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Ottawa, February 17, 2004
Letter to the Editor
The Ottawa Citizen
1101 Baxter Road
Ottawa, ON K2C 3M4
Strategic thinking required
in City’s 2004 budget debate.
Dear Editor,
Ottawa residents are calling on their city councillors to show
some leadership with the difficult decisions ahead this year. For
some, that leadership requires that politicians indicate clearly
whether they support a tax freeze or an increase, and if so, how
much of an increase. I do not agree with this approach, now, nor
during the election last fall. I rejected that simplistic approach
because it still leaves open the question of just how the number
selected (0%, 3% or whatever) would be achieved.
Instead, I think we should carefully examine what the City does,
why it does it and then apply good judgement as to the importance
of a particular expenditure. Of course, that judgement is not
formed in a vacuum. Personally I have listened to the public, as I
have done over the last 12 years in office, as I arrive at an
enlightened response. And we must not forget the input of our
professional staff in the process. Finally, we, as elected
officials, must bring our own experience to bear in forming our
decisions and we must ultimately take personal responsibility for
those decisions.
This year is no different. What is different is that past Councils
(of which I was a part) were unwilling to account for inflation.
There was a phrase some years ago that went - “do more with less”.
Whatever the merits of that approach then, it seems clear that it
will no longer do.
This year, I am suggesting that we identify “priority areas” as
guideposts as we go through the myriad decisions that must be
made.
First: maintain or enhance the efficacy of those
expenditures intended to foster or support public security,
community safety, and public health. (Note: I define ‘health’ in
its broadest aspect, which would include physical fitness, mental
& intellectual capabilities and cultural liveliness.)
Second: make adequate provision for expenditures primarily
intended for efficiently maintaining or maximizing the useful life
of existing municipal properties. (i.e. “Make certain that the
roof is not about to leak before thinking of enlarging the
house”.) Business and fresh capital flow into a vital and lively
city, not into a decaying one. Moreover, postponed life-cycle
maintenance usually results in increased costs downstream and
amounts to a hidden debt not easily visible on the books.
Third: provide cost-effective solutions to meet housing
needs of our most disadvantaged citizens, especially our seniors.
(It is not necessary to actually own the housing stock to provide
assisted housing.)
Fourth: foster an affordable and liveable urban environment
for the long term. (Stop urban sprawl).
Fifth: encourage an enhanced citizen volunteerism component
in the provision and delivery of services. (Why can’t we do what
our smaller municipalities used to do so well?)
Sixth: focus on prudent fiscal management as we respect
these priorities.
For example, applying these priorities to the transportation
sector would mean that we would: support budget expenditures to
maintain existing road, bridge and bus system components; support
expansions of the urban mass-transit system; and support enhanced
security on our roads by making better and appropriate use of
technology (i.e. red-light cameras, speed-on-green cameras, photo
radar).
These priorities do not only cause expenditures. For instance,
they have resulted in my past support for closing fire stations.
So long as our professionals, who are charged with administering
the fire department, assure us that public safety is not
threatened or diminished, I can support such closures. By the way,
there was no proposed reduction in the numbers of fire fighters.
It’s only logical that the network of fixed stations in a larger
amalgamated municipality would be different from the network that
resulted from the decisions of the former 11 separate
municipalities.
I hope Ottawa taxpayers find this approach, or something like it,
useful as part of their own strategic examination of what the City
does and how it does it. If we all collectively answer the
challenge this year, we may have set a course for our City that
will preserve its quality of life for some time to come.
Jacques Legendre
Councillor, Rideau-Rockcliffe
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