Watson sees no big conflicts on new council

For all those who expect fireworks at city hall following the election of seven new councillors, Mayor Jim Watson has a message: Don’t hold your breath. Watson says the idea that a divided or emboldened council would take the fight to him, or clip his wings, is overblown. He says that both returning councillors and newcomers are closer on the issues facing the city than people think. In a postelection interview on what he learned during the campaign, the big issues facing the city and the challenges of running what might be a more independent and probing council, Watson dismissed suggestions he’ll have a hard time this term. “There is always this built-up expectation that there is going to be conflict, division and so on. Maybe you and a couple of other reporters seem to sit around thinking there’s going to be fireworks because you want there to be fireworks,” Watson said. “I’ve had an opportunity to meet the new councillors … and every single one of them, to a T, say they are only interested in getting things done, not creating drama or fireworks.” The issue has been raised since the election because Watson is seen as having lost some allies on a council he controlled, and the new arrivals might not easily fall under his spell. “The notion that I’ve lost allies — well, I have lost colleagues, and I have also gained seven new colleagues. Some of them will support me on a lot of issues, some will not support me on some issues. I can’t expect to win every vote 100 per cent of the time,” he says. Watson notes that during the campaign, “no one was promising a tax increase over three per cent, and no one was promising to stop LRT or

I have lost colleagues, and I have also gained seven new colleagues.

not expand to Phase 2,” suggesting that, on the key issues, there is little disagreement among councillors. Watson acknowledges the city has to learn the right lessons from Phase 1 of the light-rail project and do a better job in the negotiations for Phase 2. In particular, given the controversy over project delays and the disagreement between the city and the private Rideau Transit Group consortium over who is liable and to what extent, Watson declared, “I think we have to be clearer on the penalties for missing deadlines.” He says there is no culture of secrecy at city hall, and that allegations that councillors were kept in the dark about the LRT project and never given a full accounting are simply not true. He maintains councillors were briefed regularly through the finance and economic development committee, and “the notion that I have all these dark secrets (is) not true. When pundits go and talk about secrecy, they are not speaking factually.” Watson expects council to be extremely busy and focused on the transformational projects coming up: the new library, new Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital and, of course, LeBreton Flats. He says the firm that’s going to design the new library will be selected in two or three months and public consultations will then follow. On LeBreton, Watson says RendezVous LeBreton met the August deadline set by the city for all site-plan applications to be submitted. City staff are now reviewing the planning documents, which will be submitted for public review, then to the National Capital Commission in April or May for action. The NCC apparently has to submit a report to cabinet by June. “We will know in six months whether this is a go or not,” Watson says. He says he is looking forward to the next four years, which he believes will be defining, and doesn’t anticipate any bickering that will detract councillors from the important work ahead. “There will be an issue on which Councillor X will vote with me one day, and the next meeting vote against me,” he says. “But we are probably 90 per cent in sync on the big issues.” The first test will come when the new term begins Dec. 1, and council takes up the first big issue: setting property taxes.

Mohammed Adam is a Ottawa writer.