OTHER SPENDING IN THE CAPITAL REGION

CASH FOR NCC REPAIRS

The National Capital Commission can chip away at its deferred-maintenance tab with the $55 million set aside in the federal budget for asset repairs.

The budget proposes to give the money to the NCC for critical repairs over two years.

The NCC is a major landholder in the Ottawa- Gatineau region, with responsibility for maintaining official residences, Gatineau Park, federal roadways, bridges and other historic attractions.

The Crown agency has been under pressure to track the status of its assets and make repairs.

A 2017 special examination by the federal auditor general revealed a “significant deficiency” in asset maintenance. At the time, the NCC assessed the condition of 27 per cent of its assets as fair, poor or critical and said there was a shortfall in required funding, the auditor general learned.

Of those assets, 10 per cent were found to be in poor or critical condition.

The report pointed out that many of the NCC’s assets generate revenue, and it’s in the NCC’s interest to keep the infrastructure up to snuff.

“The National Capital Commis- sion welcomes the investment announced by the minister of finance in the budget to undertake revitalization work on Canada’s capital infrastructure,” NCC spokesman Jean Wolff said. “The NCC will be able to comment further after reviewing the details … .”

The NCC has said it was working with the federal government to secure more funding. When the auditor general filed the special examination, the NCC said it hadn’t received any increases in funding, other than for specific purposes, since the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The agency said its capital budget actually decreased by about $5 million in that time.

The federal budget is silent on money for renovations at 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the prime minister. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family are living at a home on the grounds of Rideau Hall because 24 Sussex needs major repairs and security upgrades.

The NCC’s lack of repair funds has trickled down to city transportation infrastructure. Hog ’s Back Bridge has been one of the assets in poor or critical condition, and when that breaks down, the city’s north-south road net- work gets pinched.

BILINGUALISM BOOST

There might be a larger Frenchlanguage presence in Ottawa and surrounding communities, thanks to a new $400-million “action plan” in the federal budget to promote bilingualism.

The five-year plan includes funding for community groups, cultural organizations and education providers.

The feds say they’re particularly concerned about “official language minority communities.” The City of Ottawa was recently granted bilingual designation under provincial legislation, but it was mainly a symbolic gesture with no operational impacts on city hall.

OPIOID CRISIS

The federal budget provides hope for more opioid addiction treatment services in Ottawa.

The budget proposes $231.4 million over five years to address the opioid crisis. Provinces and territories are poised to receive $150 million in emergency funding to improve access to “evidence-based treatment services.”