City monitoring election closely as federal funds power projects

A surefire way for federal politicians to make municipal governments happy is to shower city halls with billions of dollars for public transit projects.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson probably wouldn’t mind city hall receiving a 10-figure cheque to extend the O-Train system into the southern and western suburbs. The Kanata and Barrhaven LRT links are the next transit infrastructure projects on Ottawa’s to-do list after extending rails to Trim Road in Orléans, Algonquin College, Moodie Drive near Bells Corners and Riverside South, all in phases by 2025.

The city needs the federal government on-board for at least half of the cost, since, according to the current long-range transit plan, it’s not putting any property tax money aside to build new LRT lines after Stage 2 is complete. That means the future of LRT expansion rests on the federal and provincial governments.

So, Ottawa’s municipal government is closely monitoring the federal election campaigns ahead of the Oct. 21 vote and will be beating down the door of whichever party wins power.

Watson has signalled other municipal priorities during the federal campaign: more money for infrastructure repairs, affordable housing, emergency housing for refugees, projects to cut down greenhouse gas emissions and policing.

The mayor has sent local candidates a questionnaire to get their positions on these issues. He has posted their responses on his website.

Transit, infrastructure repairs and affordable housing are recurring priorities for all cities whenever a provincial or federal election comes around. They have become standard asks by municipal governments.

When it comes to the federal election, the City of Ottawa is in a unique position because of the amount of federal assets and workers within its boundaries.

Protection of green space for naturalization and recreational use is a bona fide issue, considering the amount of federal land in Ottawa that people use as parks. The Ottawa Hospital is building a new Civic campus on a chunk of the Central Experimental Farm near Dow’s Lake, adding a critical health-care facility for the capital, but paving over a significant portion of green space and likely prompting the municipal government to consider the transportation network around the land.

How the feds tinker with the public service also has a direct impact on the municipal government. For example, the Department of National Defence’s move to the old Nortel campus has forced city hall to think about how to provide more transit service to the west end. Extending LRT to Moodie Drive is part of the solution.

The city relies on the federal public service as an economic generator. Any reduction in the government workforce can trickle down to ridership numbers for OC Transpo, affecting the transit agency’s revenue. In fact, many of city hall’s revenue streams can be affected by major shifts in the federal public service if people scale back on paying user fees.

Federal land and workforce issues are regional concerns, considering the riverside lands along the Ottawa River, the public’s enjoyment of Gatineau Park and the number of federal jobs located in Gatineau.

And just like the City of Ottawa, the City of Gatineau is keen on receiving upper-government funds to build rapid transit infrastructure.

Then there are the one-off issues specific to Ottawa.

The controversial addition to the Château Laurier hasn’t sucked in the federal government, but the NCC and Parks Canada could be the last lines of defence for people hoping to change course for the development. The NCC oversees the adjacent Major’s Hill Park, and Parks Canada looks after the Rideau Canal, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The development application is slogging through the municipal government approval process.

And how about LeBreton Flats, whose future directly affects the municipal government?

The incumbent federal Liberals have largely taken a hands-off approach to the future of the property, letting the NCC handle the planning. It wouldn’t take much, though, for a federal government to give the NCC some marching orders over how the swath of land should be developed.

Don’t forget about the prospect of building a new interprovincial bridge and reopening a controversy about where a new crossing should go.

The federal Liberal government earlier this year directed the NCC to reactivate a study to determine where to build a new crossing over the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Gatineau. Ottawa’s municipal government and its residents continue to shoulder the burden of having tractor-trailers rumble through downtown on an interprovincial truck route, but it has abandoned support for a new bridge outside of the core and hoped the provincial government would be interested in building a multibillion-dollar truck tunnel between Highway 417 and the Ottawa River. (The province has been quiet on that front.)

Finally, there’s the old Prince of Wales rail bridge over the river. The City of Ottawa owns it, but according to Watson, the crossing will never again be used for trains even though, up until earlier this year, the bridge was part of the long-term transit vision for Ottawa- Gatineau. Watson’s fine if the federal government pitches in money to make the bridge a multiuse path to Gatineau. Is it in the City of Ottawa’s interests to operate a pedestrian and bike path to Gatineau? For now, he’s not asking the feds to take over a rail bridge that connects two provinces. jwilling@postmedia.com twitter.com/JonathanWilling