Liberal minority should suit City of Ottawa fine, for now
A minority federal government will give the City of Ottawa no assurances that the municipality’s long-term infrastructure plans will be backed by enough MPs.
But the fact that the next federal government will be a Liberal-led minority should put city hall at ease, at least for the short term.
City politicians and management will hope that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau can find a way to govern with the help of other parties and keep the money flowing for major infrastructure projects, such as the expansion of public transit. The hope being it can lock down any kind of funding commitments early in the term in case another federal election comes around sooner than later. In a minority government, it’s a real threat whenever a federal budget rolls around.
The city wants more money to build affordable housing units, put more anti-gang cops on the street, repair municipal assets and prepare for severe weather tied to climate change. More than anything, the city wants billions of dollars for LRT.
City hall has an environmental assessment finished to extend LRT from Moodie Drive to just north of Stittsville.
Another environmental assessment just started to extend LRT from Algonquin College to Chapman Mills Drive in Barrhaven and the study is projected to be done in 2020. You need to have a completed environmental assessment to have any hope of securing upper-government money.
Up until recently there had been no realistic prospect of breaking ground on a Stage 3 O-Train project until sometime after 2031, but now there’s a growing appetite to get rapid rail transit out to the western and southern suburbs as soon as possible to put those residents on an even footing with Orléans residents, who will have LRT to Trim Road in the next five years.
With the studies complete this term of council, local MPs will likely get a call from the city to brief them on LRT plans, with an eye to the feds contributing billions more to Stage 3.
Those MPs will find out that the city expects the federal government to pay half of future transit projects, with the province hopefully paying the other half.
While an unpredictable Parliament isn’t ideal, the City of Ottawa hasn’t had much problem plowing through with its infrastructure agenda in the most recent minority federal government. A Conservative minority government in 2010 delivered $600 million for the first phase of Ottawa’s LRT system.
In the case of a minority government, the best-case scenario for the city has been some kind of partnership between the Liberals and the NDP, mostly because the parties’ priorities on transit and housing seem to align more closely to the municipal agenda. Both parties also seem to be willing to let cities restrict handguns.
The Conservatives’ plan to stretch infrastructure money over a longer term wasn’t great for a city like Ottawa, which is itching to fast-track its transit vision. It also wasn’t entirely clear how the Conservatives would approach the City of Ottawa’s priorities.
There won’t be many introductions needed when the newly elected MPs visit city hall to meet Watson and councillors. The Ottawa area will send at least one rookie MP to the Hill, but the city is already very familiar with Marie-France Lalonde, the former MPP whose work in a Liberal provincial cabinet in multiple portfolios brought her to city hall on larger policy matters. She’ll represent Orléans in Parliament. The federal Liberals will continue to have a strong voice in Ottawa.
It can be a lonely time for an MP shut out of the other party’s regional caucus, especially on major issues.
The race was close in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, the riding that covers a piece of Ottawa’s east end, with Liberal Francis Drouin and Conservative Pierre Lemieux neck-and-neck in the polls at press time. Both men are well-known in the east end, since Drouin is the incumbent and Lemieux previously held the seat.
The most important federal politician for Ottawa is the one who holds the most senior cabinet portfolio, since it’s usually that MP who the mayor is calling for federal support on municipal concerns.
The senior minister for Ottawa is likely to be Ottawa Centre Liberal Catherine McKenna again. Considering federal money that went into a new Rideau Canal footbridge, a municipal-federal super library and funding for the Stage 2 LRT expansion, that will suit Watson just fine. jwilling@postmedia.com twitter.com/JonathanWilling