TAXING PROMISES

His first term, Watson promised a cap on property tax increases of two-and-a-half per cent and actually delivered smaller ones most years; in his second, he lowered the target to two per cent.

The police have been squeezed and so have the paramedics. Watson plans to hire more of each but we’re catching up on years of freezes and near-freezes. With the paramedics especially, Ottawa’s neighbours have practically accused it of stealing service from them with the help of a provincial rule that says the nearest ambulance is supposed to go to any call — once a Prescott-Russell ambulance takes someone to a hospital inside Ottawa, its paramedics might not get out of the city for the rest of their shift. Sometimes we run out of ambulances altogether.

Thrift is good in a government. But thrift also has costs. For eight years, Watson has enforced thrift with a budgetmaking policy that lets him decide how much money the city will spend each year and allows councillors only slight input into how the city spends it.

“There’s two sides to a ledger sheet,” Watson says. “You can’t just add things on ... We put everyone in a fiscal straitjacket.”

But last Sunday, he promised to loosen the straps a little. If he’s mayor again, he’ll bring in tax increases between two and three per cent each year, he said, with fixing up infrastructure a major priority now.

Doucet speaks for people who’d rather focus on goals rather than processes, he says. He points to Porto Alegre, in Brazil (Doucet visited in 2002 and it made a huge impression on him), which sets its budget with input from 50,000 people.

“I’m bringing a different political will, and different political choices, to your city,” Doucet says. “But I’m not so sure how we’re going to pay for it. So we’re going to have a discussion, citywide, about how we’re going to pay — what exactly are your priorities and how you’re going to pay for it.”

Doucet won’t set a limit, which he says would be arbitrary. But he also figures annual tax increases in the same range as Watson’s are in order.

If Watson wins, will the next city council agree to keep budgeting Watson’s way? Or will councillors take a more activist view of their jobs?

They’ll probably have to decide at their very first meeting. Councillors did up their own straitjacket in 2014 by approving a 258-page governance proposal a few days after being sworn in that imposed the policy in one line. (Do we want councillors who read the fine print?)