It has been 27 years since I landed in Ottawa, a city I have always liked and wanted to live in since my first visit.
This article is about the future not the past, only to say that knowledge of past mistakes guarantees that you will try to avoid making them in future. The opposite is also true.
Go ahead, do the same thing, you will get what you always got.
Now the council decision of Larry O'Brian was 12 votes for -11 votes against cancelling Chirarelli's LRT plan for street level tracks. It led to higher costs and a 20 year delay.
These were the smartest guys in the room.
Shouldn't we have the smartest guys in the room making decisions for us?
That only works if they know what is good for us and are acting in our best interests.
How do we know if our trust in the wise guys is truly in our interests.
This trio below were labeled at inquiry as having committed "the most egregious betrayal of the public trust ever seen" said the justice overseeing the inquiry into the Ottawa Lightrail derailment/project.
What did city council recently do? They gave former mayor Watson and triumverate member a medal - The Order of Ottawa
I believe had Watson run in the 2022 election he would have been re elected as were all incumbents including the Chair of the transit committee from South Kanata, Hubley.
To say that Ottawa is invested in is past electoral decisions is an understatement.
Still, it is important to muster an option this year. I will run but the challenge in overcoming name recognition and inertia seems daunting.
Mayor Suttcliffe and his supporters should be ousted in my opinion but that simply will not happen because after 27 years I NOW know:
That is ... the Ottawa way.
And now what I would do:
1. Advocate for online open data tools
2. Advance use of stranded properties
3. Repair roads and sidewalks to a higher grade
4.Reduce city hall employment by 10%
5. Provide simpler sanitation access at Pickford
6. Install more traffic circles
7. Create more one way streets
8. Incinerate trash
9. Advocate for the Kettle Island bridge and necessary changes at montreal road and Olgivie
10. Convene quarterly ward conferences and reports.
11. Allocate ward funds to cleanup projects and trash control
12. Focus... a city of $5.5 billion in expenditures demands focus. Articulate the need to focus on the big important things.
Services and infrastructure are our business not ideals, quotas, diversity, equality, bilingualusm, charity or chastity. Services and infrastructure facilitate those things.
13 represent the ward and city considering their well-being and interests
14. develop and evaluate the policies and programs for the municipality;
15. determine which services the municipality provides, how, where and by what methods
16 maintain the financial integrity of the municipality; and
17 to carry out any assigned duties of council
18 ensure that required administrative practices and procedures are in effect
More to come
The Government of Canada's next phase of the Kettle Island Bridge project first phase public consultation will soon commence despite more than five decades of community opposition
ReplyDeleteThis is a fundamentally necessary infrastructure project which will serve Ottawa's best interests.
Once truck traffic is diverted from the Interprovincial bridge leading to King Edward this bridge would divert 100 per cent of truck traffic from King Edward Avenue.
This means heavy trucks would no longer rumble through the downtown core, a severe problem solved!
Ironic resistance from federal representatives, Ottawa-Vanier-Gloucester MP Mona Fortier is misguided.
The proposed corridor "WILL meet Ottawa's needs" and WILL guarantee the removal of heavy trucks from the King Edward corridor.
THE estimated cost between $3 to $4 billion, a major investment, offers many other benefits so this project is a priority. However, we must start working now to resolve potential traffic problems in east-end neighbourhoods, potentially resolving existing ones at the same time.
New controls need to be installed to reduce noise, pollution, and improve safety.
The new road capacity will alleviate downtown traffic and congestion.
Construction could provide access to scenic ecosystems along the Ottawa River's natural spaces, a welcome step foreward.
This is the kind of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project that Ottawa, Ontario and Canada needs by improving local transit, providing new jobs, aiding businesses and improving local infrastructure that will directly impact our residents' daily lives.
Pre-planning needs to begin now despite the usual local community NIMBY opposition which demonstrates a concerning disconnect from the project's obvious benefits.
Fortunately the future public consultations gives an important opportunity to make the new east end bridge project a reality. Please participate in the process. This is your chance to formally register your support and suggestions for this project. The federal government needs to hear that our community wants this bridge Impact Assessment Agency.