#563 A pizza for your vote - make it a pepperoni, green peppers, olives and mushroooms

Show Up or Chip In for Pizza: The Case for Compulsory Municipal Voting

The people who decide your bus route, your tax bill and your street are chosen by a minority of us. Australia fixed that a century ago for the price of a pizza.

Peter Karwacki · Candidate, Ward 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe

The decisions that touch your life most directly are made at City Hall. Whether the bus comes, whether the road gets plowed, what gets built on your street, how much your property tax bill is: all of it is decided by a mayor and councillors. Yet these are the elections most of us skip.

In recent Ottawa elections, well under half of eligible voters cast a ballot. In some wards, a councillor wins with the support of a small slice of the people they represent. That is not a mandate. It is a rounding error with a salary.

What Australia has done since 1924

Voting has been compulsory for Australian citizens over the age of 18 since 1924. Fail to vote without a valid reason and you face a fine of A$20 (about US$13). That is roughly the price of one pizza.

Today, while many countries are struggling to get people to the ballot box, Australia has one of the highest turnouts in the world. Ballots were counted from around 90% of eligible voters at its last federal election, in 2022, according to official statistics. For comparison, turnout in the 2024 UK general election was 60%, and in the 2024 US presidential election it was 64%.

Voter turnout, most recent national election

Australia (2022)

~90%

United States (2024)

64%

United Kingdom (2024)

60%

Ottawa municipal (2022)

~40%

The first three bars are national elections. The Ottawa bar is a municipal election, so it is not a like-for-like comparison, but it shows the gap at the level of government closest to your daily life. Ottawa figure approximate; confirm against Elections Ottawa before relying on it.

Nobody in Australia describes this as oppressive. It is closer to a civic habit, with a sausage sizzle outside the polling station to prove it.

A fine small enough to be fair, big enough to matter

I propose a modest penalty for eligible voters who don't vote and have no valid excuse: about the price of two pizzas, roughly $40. Australia's fine is closer to one pizza, and it still gets turnout near 90%. I would start higher for a reason: Ontario municipal elections begin from a much lower base, and a fine that is too easy to shrug off will not change the habit.

For perspective, an Ottawa ticket for parking past the posted time limit is $70 ($50 if you pay early), and a no-parking violation downtown is going up to $135. Most of us have paid one of those for a few minutes of convenience. A fine of about $40 for skipping the decision about who runs the city is, by comparison, modest.

This is not a punishment designed to hurt. It is a nudge that says voting is a civic duty, like jury service or filing taxes, and not a hobby for the already-engaged.

What it would fix

Representation. When nearly everyone votes, councillors must answer to the whole community and not just the loudest, best-organized or most motivated slice of it.

Accountability. Low turnout shields incumbents. Name recognition and a lawn sign go a long way when most people stay home. Higher turnout forces candidates to earn votes on record and results, not on familiarity.

Fairness. Those who skip local elections are disproportionately younger, renters, newer residents and lower-income. They are also the people most dependent on transit, housing policy and municipal services. Voluntary voting hands them the least say over the decisions that affect them most.

Campaign quality. When you can't win by mobilizing a small base, you have to speak to everyone. That rewards practical, broad-appeal platforms over narrow ones.

Safeguards built in

A fair system includes reasonable exemptions: illness, travel, emergencies and religious observance. It includes an easy "none of the above" option, because compulsory attendance is not compulsory endorsement. And it comes with easier voting: more advance polling, mail-in options and clear information about who is on the ballot and what they stand for.

The objections, answered fairly

"It infringes on freedom, including the freedom to abstain." The ballot stays secret and you can spoil it or choose "none of the above." What you give up is staying home, the same way jury duty asks you to show up.

"It will produce uninformed votes." Voluntary systems also produce uninformed votes; they just produce fewer votes. Compulsory turnout raises the stakes for candidates to inform everyone, not only their base.

"The real fix is making voting easier." Easier voting is part of the package and I support it. But Ottawa has had years of voluntary voting with low turnout, and convenience alone has not closed the gap.

"The city can't do this on its own." Correct. In Ontario, municipal elections are governed by provincial law, so this would require changes to the Municipal Elections Act. That is a reason to make the case publicly now, not a reason to stay quiet.

The bottom line

We ask people to show up for jury duty and to file their taxes. Asking them to spend twenty minutes choosing who runs their city is not a big leap. Two pizzas is a small price for a government that represents everyone, and a rounding error is not a mandate.

Sources and notes

• Australia: compulsory voting since 1924; A$20 fine; around 90% of eligible voters counted at the 2022 federal election, per official statistics (Australian Electoral Commission).
• UK 2024 general election turnout: 60%. US 2024 presidential election turnout: 64%.
• Ottawa municipal turnout: approximate; verify against Elections Ottawa results for 2022 and your ward before publishing.
• Ottawa parking fines: $70 for exceeding the posted time limit ($50 early payment); downtown no-parking fine rising from $90 to $135 ($105 early payment). Confirm current amounts on the City of Ottawa parking tickets page before publishing.
• Ontario municipal elections are governed by the Municipal Elections Act, 1996.

#562 Open Letter - to CBC's Crummey

 Open Letter to the CBC Ottawa Newsroom and Arthur White-Crummey

October 12, 2026

To the CBC Ottawa newsroom and Arthur White-Crummey,

I am Peter Karwacki, the challenger for Ottawa City Council in Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe). We spoke briefly at candidate registration on May 1. With the municipal election on October 26, I am writing to request fair attention to this two-candidate race.

Incumbent Councillor Rawlson King and I disagree on several issues that affect residents directly. Voters therefore have a genuine choice, not an automatic return of the status quo. Those differences are documented, with sources, on a single summary page at https://peterkarwacki.blogspot.com/p/peter-karwacki-for-rideau-rockcliffe.html (with further posts and primary documents linked from there).

Key areas of difference include:

• Infrastructure and transportation: Support for the Eastern Bridge (with specific conditions to protect local neighbourhoods, including truck routing, noise/air standards, grade-separated connections, and transit/active-transportation elements on opening day), versus the incumbent’s opposition; the long-delayed Hemlock Road connection at Wateridge Village; and traffic-calming measures such as a traffic circle or equivalent at St-Laurent/Hemlock (and related Beechwood corridor concerns).
• Parks and recreation: The planned loss of the Bathgate Park basketball court (and associated naturalization) relative to amenities elsewhere in the ward, such as Riverain Park; programming and access questions at Jetform Park; and the future of 815 St-Laurent for soccer and other community use.
• Governance and access: Reducing Ottawa City Council from 24 wards to 12 to improve decision-making and reduce costs, and expanding public Wi-Fi hotspots in parks and community spaces.

Each item is on the record with supporting material. The Eastern Bridge in particular is a defining file for the ward and the region; the candidates’ approaches to leverage, conditions, and engagement differ sharply.

I am asking for three practical things so that coverage can inform voters rather than simply note that an incumbent faces a challenger: (1) reporting on where the Ward 13 candidates differ on the issues above; (2) an invitation to any candidate Q&A, debate segment, or voter-guide process CBC is running; and (3) a named contact to whom I can send documents or answers on short notice. I am available at any time to answer questions.

A two-person race with documented policy differences is the minimum condition for residents to exercise a real choice. I hope CBC Ottawa will help provide that information in the remaining days before October 26.

Sincerely,

Peter Karwacki
Candidate, Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe)
peterkarwacki.overbrook@gmail.com
613-304-5844
https://peterkarwacki.blogspot.com

#561 On the doorsteps

"most greet me with a tentative bark. Then, somehow, they seem to decide I'm okay."

On Every Doorstep

Hundreds of doors in, door-to-door campaigning has taken me to every kind of doorstep imaginable.

Some days it's the stairs. Wateridge has a lot of them, and after hundreds of doors my legs know every flight. Many times, nobody is home. I leave a card with my blog address instead of a flyer: less paper, less waste, and it sends people to where the details actually live. Then I note the address and move on to the next flight.

When someone is home, there's often a dog first. About half the homes have one, and most greet me with a tentative bark. Then, somehow, they seem to decide I'm okay. I'll take that endorsement. Too bad the dogs don't vote. Only about 40% of eligible voters in Ottawa do, so a few more ballots from the humans behind those doors would go a long way.

The doorsteps themselves tell you something before anyone answers. Some are welcoming, with swept steps, a wreath, a light left on. Others are littered with garbage and cigarette butts, the corners thick with spider webs. And some have wheelchair ramps, a quiet reminder that a sidewalk, a curb cut, or a snowplow schedule can decide whether someone gets out of the house at all. None of it shows up in a council report, but you see it from the top step.

The people behind the doors are just as varied. One woman ruefully said "you politicians are all the same! I wondered, how did she reach that conclusion?

One door was occupied by a neo-Nazi. At another, I met a candidate for another federal party. Very different people, with very different politics, and I won't pretend otherwise. But both believed they were going to make a difference.

That stayed with me. Everyone on these streets is trying to shape the community, for better or worse, and the real question is what kind of difference we're making and who we're making it for. Each has their own pet issue.

That's why I keep climbing the stairs. Hundreds of doors in, I've heard things no poll or committee report would have told me. A candidate who only shows up for the photo op never hears what people say on the step. I want to know what Rideau-Rockcliffe is dealing with, including from the people who weren't home when I knocked.

With two weeks to go, I'll be at more doors. If I missed you, the card on your door has my blog address. Everything I stand for, and every piece I've written on how City Hall spends your money, is there.

#560 Hemlock Wateridge...where's the connection?

Hemlock Road: Wateridge was promised a connection. Where is it?

By Peter Karwacki, October 2026

Disclosure: I am a candidate for Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe) in the October 2026 municipal election. The facts below come from public documents, linked at the end.

Wateridge Village residents have been asking the same question for years: why is there still no road link from Hemlock to the rest of the neighbourhood?

This was never a surprise feature. City transportation work for the Rockcliffe lands said a future Hemlock Road connection, north of the Aviation and Montreal intersection, would provide an additional road access to the community. People bought homes on that understanding. A resident petition says as much: many bought having been told that this road would eventually be re-opened.

What the record shows

• The road is tied to a stormwater pond. The Wateridge Village Community Association reported in its 2024 newsletter that the reconnection is coupled with stormwater work for the western sector, including a new pond beside the future connection.
• Digging the pond raised well-water concerns. The work means excavating rock, and extra engineering was needed to protect drinking-water wells used by neighbours in Fairhaven.
• The timeline has already slipped. In 2024, Canada Lands Company hoped, pending approvals, to start construction in 2025 and open the road around 2026. It is now October 2026 and I can find no confirmed opening date.
• The file bounced between CLC and the City. By 2025, CLC described a lot of back and forth with the City over the pond's configuration and exact location.
• The landowner has changed. Canada Lands Company has been integrated into Build Canada Homes, which says it will carry forward the remaining phases of Wateridge.

The questions that matter

Residents do not need another explanation that the road is "coming." They need dates and names. I am asking:

• When were the pond and road applications submitted, and what did the City's comments say at each round?
• Which approvals are still outstanding, and who is responsible for each?
• What is the committed construction start and opening date now that Build Canada Homes holds the file?
• What did the ward councillor's office do, and when, to push this file forward?

Years of "pending approvals" is not a plan. Residents gave this project their time and their trust, and they are owed a date.

What I would do

I would put the Hemlock timeline on the public record, with milestones, owners and dates, and report progress to residents regularly instead of waiting to be asked. If the City is the bottleneck, residents should hear that plainly. If the delay sits with the developer, the City should use every lever it has.

I have not found evidence in the public record that assigns the delay to one party, and I will not claim otherwise. The point is that a connection planned for years is still not open, and the public has not been given a clear explanation or a firm date. That is a failure of accountability whoever is ultimately responsible. but consider this! The incumbent King has attended many a buffet during the last seven years of his incumbency....still no link.

I'd make it a priority!

Sources

• Wateridge Village Community Association, Winter 2024 Newsletter
• Wateridge Village Community Association, Winter 2025 Newsletter
• Change.org, Residents for opening Hemlock Rd
• City of Ottawa, Wateridge Phase 1B Transportation Impact Assessment (2019)
• Wateridge Village, Build Canada Homes integration notice

What's missing:
a documented duty, plus a refusal or silence you can point to. These five steps follow from that.
1. **Get the documents that could create a duty.** Request the Wateridge subdivision agreement, the draft-plan conditions, the servicing agreement, and any Community Design Plan policy on Hemlock. The City request would go through MFIPPA. CLC is a federal Crown corporation, so its request goes through the Access to Information Act. You're looking for any signed condition or milestone that actually requires the western reconnection. Without one, you have a delay case rather than an injunction case.
2. **Put your questions to the City and CLC in writing, with a response date.** Use the questions from items 1 to 5: when the package was deemed a complete engineering submission, how many comment letters exist, whether an ECA has been filed, and whether anyone requested a scoped early-servicing package. Address CLC's current director (your post notes Taylor Marquis is now listed) as well as Jarvis. Mandamus needs a demand and a refusal, so a dated letter creates the record either way: an answer, a refusal, or silence.
3. **Get the engineering memo on which Hemlock stations are independent of the pond.** Your items 1 and 5 both depend on it. If the carriageway, sidewalks, and dry utilities don't change with pond geometry, the early-servicing argument holds. If they do, it fails. Ask the City and CLC for that determination, or find an engineer willing to assess it from the public drawings.
4. **Build the winter incident log.** Ask OC Transpo for delayed, short-turned, or cancelled Route 17 and 25 trips on the Wateridge approaches in winter 2024-25 and 2025-26. Ask Ottawa Fire and Paramedic Service what the second apparatus access is if the south grade is impassable. A court will want dates and incident numbers. This also covers the harm side, since a judge will ask why a political timetable isn't enough.
5. **Take the winnable ask to council and the City.** Seek a motion or direction for a fixed decision date with written reasons. It should also require City and MECP review to run concurrently and require the independent Hemlock works to be separated from the pond. Ask for the Fairhaven well baseline survey and the monitoring and remedy conditions at the same time, so the well issue is addressed rather than ignored. As your post says, this is the realistic route: a court is more likely to order a decision on a timetable than to order construction.
Steps 1 and 2 come first because their results decide whether you go to court or keep up the administrative pressure.

#559 One more time...Cycling In Ottawa

Where They Meet

I ride. The danger isn't the lane. It's the seam where cars, bikes and people on foot have to share the same few metres.

I've owned four bikes since 2012, and I organized a Critical Mass ride down St-Laurent Boulevard. Anyone who rides regularly knows that a stretch of protected lane feels calm until the next intersection, and then every sense you have switches on. That moment is the design problem.

Ottawa has plenty of road where cars, bikes and pedestrians each have their own space, and those stretches are mostly fine. People get hurt where the three meet: a driver turning across a bike lane, a bus passenger stepping off into a rider's path, a pathway hitting a parkway with only paint to protect you. Those seams are where the City needs to be most aggressive, and where it is usually least.

A typical arterial intersection. The lane is separated for the whole block, then the separation ends exactly where the conflicts begin.

The seams, and what fixes them

Seam	What goes wrong	What fixes it
Right turns	Fast, wide corners let drivers turn without slowing or looking beside them	Tight corner radii, raised crossings, bike and pedestrian signal head start
Driveways	Every driveway is a crossing of the lane	Consolidate driveways, continuous sidewalk and lane surface across them
Bus stops	Passengers step off straight into the bike lane	Boarding island with a marked crossing
Parked cars	Opening doors reach into the lane	Buffer strip, or move the parking
Path-to-road crossings	Pathways meet fast arterials with only paint	Signals or beacons, and one agency accountable for the crossing
Where it ends	The lane stops and the rider is dropped into traffic	A designed transition, or don't build the fragment

A protected lane is only as safe as its worst intersection.

What "aggressive" should mean

1. Inventory the seams. Map every conflict point on the arterial network, rank them using crash and near-miss data, and publish the list.
2. Fix the worst ones fast. Concrete curbs, bollards and planters can go in within weeks. Waiting for the next full reconstruction leaves the hazard in place for a decade.
3. Slow the turn. Tighter corners and signal phasing do more than any sign.
4. Give each crossing one owner. Many of the worst crossings sit between the City, the NCC and the province. When three agencies each control part of one corner, the hazard becomes nobody's job. Council should assign a single accountable owner and a decision deadline.
5. Use 311 as safety infrastructure. Let residents flag a near miss or a blocked lane where it happened, and publish the map.

Judge it by outcomes

"Kilometres of bike lane added" is an output, and it can include paint on the edge of a curb lane. What residents need is an outcome: how many of the 25 most hazardous interfaces are fixed by the end of the term, how many crashes occurred at them before and after, and how many people now use those routes. Report it every year, good or bad.

Ward 13

I've proposed a protected path on the St-Laurent median, designed like the old Brooklyn parkway paths rather than a narrow centre lane squeezed against turning traffic. A lane like that only works if the seams are solved: how a rider crosses Hemlock, how someone on foot reaches the LRT station, and who is accountable for the Aviation Parkway crossings. That is a council decision, not a design-manual problem.

It also has to work for the rider who isn't a confident commuter: a senior on an e-bike, a parent with a cargo bike, a teenager heading to school. If the seams aren't safe for them, the lane isn't finished.

Ask your candidate:

Which dangerous interface in the ward will you fix first, by what date, and who will you hold responsible if it isn't done?

#558 Its a matter of priorities

It's a Matter of Priorities: Two Files, One Councillor

Disclosure: I'm a candidate in Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe), challenging Councillor Rawlson King. Every fact below comes from published news coverage, linked at the end. Where I give my own reading, I say so.

A councillor has limited time, limited political capital and one vote among twenty-five. What he chooses to fight for says more about him than any slogan. Two files from this term show where Rawlson King put his effort.

Two files, side by side

	Lansdowne 2.0	Manor Park sidewalks
Where	A citywide project in another ward	His own ward
The money	$419M plan approved by council	$180,000 inside a $13.9M road, water and sewer project
What the coverage shows him doing	Voting No, both times	Delaying for about ten months, then moving motions at committee and at council
Outcome	Lost 17–7 and 16–9	Lost 7–5 at committee and 16–7 at council

Lansdowne: a No vote, twice

King opposed Lansdowne 2.0 when it came to council. In the previous term, council voted 17 to 7 to proceed with the $332 million plan, and King was among the seven. In November 2023, council approved the $419 million plan 16 to 9, and he was again among those opposed.

That is a legitimate position, and many residents shared his worries about the debt. He deserves credit for voting it consistently. But a vote is one act. In the coverage I reviewed, his Lansdowne record is a pair of votes. I found no reporting of motions he moved or amendments he led. If he has a record of that kind, I'd like to see it and I'll add it here.

Manor Park: a campaign

On sidewalks, the coverage shows a sustained effort over many months.

1. June 2025Staff bring forward a plan for sidewalks on four quiet streets, which needed the area councillor's consent to proceed without a council vote. King gets it deferred until September.
2. September 2025King announces in a newsletter that sidewalks will be deferred for further study. Three residents' lawyer calls the deferral unlawful, arguing a councillor can't direct staff to defer on his own.
3. Winter 2026The decision is pushed back again, to February 2026. King and staff disagree about how long a deferral should run, so the issue goes to committee.
4. End of March 2026At the public works committee, his motion to defer loses 7 to 5.
5. April 8, 2026At council, he moves to remove sidewalks from sections of Arundel and Kilbarry, and it loses 16 to 7. Mayor Sutcliffe supported his motion.

King's stated reason is about order of work. He told council the question had always been “sequencing and prioritization,” and that traffic needs hadn't been studied enough. Some residents made a similar case: the streets are quiet, and sidewalks are needed more near the school and on busier roads. That deserves a fair hearing.

But the money tells the other side. Staff said doing the work with the road project cost $180,000, against more than $500,000 as a stand-alone job. Councillor Leiper warned that the chance to add sidewalks during a street rebuild comes around perhaps once in 70 to 90 years. Each deferral risked losing the cheap window. And the families who wanted safe walking routes to Manor Park Public School, the park and the community centre were the ones waiting.

My read. The pattern looks like priorities, and I think it also looks like protecting support in Manor Park. I can't show his motive and I won't claim to. What the record does show is a councillor who used every tool he had, for about ten months, to slow a $180,000 item in his own ward, and who left a nine-figure commitment to a vote.

What I'm not claiming

I'm not saying he was silent on Lansdowne. I'm saying the news record shows votes there and a sustained effort on sidewalks, and I'd like him to explain the difference. I'm also not saying his Manor Park position was without merit although I disagree with it. I'm saying that when council, and the mayor on his final motion, had the same information, he lost by a wide margin, and the cost of the delay fell on residents who asked for the sidewalks.

The questions for voters

• Where should a councillor spend his effort: on a $180,000 line item in his ward, or on a decision that commits the city to hundreds of millions?
• When residents in his ward are divided, whose view does he carry to council, and how does he explain the choice to the others?
• When he loses a vote by a wide margin, does he adapt the plan or keep delaying it?

Ottawa votes on October 26. The votes are on the public record. The priorities are for you to judge.

Sources

• CTV News Ottawa, Here's how city councillors voted on Lansdowne 2.0 (17–7 vote).
• CTV News Ottawa, Council approves $419 million Lansdowne 2.0 plan (16–9 vote).
• CTV News Ottawa, Sidewalks to be built on some residential streets in Ottawa's Manor Park (committee vote, project budget).
• CBC News, Manor Park braces for next round in sidewalk fight (deferral history, cost comparison).
• CBC News, Manor Park sidewalks to go ahead after council vote (April 8, 2026 council vote).
• Manor Park Chronicle, Sidewalks decision pushed back.
• Ottawa Citizen via Yahoo News Canada, Three Manor Park residents demand the city build sidewalks in lawyer letter.

#557 Free Wifi in Rideau Rockcliffe?

Connecting Ward 13: Why Free Public Wi-Fi is No Longer a Luxury, It’s a Basic Utility

For too long, Canada has been home to some of the highest cellular data and internet prices in the world. In 2026, internet access is no longer a luxury item or an optional perk—it is an absolute necessity.

Whether you are a student trying to complete your homework, an entrepreneur running a small business from a local café, a senior keeping in touch with family, or a resident simply trying to check transit schedules on your commute, you need to be connected.

That is why I am announcing my policy to roll out a Free Public Wi-Fi Network across Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe). It is time we stop treating internet access as a private commodity and start treating it for what it truly is: a vital civic utility, just like clean water and well-maintained roads.

The Problem: The Digital Divide in Our Community

Right now, our neighborhood relies on a fragmented, frustrating patchwork of internet access. If you aren't paying for an expensive mobile data plan, your connectivity drops the moment you step off an O-Train platform or walk out the door of a corporate coffee chain.

This creates a hidden tax on our most vulnerable residents. Low-income families, newcomers, and seniors are routinely priced out of the digital economy. If you cannot afford a premium data package, you are effectively locked out of modern civic life. I believe our municipal government can—and must—do better.

The Solution: A Smart, Scalable Wireless Grid for Rideau-Rockcliffe

We don’t need to dig up every sidewalk or spend millions of taxpayer dollars trying to build a massive legacy network from scratch. Instead, my policy focuses on a smart, modern, and financially responsible rollout built on three core pillars:

• Anchor Institution Hubs: We will leverage the high-speed fiber lines already running into our ward's public buildings. By installing high-powered, outdoor routers on properties like the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre (RRCRC), local community halls, and Ottawa Community Housing complexes, we can instantly radiate free, high-speed Wi-Fi into the surrounding parks, public squares, and residential blocks.
• Public-Private Main Street Partnerships: Taking inspiration from successful global models, we will look to establish zero-cost corporate partnerships to revitalize our commercial corridors. By deploying smart, ad-supported or sponsored digital kiosks along major thoroughfares like Beechwood Avenue, St. Laurent Boulevard, and Donald Street, we can provide seamless outdoor Wi-Fi to shoppers and pedestrians at absolutely no cost to local taxpayers.
• Targeted Density Subsidies: For pockets of our ward that suffer from poor traditional infrastructure or high architectural barriers—whether in Overbrook, Manor Park, or Rockcliffe Park—we will look to integrate cutting-edge local mesh network solutions to bridge the gap. No corner of our community should be left in a digital dead zone.

Improving Affordability and Boosting Local Business

This policy is about more than just convenience; it is an economic driver.

By providing free public Wi-Fi on our main streets, we encourage foot traffic, support local businesses, and give residents a reason to linger, shop, and gather in our community spaces. More importantly, it directly improves affordability for residents. It means a student can study in Lawson Park, a remote worker can take a meeting outside, and families can shave gigabytes off their monthly cell phone bills.

As I argued in my recent post on whether basic services are a need or a right, the City of Ottawa needs to start evaluating essential services based on what vulnerable and low-income households can actually afford before setting arbitrary rates and tax targets. We cannot continue to ignore how cumulative infrastructure choices impact daily cost-of-living pressures, a theme that also cuts right through the current mayoral budget and property tax debates.

Let’s Build a Connected Ward

A progressive, liveable city is one that breaks down barriers to accessibility and ensures every single resident has the tools they need to thrive. Digital equity is social equity.

I want to hear from you. Where in Ward 13 do you experience the worst connectivity? Which parks or public spaces would benefit the most from free public Wi-Fi?

Leave a comment below, share your thoughts, and let’s work together to build a more connected, affordable, and accessible community for everyone.

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Disclaimer: AI tools are used for drafting, research assistance, charts, references, and music; facts and positions are mine.

#556 Career College Grant Fiasco

Fix the Bad Actors, Not the Students: Better Options Than Cutting Off Career Colleges

Queen's Park had a real problem to solve. The way it has chosen to solve it risks punishing the students who did nothing wrong.

What the province did

In February, Ontario announced it would flip OSAP from mostly grants to mostly loans: starting this fall, grants can be at most 25% of a student's aid, down from up to 85%. Students at private career colleges lose grants altogether and can only borrow. In July, the ministry went further and cut off OSAP loans entirely for students at five career college locations: four Academy of Learning franchises and Citi College of Canadian Careers.

The government's stated reason was that OSAP had become unsustainable. The data shows where the growth actually was.

7 career colleges$385M

All public colleges$385M

3 Academy of Learning sites$219M

Provincial OSAP grants, 2024-25, from freedom-of-information data reported by The Canadian Press. The three Academy of Learning sites are part of the seven.

Seven career colleges received as much in grants as every publicly funded college in Ontario combined. Nearly all the recent growth in OSAP grants was at career colleges. Career Colleges Ontario, the sector's own association, flagged ten locations to the ministry in January 2025 because their OSAP applications had jumped 500 to 600 per cent in two years while the rest of the sector was flat. The ministry told five schools on May 1, 2026 they were out. That is roughly 16 months after the warning.

Allegations, not findings. Inspection reports filed in court say third parties completed coursework, sometimes entire courses in a day, at three Academy of Learning locations (Toronto, Brampton and a North York branch). The schools deny most of the allegations and are challenging the decision in court. None of it has been proven.

Is anyone in Rideau-Rockcliffe affected?

Not directly by the five cutoffs, as far as I can tell. The three locations named in court records are in Toronto, Brampton and North York, and I could not find any of the five identified as being in Ottawa. I could not confirm locations for the other two, so a student who enrolled at one of them from here would be affected through online programs.

The wider changes reach Ward 13 much more broadly:

• Public college students. Algonquin and La Cité students, including those at La Cité's Aviation Parkway campus, face the 25% grant cap this fall. Students pay for food, rent and transit out of those grants.
• University students. The same cap applies to Carleton and uOttawa students who live here, and the uOttawa student union has called it devastating for students who depend on grants.
• Anyone at a career college. Any Ottawa resident in a private career college program is now loan-only, whether or not their school is one of the five.

A councillor does not set OSAP policy. That belongs to Queen's Park. But the debt, the housing pressure and the dropouts all land in our neighbourhoods, and a ward representative can at least ask the right questions and push the province to answer them.

The problem with the blunt tool

Cutting grants for every career college student treats a small cluster of suspect schools as if they were the whole sector. Cutting an institution off mid-year leaves enrolled students with a program they cannot pay for and a school that may close. The students in the middle did what they were told: they enrolled in a registered program and applied for the aid the province offered.

There is also an oversight question. A warning arrived in January 2025 and the response came well over a year later, after hundreds of millions of dollars had gone out. A ban that arrives late and lands on everyone is not a substitute for monitoring that works.

Better options

Approach	What it does	Who it protects
Outcome-based eligibility	Tie OSAP access to published graduation, default and employment results, and to tuition compared with the public-college equivalent.	Students at good schools; taxpayers
Early-warning triggers	Flag any school whose OSAP volume jumps sharply and audit it automatically, including its recruiting agents and attendance records.	Everyone, before the money goes out
Participation verification	Require proof of active participation in asynchronous programs before disbursement, which is the exact gap the inspectors describe.	Honest online students and the system
Teach-out and student protection	If a school loses eligibility, guarantee credit transfer to a public college and relief or refunds for students who cannot finish.	Enrolled students
Tuition ceiling on OSAP	Cap eligible tuition at the public-college equivalent for the same credential.	Taxpayers and borrowers
Targeted support in shortage fields	Keep grants for vetted programs in areas like personal support work, paramedic training, trades and IT, with a sunset as public seats expand.	Students and local employers
Grandfathering and notice	Let current students keep their aid terms to completion and give a year of notice before rules change.	Students who planned around the old rules

The province has already promised 70,000 more seats in in-demand public programs. These options could run alongside that expansion, so students would have somewhere to go.

What I would measure

The province tells us how many dollars went out. It should also tell us who finished, who defaulted, who found work, and which schools produced which results. That is the same test I apply everywhere else at City Hall: outputs are not outcomes. A cheque issued is an output. A graduate with a job is an outcome.

The aim should be to remove the schools gaming the system and keep the ones doing honest work for newcomers and career-changers. Cutting everyone's grants and a few schools' loans does the first only crudely and the second not at all.

Ottawa career colleges: which of the province's registered career colleges operate in the city, and what share of their enrolment is OSAP-funded? The province's public registry is the place to start.

Our MPPs: have they raised the grant cut, the late response to the 2025 warning, or the treatment of enrolled students with the minister? A written question gets an on-record answer, or an on-record silence.

Sources

Ontario announcement of OSAP changes and funding: CTV/Canadian Press, Feb. 12, 2026.
Five schools cut off from loans: CBC News and CP24.
$385M grants to seven career colleges: CTV/Canadian Press, Aug. 2026.
Inspection reports, court challenge and the January 2025 warning: CBC News, Oct. 2026; TorontoToday.
Student reaction: CTV/Canadian Press, Feb. 16, 2026.

#555 Lead Free Water? A need or a right

Mayoral Candidates who can answer those four questions have a plan. Candidates who can only name a number have a slogan, whatever the number is.

Water Was Called a Need, Not a Right. Ottawa Still Votes on the Rate Increase Before the List of Needs.

The next council has to debate what Ottawa must do, what it can defer, and what it can afford, before it picks a tax number.

In March 2000, ministers met in The Hague for the Second World Water Forum. Their declaration described access to safe water and sanitation as "basic human needs." It did not call them rights. That was a deliberate choice, and it still shapes how cities talk about water today.

If water is a need

It can be priced, metered and rationed. The question becomes who can pay. A household that can't is a customer problem.

If water is a right

Government carries a duty to ensure access. Affordability, shut-offs and minimum service become obligations someone has to answer for.

How the question was settled, and not settled

• 2000, The Hague. The ministerial declaration frames water and sanitation as basic human needs.
• 2009, Istanbul. A group of countries formally challenged that framing at the next forum. Canada was reported among the governments backing "need" over "right."
• July 28, 2010, United Nations. The General Assembly recognized access to clean water and sanitation as a human right, 122 to 0. About 41 countries abstained, Canada among them. Canada's representative said the move was premature and left the scope of the right undefined.
• 2012. Canada reversed course and declared support for the right.

So Canada has moved, in about a decade, from resisting the language to accepting it. The harder question is whether the budgets that fund water have moved with it.

Ottawa prices water as a utility

The City of Ottawa states that water, wastewater and stormwater services are fully funded through charges on the water bill. That is the model: user rates, set by council, covering the full cost. Council approved a 4.3 per cent overall increase in 2024. In the 2026 budget, water rates rise by an average of $47.30 per household.

Behind those rates is a long-term plan. Council approved a strategy to maintain aging water infrastructure through new debt and higher water rates. Staff called it prudent. Some councillors and advocates called it short-sighted. That plan covers water only. The matching plan for infrastructure paid through property taxes, such as roads, facilities and parks, came later, and neither plan had been updated since 2017.

The bigger bill sitting behind the water bill

Ottawa's 2025 asset management plans identified a $10.8 billion funding gap over ten years, across a roughly $90 billion portfolio of assets. The long-range financial plan projects a $169 million funding gap through 2035, which would add $1.7 billion in new debt on top of an existing base of $3 billion.

Ottawa property tax increases, by budget year

2023

2.5%

2024

2.5%

2025

3.9%

2026

3.75%

The 2026 increase adds $166 to the average property tax bill.

Now compare that with the campaign. The mayoral candidates are pledging tax increases from zero to roughly two and a half per cent, and several also promise to deal with the infrastructure gap. Those promises can only both hold if something else gives: more debt, more deferral, higher user fees, or fewer services. Water shows what "user fees" means in practice: the households with the least room carry the same rate increase as everyone else.

What a council should have to answer

Treating water as a right, not just a need, gives council a test it can actually run. Before the next water rate is set, members should be able to answer in public:

1. What does the water and sewer bill cost a low-income household as a share of its income, and how has that share changed?
2. What affordability support exists, how many households use it, and who is not reaching it?
3. What is the shut-off policy, and what does each shut-off and turn-on cost the household?
4. What does deferring the work cost later, in dollars and in failures?
5. Who decided, and where is that decision recorded?

A council that only votes on the rate is choosing the answer before asking the question.

Necessary versus affordable

Water is the cleanest example, but the same logic applies to the whole budget. Some things are necessary and non-negotiable. Some are necessary but get more expensive each year they are deferred. Some are choices. Today's budget process blends all three into one number and then asks whether residents can afford it.

The next council should reverse the order. Sort the list first: what must be done, what must be maintained, what is a choice. Attach a real cost and a named decision-maker to each item. Then set the rate. "Affordable" is not a fact that arrives from outside. It is the result of choices council makes, and residents are entitled to see them being made.

Sources

• World Water Council, The Hague 2000 forum summary: ministers recognized water and sanitation as basic human needs.
• Environment News Service report via Environment Information Center, "Access to Water: A Human Right or a Human Need?": counter-declaration and the governments supporting "need." Verify which forum and the number of countries before quoting; accounts differ (about 20 to 24).
• Canadian Consulting Engineer, UN votes on access to water and sanitation as human right, Aug. 16, 2010: 122 in favour, none against, 41 abstentions including Canada; Canada's statement that the resolution was premature. Other sources count 42 abstentions.
• Water Canada, Exercising the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (drawing on Karen Busby, Canadian Journal of Human Rights, 2016): Canada changed position in 2012.
• City of Ottawa, Water utility rates and fees: fully funded through water bill charges; 4.3 per cent increase in 2024. Check the current fee schedule before citing shut-off and turn-on charges.
• CTV News Ottawa, 11 things that will cost more in the 2026 draft budget: 3.75 per cent tax increase, $166 on the average bill, water rates up an average of $47.30.
• CTV News Ottawa, Lawson promises 0% tax hike in 2027: tax increases by year (2.5, 2.5, 3.9, 3.75) and the mayoral candidates' tax pledges.
• CBC News, City plans to take on debt to cover billions in infrastructure repairs, June 4, 2025: $10.8 billion gap; water plan funded by debt and rate increases; plans not updated since 2017.
• Capital Current, City begins grappling with projected $10.8-billion infrastructure gap: $90 billion portfolio, $169 million funding gap, $1.7 billion in new debt on a $3 billion base.

Set the Tax Number After the Spending Review, Not Before

By Peter Karwacki, candidate for Ward 13 (Rideau-Rockcliffe). Posted October 10, 2026.

Ottawa’s mayoral candidates are now trading property tax numbers. One promises a freeze, one promises a cap, one promises a new levy, and one declines to name a figure at all. Before treating any of those numbers as a plan, it is worth asking what a number set in advance actually tells a voter.

What the last pledge delivered

In 2022, Mark Sutcliffe pledged to hold property tax increases to between 2 and 2.5 per cent in the first two years of the term.^[5] Council capped increases at 2.5 per cent in 2023 and 2024, then raised them 3.9 per cent in 2025 and 3.75 per cent in 2026.^[2] The 2026 increase added $166 to the average property tax bill, alongside higher OC Transpo fares, water and wastewater rates and recreation fees.^[1]

Figure 1. Ottawa property tax increases by budget year

Sources: CTV News Ottawa [2][5]. The 2022 pledge covered the first two years of the term only, so 2025 and 2026 sit outside its stated scope.

To be fair to the incumbent, the pledge held for the years it covered. The point is that a two-year number says little about years three and four. Compounded, the four budgets add up to roughly 13.3 per cent (my arithmetic: 1.025 × 1.025 × 1.039 × 1.0375).

What is on offer this time

Candidate	Property tax position	What the coverage does not say
Mark Sutcliffe	Cap increases at 2–2.5% in the first two years, find another $250 million in savings, and add a one-year deferral for residents hit by a major disruption.[2]	Years three and four of the term.
Alex Lawson	0% in 2027, 1% in 2028, then at or below 2% in each of the next two years. His campaign says this saves the average homeowner $759 over the term compared with Sutcliffe’s promise.[1]	The specific spending changes that pay for it. The $759 figure is a campaign claim.
Jeff Leiper	A one per cent infrastructure levy on tax bills, with increases to be “affordable, reasonable and predictable,” but no base target.[3]	The base increase the levy would sit on top of.
Neil Saravanamuttoo	No target. A comprehensive spending review first, ending programs that no longer serve residents.[4]	When the review would report, and who would run it.

Figure 2. Stated increases for the first two budgets of the next term

Sources: CTV News Ottawa [1][2]. Leiper (one per cent levy, no base target) and Saravanamuttoo (no target) are not charted because neither has stated a base increase. Sutcliffe’s cap covers only the first two years.

Over four years, Lawson’s stated path (0, 1, then at or below 2 and 2), would compound to no more than about 5.1 per cent (my arithmetic). That is a very large difference from the last term. It is also the number with the least public explanation of how it is reached.

Why the order matters

A number set without the books is a guess. Saravanamuttoo’s stated reason for declining to name a figure is that there is not enough information today to say what it should be.^[4] That is a defensible position, and it is the one that starts in the right place. A freeze or a cap is a promise about the outcome, made before anyone has shown what has to move to deliver it.

The easy savings may already be spent. The city manager told council during the 2026 budget debate that efficiency measures had realized more than $252 million in savings this term.^[4] Sutcliffe’s campaign now promises another $250 million.^[2] Any review worth the name has to say what is left to find, and where.

Holding the rate moves the cost somewhere else. The 2026 budget raised property taxes together with transit fares, water and wastewater rates and recreation fees.^[1] A lower property tax number can coexist with a higher total bill, or with deferred maintenance. Leiper’s infrastructure levy makes the opposite argument, that catching up on repairs costs less than replacing later.^[3] A voter comparing candidates should see the base increase and the levy added together as one figure.

The real question is necessary versus affordable. Which services is the city obliged to provide, what can residents afford to pay for them, and who gets to decide? Water is the clearest example: it is not optional, so the debate is about how it is paid for, not whether. A tax rate is the answer to that debate. It should not be the opening bid.

What I would ask every mayoral candidate to commit to

• Name who runs the review. It should be someone outside the departments being reviewed, with access to the real numbers.
• Set a scope and a deadline. The results should be public before the first budget of the term is tabled, not after it is passed.
• Show the trade-off for any target. For every property tax figure, list the consequences for services, user fees and capital spending, including liabilities that sit outside the headline operating budget.
• Report against the promise every year. One page: what was promised, what council passed, and what fees moved alongside the property tax rate.

Candidates who can answer those four questions have a plan. Candidates who can only name a number have a slogan, whatever the number is.

Notes on the numbers.

Pledge details are as reported by CTV News Ottawa and the Sutcliffe campaign as of October 10, 2026. Campaign savings figures, including the $759 and the $250 million, are the campaigns’ own claims and have not been independently verified. The compounded totals of 13.3 per cent and 5.1 per cent are my own arithmetic from the annual percentages. The 5.1 per cent figure treats Lawson’s “at or below two per cent” years as exactly two per cent, so it is an upper bound.

References

1. CTV News Ottawa. “Lawson promises 0% tax hike in 2027 if elected Ottawa mayor.” ctvnews.ca
2. CTV News Ottawa. “Sutcliffe pledges to cap tax increases at 2–2.5% if re-elected Ottawa mayor.” ctvnews.ca
3. CTV News Ottawa. “Leiper pledges to add 1% infrastructure levy to property tax increases if elected Ottawa mayor.” ctvnews.ca
4. CTV News Ottawa. “Saravanamuttoo promises spending review at Ottawa City Hall if elected mayor.” ctvnews.ca
5. CTV News Ottawa. “Sutcliffe pledging to keep to a 2 to 2.5 per cent property tax cap if elected mayor of Ottawa” (2022 campaign). ottawa.ctvnews.ca

Disclosure: I am a candidate for councillor in Ward 13 and I endorse Neil Saravanamuttoo for mayor.

#554 Unsolicited Feedback from A voter

 

Mr. Karwacki,

I appreciate your quick reply, of course this is campaign time but I hope that your attention and dedication to your constituents continues if you were to be elected to city council. Your passion for the issues at hand is refreshing and I could see you being a force of change at City Hall. 

I agree with you on the use of AI drafting tools to make more efficient use of your time. I myself use AI tools in my own line of professional work and, like yourself, have found them to be extremely helpful. I also agree with you that one should not blindly use them without having an understanding of the material that the AI is being used for so that any of the hallucinations, mistakes, and confident oversights can be remedied or corrected. This is especially so when the public is impacted by decisions that are made with the use of these tools. 

As you say, city councillors have a very busy schedule and the efficient use of their time along with the taxpayer dollars that pay for it can only be a positive. I also very much appreciate your admission to the use of AI in your blog and respect your commitment to transparency by adding a disclaimer to your blog page. I look forward to seeing the website updated. 

I can tell that you put your own thoughts into the tools used to craft this response. It was obvious during your debate that you know your issues and have thought a great deal about how best to help Rideau-Rockcliffe ward and the city St large. The human touch can be so lacking in digital communications and I think that in this rapidly changing world, a little more humanity goes a long way. Quite honestly I had not been engaged in this election much at all before you stopped by our door. 

Best of luck in the upcoming election, I believe you can count on at least two votes your way. 

Sincerely,