect world. But one has to wonder whether our municipal governance model is impeding the public’s ability to influence our elected officials and their decisions, especially on urban matters. They work for us, remember, but who does this system serve?

Mostly, people don’t care about planning issues, out of boredom. But here we had literally thousands of city residents who felt passionately about this addition to the Château, some of them rich and well-connected, and we couldn’t get to first base.

(The vote, in reality, was not even close.)

So, one arrives at a fundamental question: how does a city of a million people, living in such a broad geography with all those different head spaces, steer its leadership toward a common goal? After the Château fiasco, it’s not clear. There’s only so much screaming we can do.

City council is now officially on vacation, which is a good thing. They need it, but not as much as us.

To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email [email protected]
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/co...se-another-one

[rocketphish]

More lessons for Ottawa Council from the Château Laurier
Municipal politicians have made a series of decisions in recent times reinforcing the impression that community opinions don’t matter.

Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board
Updated: July 11, 2019

Over two meetings this week, Ottawa Council reinforced its determination to let the owners of the Château Laurier proceed with a hotel extension that appears to please no one except its designers. A robust minority of councillors, led by Rideau-Vanier’s Mathieu Fleury, failed to persuade council to revoke the project’s heritage permit.

Although defeated, there was an upside to Fleury’s attempt: It at least forced council to hold an open debate and vote on an important city matter. The former council had delegated key approvals of the proposed hotel addition to non-elected city staff.

On the down side, however, members of the public are left with the impression that councillors don’t listen to them, that municipal politicians always come down on the side of business owners or developers. Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans put it thus: “Consideration of the public has not been the hallmark of council on this file.” Indeed. Thursday’s city council meeting took just 18 minutes to dash any last hope that elected officials would halt the château project, and led to cries of “Shame, shame!” from some in the public gallery.

It’s not true that councillors always defers to the wishes of developers and owners, but who can blame people for thinking it? Council has made a series of decisions in recent times reinforcing the impression that community opinions don’t matter.

At the main council meeting on Wednesday, where most of the château debate actually occurred, councillors also voted for changes to a development on the former Oblate lands near Saint Paul University. The Old Ottawa East community worked hard several years ago to develop what’s known as a secondary plan for that area, and thought it had an agreement with The Regional Group on the height of new residential buildings for Greystone Village: six storeys. But Regional applied to the city to erect one building as nine storeys, and council endorsed it, to the alarm of the neighbourhood. So much for heeding a community’s hard work to meet a developer halfway.

Not so long ago, the last council endorsed a more dramatic change to a community plan: Trinity Development’s pitch for a 65-storey building at 900 Albert St. The neighbours there thought they had an agreed-on secondary plan for that site too: 30 storeys. But Trinity’s pitch to double the height of the tower sailed through council.

There were vague murmurs of regret over this. The city’s amended Official Plan allowed for the taller structure, because intensification near transit stations is a priority. “We hope when we do the new Official Plan next term of council, we can be much clearer about this,” said Steve Willis, general manager of planning. “We’d like to deal with all the very outdated secondary plans.”

Many civic-minded citizens would be shocked to know their efforts to help shape liveable communities are now “outdated.” It’s enough to make anyone cynical about working with either developers or city hall.

Planning committee chair Coun. Jan Harder recently wondered why people were not enthusiastic participants in consultations over a new Official Plan. The Château Laurier project should remind her, and others, of just how enthusiastic the citizens of this city can be: about its defining landmarks, about a residential complex in an older neighbourhood, about a soaring skyscraper on the edge of their community.

They have good reason to criticize city hall for so blithely ignoring their views. It’s a problem council can’t delegate away in future.

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/co...hateau-laurier

[J.OT13]

Big year for Jim Watson. He's only a few months from becoming the longest serving Mayor in Ottawa's history.

It's been the Summer of Jim

Rick Gibbons
Ottawa Sun

September 3, 2019


Mayor Jim Watson hangs on as the media and local politicians are taken on an LRT ride in Ottawa on Friday, Aug. 23, 2019.Tony Caldwell / Postmedia

Ah, Summer. It’s over, isn’t it? The calendar will lie and say there are a few weeks yet, but that’s an illusion. Labour Day has passed. The party’s over. It’s back to school, back to work. All that’s left are the memories.

It has been, by all accounts, the Summer of Jim, a season quite like no other for Ottawa’s mayor, Jim Watson.

For whatever reason, he chose this summer to lift a giant weight from his shoulders in coming out of the closet only to be surprised more than anyone thanks to the almost universal support he received from the public in doing so.

It’s true that most people take these things in stride these days. But that doesn’t diminish the significance of the decision to him and to those closest to him.

There was no way Watson could anticipate how some of his traditional supporters would greet the announcement, especially seniors, whom he visits frequently during their bake sales or other celebrations and upon whose support he always depends in elections.

In the days since the announcement, he has seemed more comfortable in his skin and in his role as mayor of a city that this summer had its own coming out party as our local population tipped the one-million mark.

Now, as the temperatures cool and summer winds down, Watson is poised to push aside all the noise and furious commentary over delays in launching LRT to oversee the crowning achievement of his time in office.

Few mayors have had the chance to change the city under their watch the way Watson has with the launch of light rail. It will change in big ways and small the way the city works, the way it grows, the way it plays.

If that’s not enough, Watson will celebrate another remarkable milestone in his political career in the coming months when he will become the longest-serving Ottawa mayor since the city’s incorporation in 1855.

I’m not sure there are celebrations planned. I suspect he’ll mark the achievement quietly with friends.

A total of 66 other men and women have worn the chains of office since Ottawa was incorporated in 1855. But Watson is poised to surpass them all when he enters a 13th year in the mayor’s office late this fall.

To get there, he must combine two very different stints as Ottawa mayor: three years pre-amalgamation and an additional nine years since reassuming the office post-amalgamation. The exact date is impacted somewhat by his decision to cut short his first term by a couple of months to take a job with the Canadian Tourism Commission. But let’s not quibble here. Sometime between October and Christmas, it’s safe to say Watson will become Ottawa’s longest-serving mayor.

In doing so, he surpasses the 12-year term of J.E. Stanley Lewis who served through depression and world war through the 1930s and ’40s.

Lewis left no significant imprint on the city beyond attempting to award figure skater Barbara Ann Scott a new car after winning a world championship, something that would have breached Scott’s amateur status had she accepted it.

For Watson, the year ahead may prove to be his most challenging yet. With LRT finally on the rails, he knows there will be occasional challenges and that every problem will probably land on his desk.

He’ll be blamed for every snowflake that slows a train or every OC Transpo bus that misses its mark in connecting with the new rail service. Many commuters will measure LRT’s success on the minutes it adds or subtracts to or from their daily commutes.

In the days ahead, there will also be setbacks and other unforeseen problems in getting Phase 2 of light rail built. It’s already under construction.

And in no time, Watson will be under pressure to get funding for Phase 3 of light rail — the last critical phase that will get the system to where the city is expanding the fastest — the suburbs, where impatient commuters await the service.

It’s a project that will almost certainly carry far beyond Watson’s time in office. But it will always be his project, his legacy — for good or bad, better or worse.

Rick Gibbons is a veteran journalist and broadcaster and former publisher and chief executive of the Ottawa Sun

https://ottawasun.com/opinion/column...-summer-of-jim

[rocketphish]

UPDATED Ottawa budget: City plans $3.76 billion in spending in 2020 with focus on improving OC Transpo

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: November 6, 2019

The City of Ottawa tabled a draft 2020 budget Wednesday calling for $3.76 billion in spending with no major cuts as the municipal government proposes to boost funds to relieve a stuffed public transit system.

BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

• A $7.5-million transit investment that will go toward bus service enhancements, while $817 million will be spent on LRT Stage 2.
• A $15-million investment in affordable housing, maintaining the city’s landmark investment in 2019.
• An 18-per-cent increase to investment in the maintenance and renewal of assets such as roads and sidewalks, for a total of $151 million.
• The winter operations budget will increase by 7.7 per cent — $5.6 million — from 2019.
• A one-year freeze on the cost of the EquiPass and the Community Pass for ODSP recipients.
• An additional 30 police officers and 14 paramedic staff.

Mayor Jim Watson said the city is taking “a balanced approach” to a new municipal budget since the city needs to prepare for an uncertain funding future with a provincial government looking for savings and a new minority federal government.

The proposed property tax increase is three per cent. It would mean a $109 increase for the year for the average urban homeowner, $77 more for the average residential rural homeowner and $229 more for the average commercial property owner.

The garbage collection fee for a single-family household would be $96 for the year, an increase of $8.

Council established the revenue parameters in September, including the tax increases, leaving staff to divvy up the anticipated money across the corporation.

Watson spent one hour previewing many of the nitty-gritty details in the draft 2020 budget in a speech before the document was tabled during a council meeting.

More details about OC Transpo’s budget were released at a later transit commission meeting, but Watson acknowledged, “As a city, we need to do better.”

Watson mentioned $7.5 million more in 2020 to improve the bus service and $6 million for an electric bus pilot project, as well as freezing the community pass and EquiPass fares at 2019 rates. The city is also injecting $2 million more into Para Transpo’s budget.

There would be 248.69 full-time equivalent positions added to the municipal public service, with the big increase attributed to public transit at 161 positions.

The city is adding $12.9 million to the base budget, including $3.1 million for winter maintenance and $3.25 million for insurance premiums.

Just to maintain services will cost the city another $86 million, with labour costs eating up $48.5 million of that.

Growing services will cost another $24.9 million. The big costs are in transit, police and public health.

The finance department outlined just two areas of savings in 2020: $2.2 million in the police force thanks to integrating back-office work with city hall, and $1.3 million in operational efficiencies and advertising costs at public health.

Watson confirmed the city wants to hire 14 more front-line paramedics, the second hiring tranche of a four-year goal. The mayor also said he told Premier Doug Ford recently it’s an “urgent matter” and the city needs the province’s help, since there are times when no Ottawa ambulances are available to respond to calls. Paramedics have been delayed at hospitals waiting to hand over patients.

The mayor also announced the creation of an anti-racism secretariat at city hall, which drew applause in the middle of his speech. Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King has called for the creation of a secretariat in response to increasing instances of racial discrimination.

King said the secretariat will be the culmination of community feedback leading to a proposal he brought to city hall. The goal will be to have an “equity of outcome and equity of opportunity,” especially when it comes to employment, youths and municipal governance, King said.

There will be $15 million invested in affordable housing for the second year in a row, Watson said. He believes the money will leverage a matching amount of upper-government money.

Each department’s draft budget will be sent to the appropriate council committee for consideration over the next month. Any amendments will be brought back to a council meeting on Dec. 11 for the final budget vote.

Watson said council needs to remember what all the pie charts and graphs represent in their budget books.

“They are always about our residents,” Watson said.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

At a glance:

• Proposed 2020 operating budget: $3.76 billion ($136.8 million more than 2019)
• Proposed 2020 residential property tax increase: Urban, 3%; rural, 2.5%
• Proposed 2020 commercial property tax increase: 3%
• Proposed 2020 increase for water services on water/sewer bill: 3%
• Proposed 2020 increase for sewer services on water/sewer bill: 4.6%
• Proposed 2020 increase for stormwater services: 9.6%

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ing-oc-transpo

[rocketphish]

Orléans Liberals nominate Coun. Stephen Blais for provincial byelection

Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: November 9, 2019

Newly-minted Liberal candidate Stephen Blais demanded that Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford call an immediate byelection in the riding of Orléans after winning the nomination over his lone rival.

“It is time for us to get ready to take on Doug Ford, to rebuild the party, to rebuild the party in Orléans … and to win the byelection that needs to be called right now,” Blais, city councillor for Cumberland ward, told about 100 cheering supporters late Saturday afternoon at an auditorium in Navan.

“It is time to get on with it. Call the byelection right now, Mr. Ford.”

A total of 507 ballots were cast at Saturday’s nomination meeting, which pitted Blais, a veteran city councillor, against Rachel Décoste, a writer, educator and immigration policy expert. The vote totals were not announced.

Blais will be pursuing the Queen’s Park seat left vacant by Liberal MPP Marie-France Lalonde, who resigned to run as the party’s candidate in October’s federal election — a contest she won.

The Liberal Party has just five seats at Queen’s Park after losing decisively to the Progressive Conservatives in the 2018 provincial election.

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser, MPP for Ottawa South, told Saturday’s nomination meeting that he expected his party would have seven seats after two upcoming byelections in Ottawa. The Liberals have nominated Lucille Collard in Ottawa-Vanier, a riding that Liberal Nathalie Des Rosiers represented until she resigned this summer to become principal of Toronto’s Massey College. A date for that byelection has yet to be set.

“Here’s the thing I know,” Fraser told the crowd. “The tide goes in, the tide goes out, and the tide comes back in again. Our job is to be ready, to be ready to build Ontario up, to be ready to fight Doug Ford.”

Fraser said Liberals would fight for those services that Ontario families depended upon: a robust healthcare system, great schools, a healthy environment and help for the most vulnerable.

In an interview after his nomination victory, Blais, a former Ottawa Catholic school board trustee, said he wouldn’t resign his council seat until after the byelection. He was first elected to city council in 2010.

“I will continue to go to city hall every day and work to ensure that residents in Cumberland are well-served,” he vowed. “We’re going to continue to put their issues forward at city hall as we work with our volunteers at night and on the weekends.”

Blais said he was proud that two-thirds of eligible party members cast votes Saturday. “It shows that the Liberal Party in Orléans is strong and vibrant and we’re ready.”

At Queen’s Park, Blais said, he wants to work to improve both commute times and economic development in Orléans. “Those two things go hand in hand. The more people that work in Orléans, the less traffic and travel there will be trying to get to work downtown.”

He also wants to see responsibility for Highway 174 returned to the province from the city.

Blais currently serves as chair of the city’s transportation committee.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/polit...al-by-election

[J.OT13]

We already know this, but here's a map showing geographical representation of FEDCO. Green shows FEDCO members (and by extension Committee Chairs) and red are the ones on the out.


https://twitter.com/canadianosprey/s...96848340226051

[J.OT13]

Chiarelli on Life, Death and Public Shaming
FEBRUARY 12, 2020 / SUSAN SHERRING

In a wide-ranging interview, College Coun. Rick Chiarelli spoke exclusively with On the City, From the Burbs about family, his heart surgery and how he feels being shunned by his council colleagues.

Still recovering from an infection which developed after his sudden, life-saving heart surgery, Chiarelli has a hospital bed set up in his home, where he is on an antibiotic drip, while another tube continues to “suck away a lot of the infection.”

“They’re saying I’m making progress on the infection, and have a nurse visit everyday. It’s looking good so far,” he said on Monday night, just moments after his lawyers released a letter calling out what they believe to be a “patent and palatable bias” against Chiarelli. The lawyers are also calling on the city to end their own investigations and let a judicial process handle the situation.

Chiarelli still struggles with his council colleagues rejecting a doctor’s note calling for approved sick leave, the first time that has ever happened at Ottawa council.

“I thought it was not wise politically, and it was not wise administratively. Nobody wants to see council vote down medical leave. I was shocked by it. I just know that when you’re voting on these things, you always vote in favour of someone’s medical leave. It indicates a real bias in the whole process. A councillor’s responsibility as a member of council is to remain impartial,” he said of the investigation into several allegations of sexual impropriety.

Is there anyone out there who can dispute that Watson and his council have exhibited extreme bias against Chiarelli with regard to the allegations by former staffers about the College councillor?

Please believe me. This for me has nothing to do with the many allegations against Chiarelli – including some made by women I know, trust and respect – it’s impossible to turn a blind eye to the many allegations.
But just because you don’t like the nature of the allegations, and I don’t, and just because you believe them to be true, and I do, it just doesn’t mean Chiarelli doesn’t deserve due process.

As I’ve suggested, people found with a smoking gun beside a dead body get due process in the form of a trial. Our country is not supposed to convict someone without a fair trial.

Yet Watson and others thought it was absolutely fine to call for his resignation? Why?

“The doctor was of the opinion I had to do whatever I could to avoid stress. He believed I had a major problem. And he was right, everyone else was wrong,” he said.

As any follower of city hall knows, there’s no love lost between Chiarelli and Watson. In fact, the relationship is downright acrimonious. Chiarelli never misses a beat to poke fun at Watson; the mayor does everything he can to exclude Chiarelli from the process.

During a budget presentation when the numbers appeared a bit sketchy, Chiarelli called the budget a “Christmas Miracle” and the media ate it up, with everyone tweeting about the description and used it in their stories. Watson looked like his head might explode.

“Look, I’ve just never seen anything like this, never seen someone on council be treated this way and council just followed him. But you know, there will be somebody else after me,” Chiarelli said.

That’s a certainty. When Watson stops beating up on Chiarelli, he’ll find someone else, little doubt there.

And the fact that Osgoode Coun. Georges Darouze was found guilty of bullying a female resident by the Integrity Commissioner – and no one said a bad word publicly – isn’t lost on Chiarelli.

He said the letter was sent on his lawyers’ advice “to give council the chance to correct itself, proceed through the court system.”

While he has not heard from anyone on council, he said his community has been supportive, calling to offer their help or dropping off food. That somehow helps as he knows he’s been followed by an investigator hired by the city.

Since his ordeal began, he’s lost more than 100 pounds. He has nothing but praise for the Ottawa Heart Institute, singing their praises consistently throughout the interview. “I’m feeling very tired all the time, my chest is sore all the time. The surgeons said that’s because they sawed me in half. But it’s a slow progress,” he said.

Everyday, he has to walk for 16 minutes, no small task at this point. “I can and must walk for 16 minutes a day at this point, 16 minutes in a row. Believe it or not, it’s tiring. I remember right after the surgery, nurses took me for a walk, one at each shoulder, after about five minutes I fell asleep, but they just continued to carry me. There was this 85 -year-old guy who lapped me, he made fun of me! Another guy walked passed me and slapped me on the butt!

At today’s city council meeting, council accepted an interim report from Integrity Commissioner Robert Marleau.

And for some reason, Capital Coun. Shawn Menard felt it necessary to point out a number of places Chiarelli has been seen publicly. And what exactly is his point? A double standard for sure, and somehow surprising since Menard himself spends much of his own time on council on the outside looking in. And should we now expect to hear a similar listing of public places Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans, on sick leave for cancer treatment, has been seen publicly?

Of course, none of this has been easy, with his long-time colleagues turning their backs on him, siding with Watson, refusing to sit at council alongside him, instead standing during when he was at council; knowing he was being followed when he was fighting off death.

Through it all, Chiarelli’s family has stood by him. His wife Lida often stayed with him at the hospital, sleeping in a little cot by his his bed.
And his three daughters – Natalia, 28, Carla, 25, and Veronica, 23, have also been there for him, and Chiarelli says they’re doing well, despite the allegations against their father.

“It’s been pretty hard for them, oh yeah. They’ve grown up in politics. But nobody, none of them could believe any of this, and everything they’ve been put through. But there’s a certain amount of self preservation going on,” he said. His chatter is dotted with fatherly pride, pointing out his daughters accomplishments and successes. He is even able to manage a bit of a chuckle recounting that Carla’s longtime boyfriend Matt Mariani had to go to the hospital to get the approval to marry his middle child.

But he believes, through all of this, he’s being persecuted because Watson doesn’t like him.

“I remember when (former city councillor Jody) Mitic’s sick leave was getting approval. Some didn’t want to give it, but I think they all knew they could be next. At the time, (their reticence was because of his drug dependency which as an illegal act,) they thought they were somehow supporting that, but still council approved it.”

Former Osgoode councillor Doug Thompson has pitched in with his office work, dropping by now and then to do what he can. And Chiarelli himself has been signing what needs to be taken care of.

Chiarelli has been working with his doctors trying to figure out a modified work from home schedule.

“One of the main things I’ve learned from this is that stress has way more impact than you might realize. well, doctors say two to six months, so, what I’ve been trying to get them agree, a modified work form home schedule, main thing I’ve learned on this, stress has way more impact on you, so they want me to stay away from that.

He still has every intention of fighting the accusations made against him. “I can’t really comment on individual allegations, at this point, all of this,” he said.

But despite everything, he has every plan to come back to council and hopes it will be a matter of a few short months. And yes, he says he will run again.

“I was told I had a two to five percent chance of dying. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, what would happen if I didn’t make it. It’s not what you want for your children to hear about as they’re growing up. For sure. But again, they’ve grown up with this life and they know it can get nasty.”

https://www.susansherring.ca/wp/2020...ublic-shaming/

[J.OT13]

No doubt the Mayor has a biased against Chiarelli. He has a biased against anyone who does not blindly support him on every single issue, including Leiper who is the most diplomatic of the bunch and Fleury who used to be a Watson Club kiss-ass. For Chiarelli to suggest that the allegations were a fabrication brought on by his opposition to Stage 2 however, is ridiculous. If that was the case, the "hit list" would be much longer than just him.

As for the medical leave that was denied, I understand Council's decision. His letter was vague and poorly written (by hand). The medical issues listed were not enough to justify leave. Any low-level employee would have had their claim rejected based on that. I wonder if this was deliberate in order to get a rejection, building a case for a lawsuit in the near future. This could also explain why he has not submitted an updated letter, now that we actually know he has major health issues and a leave requested would be granted unanimously.

There was also the question of the timing, though the allegations should not have been factored in.

Then there is Chiarelli's request that the Integrity Commissioners investigation be halted, again on the basis of a biased. This is nothing but a delay tactic.

I fully agree that eh Darouze case, and the Tierney case for that matter, does in fact show an extreme biased from the Mayor. No matter what, the Mayor will prop-up his minions and limit his foes' power at City Hall.

[J.OT13]

ANALYSIS: If tax hauls matter, a downtown politician might deserve a 'cabinet' seat

Downtown councillors have noted that none of them sit on the top leadership committee.City council’s most influential committee might be short-changing the downtown wards if tax revenue by district matters when it comes to representation.

JON WILLING Updated: February 15, 2020
Postmedia

The makeup of the finance and economic development committee received attention this past week as council was presented with an opportunity to make a change.

Downtown councillors pointed out that none of them sat on the top leadership committee and they advocated for Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper to take over chairing the transportation committee and to take a seat on the finance committee.

Council refused with a 15-7 vote, instead promoting Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney to transportation chair.

Big jobs are assigned to the finance committee: setting up the annual budget process; monitoring the budget; receiving updates on the city’s litigation; managing real estate; making rules for operations and expenses of council offices; making recommendations on accessibility; overseeing debt and investment policies; and managing non-transit-related labour relations.

Anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the responsibilities of other committees and boards usually falls to the finance committee.

Perhaps most importantly, given the current transit drama in Ottawa, the finance committee is in charge of overseeing LRT contract and construction issues.

There are 12 members of the finance committee, including the chair, Mayor Jim Watson. The membership represents half of the 24 total councillors.

The city took in nearly $1.7 billion in property taxes in 2019. Decisions about how much tax money is required from landowners start at the finance committee.

Of 11 ward councillors on the committee, only three represent wards that are in the top 11 wards that generate the most tax revenue for the city. They include Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder (No. 9 on the top tax-producing wards), Alta Vista Coun. Jean Cloutier (No. 5) and Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds (No. 4).

That means the three wards at the top of the tax revenue list don’t have representation on the committee.

According to figures produced by the city’s finance department, Somerset ward generated the most tax revenue for city hall in 2019 by a long shot, with about $171.8 million coming from landowners. Catherine McKenney represents the ward.

Second on the list was Leiper’s Kitchissippi ward ($94.4 million) and third was Rideau-Vanier ward ($91.4 million), represented by Mathieu Fleury.

Yet, the bottom three tax-generating wards — Rideau-Goulbourn at No. 21, Osgoode at No. 22 and West Carleton-March at No. 23 — have representation on the finance committee.

In fact, of 18 wards generating the most tax revenue for the city, only five are represented on the finance and economic development committee.

Another way to look at the tax haul is to examine the average contribution by residential landowner.

By that measure, Capital ward, represented by Shawn Menard, came out on top last year at $5,296, followed by Kitchissippi at $5,027 and Rideau-Rockcliffe ward, represented by Rawlson King, at $4,580.

The rankings are different when it comes to average commercial tax contributions to the city. The top three wards are Kanata North ($52,723), Barrhaven ($43,855) and Kanata South ($38,620) and all of their councillors sit on the finance committee.

Still, of the top 11 wards on the average commercial tax contribution list, those three, plus Innes ward at No. 11 ($25,994), are the only ones represented on the committee.

There’s no policy that sets membership of the finance committee based on geography or tax representation. It’s settled through the nomination process at the beginning of the term and ultimately starts with a proposal from the mayor.

However, the membership is locked in based on decisions made about other committees and ceremonial positions.

Chairs of standing committees — transportation, environment, audit, planning, rural affairs and community and protective services — plus the transit commission chair and the three deputy mayors automatically have seats on the finance committee.

There is one at-large member of the finance committee who isn’t handed an automatic seat. That had been Tierney.

With council’s vote on Wednesday, Tierney has an automatic seat on the finance committee.

Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais is running for the Liberals in Orléans in the provincial byelection, which is why he stepped down from chairing the transportation committee.

If Blais is elected to the provincial legislature on Feb. 27, a spot will open up on the city’s finance committee.

It would present another opportunity for council, but mostly the mayor, to consider representation on the de facto cabinet of council.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...a-cabinet-seat

[J.OT13]

More BS coming out of City Hall, Tim Tierney had an op-ed in the Citizen today defending the OPL's decision to open the lobby later. I tried, but was unable to, find the online version.

He basically praises the OPL and its staff (which is fine), says that opening the lobby earlier does very little to help homelessness and calls on McKenney to take more concrete actions.

This is reminiscent of people who say "ya, I believe in climate change, but one person can't make a difference so why bother", then turns around and throws his Pepsi can in the garbage instead of the recycling bin right next to it. Or Conservative's oft repeated "Canada emits but a fraction of world emissions, so why should we take action".

On top of that, McKenney is arguably the Councillor who does the most to try and bring attention to the homelessness crisis and proposes concrete actions to try and end it. She does everything in her very limited power (cause the Mayor appoints his lackeys, Tierney being one of them, to powerful positions) to help.

[rocketphish]

Keep Ottawa library's doors open to the homeless

Catherine McKenney
Updated: February 10, 2020

I want to tell you about a woman I met last summer. Mary Beth (not her real name) may have been your neighbour. Years before finding herself living on the streets with all of her belongings in a single black suitcase, she was living and working, just like most of us. But a sudden job loss and subsequent death of her only child meant she was no longer able to pay her rent and faced eviction. She moved to shelter, but felt unsafe after experiencing verbal and physical threats.

For the past three years, she has spent her days and nights moving around the city in search of safe spaces to stay alive. Her days are spent in parks downtown, with respites into City Hall for warmth and rest on the benches. When that building closes at 11:30 p.m., she uses her Presto pass to ride the bus until the last run, around 3 a.m. For the next three hours she walks, keeping herself awake, and until recently she would head over to the lobby of the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library. She would be joined by others who have spent the last 24 hours much the same way. They would gather there for the three hours of warmth and rest until the library opened its doors. And her day would start over again.

Two weeks ago, Ottawa Council declared an Affordable Housing and Homelessness Emergency in this city. That same week, we learned that the main branch of the public library now keeps its lobby doors locked in the early mornings, no longer allowing people who are homeless to access that space in the mornings for rest, warmth and respite. Mary Beth no longer has a warm place to rest for those precious three hours every morning.

Since learning that this change in opening hours has occurred, I have been approached by many people who walk by the library or share the entrance to their workplace expressing their dismay at the removal of “familiar faces” who sat or slept (often upright) every morning. Where are they now? It is hard to say. These are the most marginalized and voiceless people in our city. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that they are not further marginalized. If there are security concerns because of the actions of a few, then we deal with the few without punishing Mary Beth and others who need safe space.

Public libraries are great equalizers. Once we walk through those doors, we are all equally welcome into a space that is staffed by some of the most knowledgeable and compassionate people in our community: librarians. Librarians are often in the position of administering kindness and care to people in our city who truly need the care of social workers. Let’s follow the lead of other libraries in Canada and other countries who recognize this need, and instead of closing doors to people who need us the most, introduce social workers to our library staff. Social workers have the ability to provide on-site support to people, and to connect them with further health care and social supports. Connecting people who need it with existing services such as health care and housing workers in the community is an important step towards ending homelessness.

People experiencing homelessness live everyday with shame and stigma. They are poor. They need a place where they can feel like they belong. This is what the library offers. When the doors open, they move inside to read, use the computers, meet friends, sometimes sleep. No different from anyone else in the same space. And they are welcome. Our librarians make sure of this.

That is why it is so important that they are allowed into the lobby in the early hours before the library doors open. It keeps them alive from the cold, safe after a night of being alone outside or precariously housed and it is the beginning of another day of survival where they are welcome.

Catherine McKenney is the Ottawa councillor for Somerset ward and Council Liaison for Housing and Homelessness.

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/co...o-the-homeless

[rocketphish]

A broader conversation on homelessness

Tim Tierney
18 Feb 2020

The following is offered in response to a Feb. 10 column by Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney on homelessness:

Coun. Catherine McKenney challenged the Ottawa Public Library recently regarding changes to lobby access at the main branch. To be clear, there have been no changes to OPL’s service offering or hours of operation at the branch. The library serves all residents of the Ottawa community from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days at its main branch, and during opening hours at 32 other branches across Ottawa, as well as through Bookmobile and Homebound Services.

Library staff serve everyone. They provide thoughtful assistance and support to all customers; they demonstrate empathy and flexibility every day. They respond quickly to situations when a customer is in crisis, whether related to housing, health or other circumstances. They serve people in vulnerable situations, such as individuals experiencing homelessness, in partnership with a range of specialized social service organizations. They do not judge or discriminate; they welcome everyone.

Our employees also provide access to library spaces, computers, WiFi, collections, programs, resources and expertise to all. They know many individuals visiting the library are looking for respite from the cold winter and hot summer, seeking company when they are lonely, or trying to build new habits in their lives. Their stories are more complex than often portrayed in the media.

Employees work collaboratively to reduce barriers that may prevent people from accessing library resources. Our focus is on our mission to inspire learning, spark curiosity and connect people, and as a result, our downtown branches also have longstanding connections with community service providers, shelters and resource centres.

Access to social services, particularly overnight and in the early morning, is a community issue, not exclusively a library issue, and library staff join me in recognizing that this issue is important. The library is committed to continuing the conversation with other service providers to address gaps in the support network. These gaps are much wider than can be addressed by providing three hours of access to the unmonitored 900sq.ft. hallway space connecting two disparate buildings and a parking garage. Sustainable solutions require all of us who serve vulnerable residents of our city to work together.

I am pleased McKenney recognizes the knowledge and compassion with which Ottawa Public Library staff do their important work. I would encourage the councillor to act and use her position to support a broader and deeper conversation about a community issue that neither starts nor stops at the entrance to the public library.

Tim Tierney is chair of the Ottawa Public Library Board and Ottawa councillor for Beacon HillCyrville ward.

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/o...81646782156685

[rocketphish]

Inner-urban councillors plead for a finance committee seat as mini-shuffle looms

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: February 18, 2020

Ottawa’s inner-urban councillors are calling for more representation on the de-facto cabinet of council as Mayor Jim Watson oversees a leadership shuffle.

Capital Coun. Shawn Menard, Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney, Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury and Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King wrote to the city clerk on Tuesday asking to “correct this matter” of the central urban areas not having representation on the finance and economic development committee.

“This is an opportunity for us to do right by residents and enhance the diversity of debate,” the letter says. “We implore the Mayor, the Nominating Committee and City Council to respect and embrace democracy by bringing a small modicum of balance to the city’s boards and committees.”

The councillors said they will also seek changes to council’s governance structure. A governance review traditionally happens in the middle of each term.

They shared the letter on social media after the city notified the public of a joint finance committee and nominating committee meeting called for Friday.

Today, the urban City Councillors signed a letter to the Clerk about the democratic deficit at City Hall and the lack of proper representation on Committees. #ottawa #ottnews #ottcity #ottpoli pic.twitter.com/LKEXMm2ynZ— Shawn Menard (@ShawnMenard1) February 18, 2020

According to the city, the joint committee needs to fill five vacancies.

Beacon Hill Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney was recently named transportation chair and he’s resigning his roles as vice-chair of planning committee and vice-chair of the finance committee. He’s also stepping down as chair of the Ottawa Public Library board of trustees.

Tierney will still have a spot on the Watson-chaired finance committee since all other committee chairs, plus the three deputy mayors, automatically get seats.

Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower looks to be leaving his role as chair of the built-heritage subcommittee, which likely means he’s in line for another leadership position on council.

It appears there will be a new council member joining the Shaw Centre board of directors. Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds has been council’s representative on the board.

There could be additional changes to committee memberships if Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais wins a provincial byelection in Orléans. Blais, who stepped down as transportation chair, is running as a Liberal in the Feb. 27 vote.

The inner-urban councillors offered suggestions on who should fill the leadership vacancies. McKenney, they said, should take the at-large position on the finance committee.

The finance committee oversees major corporate files, including budget directions and O-Train construction.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-shuffle-looms

[J.OT13]

Thanks rocketphish for posting the Tierney op-ed.

Reference to the article above (Inner-urban councillors plead for a finance committee seat as mini-shuffle looms):


https://twitter.com/ShawnMenard1/sta...80645993684992

[danishh]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Thanks rocketphish for posting the Tierney op-ed.

Reference to the article above (Inner-urban councillors plead for a finance committee seat as mini-shuffle looms):


https://twitter.com/ShawnMenard1/sta...80645993684992

i mean, this is great and i support it, but there are 23 Councillors plus the Mayor and i see six listed that are part of the 'urban reform group'. Carol Ann Meehan seems to join them on some stuff, but her constituents are not aligned.

They're still outnumbered, and therefore not going to win.
This gets fixed when the ward boundary review happens, hopefully we can have a democratic city again. Watson et al delayed the mandatory review last term to focus on other stuff (LRT), but it's happening this time and the next election will be under new boundaries.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by danishh

i mean, this is great and i support it, but there are 23 Councillors plus the Mayor and i see six listed that are part of the 'urban reform group'. Carol Ann Meehan seems to join them on some stuff, but her constituents are not aligned.

They're still outnumbered, and therefore not going to win.
This gets fixed when the ward boundary review happens, hopefully we can have a democratic city again. Watson et al delayed the mandatory review last term to focus on other stuff (LRT), but it's happening this time and the next election will be under new boundaries.

I fully agree; even if Watson appointed one or two urban Councillors (or Meehan) to FEDCO, he would still hold his majority, yet he continues to shut-out any Councillor who does blindly follow his lead without question.

Case in point:

Chianello's live tweeting of the FEDCO nominations today:

I am at a special meeting of FEDco/nominating committee to fill the roles that Coun.
@TimTierney
is stepping away from due to his new role as chair of transportation committee. #ottnews

First, the member-at-large for FEDco. Councillors who have expressed interest are: Councillors
@glengower
,
@cmckenney
,
@MeehanCarolAnne
. #ottnews

So the joint FEDco/nominating committee have voted for Gower. Only one vote against:
@tm_kavanagh
, who was supporting McKenney. #ottnews

Now moving onto vice-chair of planning committee. Three expressions of interest:
@glengower

@JLeiper

@MeehanCarolAnne
. #ottnews

Joanne Chianello
@jchianello
·
1h
Gower wins again! He's now the vice-chair of planning. Kavanagh was going to vote for
@MeehanCarolAnne
. #ottnews

Now the joint committee will vote for a recommendation for a new chair of library board. (The board actually votes for the chair). Only Coun. Matthew Luloff has put his name forward. So that's done. #ottnews

Coun.
@rawlsonking
is the only person to put his name forward for chair of built-heritage subcommittee, so he gets that position. #ottnews

Now, council's member for the Shaw Centre board. The two councillors who've expressed interest are
@GeorgeDarouze
and
@MathieuFleury
#ottnews

So Fleury, who's the local councillor for the Shaw Centre, lost (only
@tm_kavanagh
voted for him). This is all pretty predictable. Almost all the urban councillors have been shut out of these positions. #ottnews

https://twitter.com/jchianello/statu...77935332155394

Rawlson King is the only non-Watson Club Councillor who got a position, but that's because he had no one going up against him. Either Watson's appointed lackey forgot to put his or her name forward OR Watson doesn't give a shit about the Built-Heritage sub-committee for one reason or another. Does this position not include a FEDCO seat? If that's the case, it would explain it.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by danishh

This gets fixed when the ward boundary review happens, hopefully we can have a democratic city again. Watson et al delayed the mandatory review last term to focus on other stuff (LRT), but it's happening this time and the next election will be under new boundaries.

Not necessarily. The Ward boundaries could be jerry-rigged to ensure the power stays in the suburbs as they were when the current boundaries were drawn-up. The rural areas were given more representation than the population called for at the time. Somehow, that was deemed the fair thing to do (not enough representation otherwise).

If we're sticking to 22 wards, we should only have two rural wards (east and west of the Rideau River), 3 Wards for each of the suburban centres (Kanata-Stittsvile, Orleans and Barrhaven-Riverside South) and 11 within the Greenbelt (which still represents just over half the population).

That would be the democratic division of Wards.

[CityTech]

Since the last time we redrew ward borders, there was a court ruling in Kingston in 2013 that set a lot of rules for the process of drawing ward borders. That city tried to gerrymander ward borders in favour of the suburbs and it was struck down. The ruling states that:
1) ward populations have to be fairly equal
2) ward populations must include all residents of the municipality - not just primary residents. So in cases of individuals who have addresses in more than one municipality (like postsecondary students or military members on posting to a base), they must be counted as part of ward populations in every municipality in which they live. So the thousands of Queens students whose primary residences were with their parents in Toronto still had to be included as residents of Kingston for the sake of drawing ward borders.

Those rulings are binding on the whole province (outside of Toronto where ward borders are, since 2018, set directly by provincial law) so Ottawa will have to follow both rules. In fact, since I'm pretty sure Ottawa didn't follow rule #2 when doing it's last borders, the core area might even get an extra ward from all the out of town U of O and Carleton students.

[J.OT13]

Well that's promising.