Mainstreeter Staff

In an exclusive interview with The Mainstreeter,
Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe discusses the
successes of his first two years in office and the
challenges that confront the city as it contends with
the pressures of growth and change.

THE MAINSTREETER: When you first took office, by all accounts, Ottawa City Council was a fractious and dysfunctional governing body, riddled with cliques and in-fighting. Today, as you enter year three as Mayor of Ottawa, how would you describe the functioning and efficacy of Council, and what have you done to change the culture at City Hall?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: That was one of my biggest priorities when I first got elected. I had heard from so many people during the election campaign that they were frustrated and disappointed with the tone around Council during the final years of the previous mandate. So I set out to build a much more collaborative environment, which is not to say that we don’t still disagree about things, but I think the tone has been much more respectful this term than during the previous administration. I think there’s been much more collaboration, consensus building, and cooperation.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. Photo Supplied

I set out very early on to change how things work on Council. For example, every councillor will have a turn as Deputy Mayor this term. We have three deputy mayors, and that rotates every six months. I also set out to have people who were not perceived as necessarily being my political allies chairing our important committees. I worked hard to build working relationships with those individuals, people who had been at odds with the previous administration.

Those steps have, I think, created an environment where the temperature’s a lot lower. You haven’t seen big blow ups or conflicts. The tone is much more respectful. You’re seeing that we find solutions together, and then we move forward together on a lot of issues, instead of fighting it out at a council meeting. And I think that’s made a big difference, and I hear a lot of feedback in the community that they see that as a positive development.

THE MAINSTREETER: Under the previous administration, residents of core urban wards like Capital Ward sensed that rural and suburban wards controlled decision-making at City Council on virtually all issues, even issues that uniquely concerned the urban wards. Has that power imbalance changed under your administration?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: That’s always going to be a challenge. Ottawa is a vast geographic city. You could fit Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver inside Ottawa. So, I feel like the governing dynamics in Ottawa are similar to those of the province or even Canada when you’re trying to balance different interests and different desires and objectives of different communities in the decisions that you make. In Ottawa, life downtown is different from life in a suburban community or a rural community. So, you’re always trying to find a balance between meeting all of those objectives.

I think we’ve done a much better job of balancing interests this term. And I think the budget vote is a good example. When we passed the budget, the vote was 22 to three. There was only one urban councillor who voted against the budget, and all the other urban councillors voted in favour of the budget. It’s always challenging, and we have to make sure that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. We have to make decisions for the urban part of Ottawa that are based on their needs. We’re making decisions for the suburban parts of Ottawa that are based on their lives and their objectives, and similarly, for the rural communities. I think, by and large, we’ve been doing alright.

THE MAINSTREETER: In our newspaper recently, we pointed out that the City’s development and densification goals could discriminate against core urban wards like Capital Ward, in favour of rural and suburban wards. In urban areas, where we already have extensive densification, smaller lot sizes and limited greenspace, even one new development – Greystone Village for example – can radically alter the fabric of a community, disproportionately more than a new development in an outlying suburban or rural area. How is your goal of densification – as it translates to new growth and development – going to be managed and spread evenly and equitably across urban and rural wards?

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MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: It’s important to underline that there’s no easy answers to how we manage growth. This is a very complex file. Ottawa is growing very rapidly, and there are no easy solutions, and there are risks and issues associated with growth, no matter where it happens. For example, I happen to live in Kitchissippi Ward, which is one of the core areas of the city that’s undergone the greatest change through densification in the last few years. That community grapples with these issues all the time. And other urban wards are experiencing similar growth.

You know, if all the growth and development occurred in the suburban and rural areas of Ottawa, the cost of services for everyone would be higher, and the cost of sprawl, the cost of transportation, and the environmental impact, would all increase. And if you put all the development in the centre of the city, then there’s all kinds of issues that go with that as well.

I know we’re all driven by a dynamic whereby when we move into a community, we want that community to stay the same for as long as possible. And we all want to protect existing communities and neighbourhoods. But we also need to acknowledge that growth is happening and that without growth, we’re going to experience other social problems that will be very inequitable and very expensive. So, we have to grow, and we have to manage growth. We’re going to see densification. That’s just inevitable.

THE MAINSTREETER: One criticism of Ottawa’s new Official Plan is that it fails to preserve, protect and enhance the vibrancy of our existing communities. Does the City have anyplans or initiatives to address concerns of citizens who feel helpless that that their communities are changing before their eyes?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: I think we all have the same objectives, which is to manage growth. But we can’t resist growth, right? That’s the challenge. We’re going to see taller buildings. We’re going to see more densification, and that’s inevitable as the city grows. But we want that growth to come in a managed fashion and in a way that respects the quality of life of residents.

But the other challenge we’re facing is that we are under a lot of pressure from the federal and provincial governments to move forward faster on development approvals and to streamline processes.

And if we don’t do that, then we’re going to face significant financial consequences as a community. We will not have money for infrastructure, and we will not have other resources that the city needs, if we don’t move faster on development. We can’t have a scenario where everyone in the community agrees that we’re growing and that we need more densification, and more development, but nobody wants it close to them. We can’t have that scenario,or we’re going to lose out on potentially billions of dollars of financial support from other levels of government.

“…when my parents first got married, they lived on Main
Street. That house was my first, it’s where I lived as a baby,
and I still have family living in that area. So it’s a very
special part of our City for me, and I understand the
importance of preserving and enhancing the quality of life
in Old Ottawa East, even as we’re growing the community.”

THE MAINSTREETER: A recent initiative of yours was to call on the province and the federal government to pay their fair share and provide added financial support for the City of Ottawa. So far, The Mainstreeter hasn’t seen much evidence that these governments are prepared to ante up to your challenge. Are there any developments that suggest that the federal and provincial governments might be more forthcoming in future?

<strong>MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: This will be a long term initiative, because this is not just about Ottawa. You’ve heard the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and other cities like Toronto and Vancouver that have been raising concerns about this as well. So, there’s a need for municipalities in general to get their fair share of funding. But over and above that, Ottawa’s challenges are unique, they are more pronounced because we are the nation’s capital, because we have issues that other cities don’t. We’ve made some progress here. There have been commitments by the Premier and the Ontario finance minister to support us, if the federal government does as well, and there have been many meetings with the federal government leading towards a solution. I hope a solution will come soon, but there’s been some progress.

THE MAINSTREETER: Some recent provincial laws seem to be overreaching the normal scope of their jurisdiction and threatening to impact local affairs – for instance, the new legislation to regulate bike lanes on city streets. Does it worry you and the city that the province is reaching so deep into the nuts and bolts of normal municipal affairs?

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MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: I understand the priorities of the provincial government. They’re trying to drive economic growth, and the construction of housing. We may not agree on all of their methods to achieve those priorities, but we’re prepared to work with both the provincial government and the federal government. They give us funding for various things, but there’s all kinds of conditions associated with the funding that we haveto meet. That’s all part of the process of dealing with both levels of government. I think that having strong relationships with the provincial government and the federal government are essential to our success. And I am pleased that since I became mayor, we’ve made a lot of progress on both fronts.

THE MAINSTREETER: The Alta Vista Transportation Corridor (AVTC)
is shaping up to be a big issue in our community in 2025. The threat of ploughing a major north-south arterial road right through Springhurst Park has been hanging over Old Ottawa East like a Damoclean sword. Arguably the best greenspace left to the residents of this community is under threat. This proposal makes very little sense to us in Old Ottawa East. Why doesn’t the City drop the AVTC altogether or re-route it away from our precious greenspace?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: This is a nervous issue for the community, and I totally understand that, and we will see how it evolves as the Transportation Master Plan gets introduced next year. That’s the process we have to follow. And there’ll be a huge opportunity for input in that process, and then we’ll move forward together.

THE MAINSTREETER: I’ll ask you next about the Lansdowne 2.0 plan. The Mainstreeter and the readers we’ve heard from see Lansdowne 2.0 as a costly and risky venture, and one lacking in vision. There is a strong sense that this is a plan doomed to fail and one that will cost taxpayers for years to come. Has the budget exercise changed your view about Lansdowne 2.0? You have a current snapshot of the city’s finances. Isn’t it time to re-look at the plan, and to re-think it?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: As you know, we’re following a process with Lansdowne. The challenge that people have to remember is that Lansdowne is a publicly owned facility, just likethe Nepean Sportsplex, just like every community centre or library in the city, just like all the rinks and sports infrastructure. There is not a single scenario that doesn’t cost us money going forward, and the cost of doing nothing is enormous.

I think it’s clear that the first improvements to Lansdowne have been successful. A lot more people are using the site. There’s a lot more activity. I was at the Christmas market recently. It’s beautiful. So, there’s a lot going on at Lansdowne, and that’s very positive.

We’ll continue to work on the process. There’s a lot that we still need to see coming back from City staff. There are those people perhaps thinking there’s an option here to just pause everything, and that that will cost nothing to the city, but that’s incorrect – it’s going to cost us a lot of money if we do nothing. I’ve had multiple conversations with organizations that have brought major events to our city in the past that are never coming back to Lansdowne or to Ottawa in the future unless we have more modern facilities. So, the economic cost to the city of not hosting the World Curling championships, the figure skating events that we’ve hosted in the past, and events like that, is significant. There’s no inexpensive solution to Lansdowne.

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THE MAINSTREETER: What are the key issues coming up in 2025 that will have the most significant impact on the urban core wards and, in particular, on Old Ottawa East?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: We are going to be talking a lot about housing and building more homes in the year ahead. We’re going to be talking about publictransit. We’re going to be talking about the Fairness for Ottawa campaign. We’re going to be talking about how our city grows. So, there’s a lot of important matters coming up in the next 12 months.

THE MAINSTREETER: And, in closing Mayor Sutcliffe, do you have a message you would specifically like to direct to our readers in Old Ottawa East?

MAYOR SUTCLIFFE: Well, you may know that when my parents first got married, they lived on Main Street. That house was my first, it’s where I lived as a baby, and I still have family living in that area. So, it’s a very special part of our city for me, and I understand the importance of preserving and enhancing the quality of life in Old Ottawa East, even as we’re growing the community, as we must continue to do. So, I can assure you and your readers that we’ll be mindful of the quality of life in Old Ottawa East every step of the way.