Downtown councillors ponder possibilities of steeper tax hike

City councillorsand residents from Ottawa's five central wards spent Tuesday evening exploring the ways in which the city could spend extra tax dollars if the mayor and rest of council ever loosentheir grip on the annual tax increase, currently capped at two per cent.

About100 people attended the meeting at city hall to hear fivepitches including improved winter maintenance, long-term arts funding, sustainable funding for new social services organizations, affordable housing and transitioning to cleaner energy.

• Urban core councillors host budget consultation

The meeting was hosted byRideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum,Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury,Capital Coun. David Chernushenko,Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenneyand Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper.

They asked the crowd to consider paying one per cent more than they currently do in taxes adding $14 million to city revenue and an expense of $35 per year for the average homeowner.

Green energy, new social enterprises

The most popular pitches were a $4 million capital investment in affordable housing, the renewable energy plan and supporting new social service organizations.

Janice Ashworth, general manager of the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op, saidthe Ottawa Chamber of Commerce is urging council to work on the energy transition.

She sketched out a $1.5 million plan to spend on electric car charging stations, a sustainability audit office, a tower retrofit program to improve energy efficiency and net-metering for solar energy.

"Let's take advantage of this money-making opportunity, let's stop wasting taxpayer dollars literallyin smokestacks or in wasted heat from inefficient light bulbs," she said.

Jason Garloughco-founder of Hidden Harvest, an social enterprise that uses urban foraging to get food for people in needproposed a $500,000increase to existing funding for community groups providing social funding and a matching increase available to new, innovative organizations.

"The innovation isn't difficult, sustaining that innovation and supporting it is very difficult. Especially accessing a very small amount of money from the City of Ottawa, when there's some risk involved," Garlough said.

He said the money could go towards dozens of groups already working, such as Hidden Harvest or Operation Come Home, which helps homeless youth.

Diane Breton, 1st speaker, called for improvement to winter maintenance standards of pedestrian paths, transit stations. #ottcity

—@matthewkupfer

Speakers Victoria Steele and Catherine Lindquist make pitch for arts funding, one-time opportunities from 2017 to be built upon #ottcity pic.twitter.com/LQ9YNbcwrc

—@matthewkupfer

Speaker @DCarrOttawa raised ways the City of Ottawa could use its land to increase affordable housing stock. pic.twitter.com/duePGVzX7p

—@matthewkupfer

Raise taxes, reallocate road funding

People at the consultation gave their feedback through live electronic votes. They most often favoured paying for the programs through a combination of raising taxes and reallocating existing city funds.

When asked where money should be taken from in the existing budget, the overwhelming response was to take from the budget for roads and parking areas that may be a hard sell with other members of council.

"We are only five of 24 members of council, so if people feel that these messages ought to be heard by more of us, they should come out and speak to all of council at the committee stage," Nussbaum said.

He added some ideas, such as the energy efficiency proposal, may get an easier reception when councillorsconsider the long-term savings.

"Ensuring that the budget is putting up the capital now to save money down the roadis both an environmental and economic priority," he said.

"it's something I think the city should be investing more in."

Draft budget next month

The discussion is likely theoretical, since neither the mayor nor the majority of councillors have shown any appetite to raise the property tax rate beyond the two per cent cap already pledged.

There are two more formal budget consultations planned, according to the City of Ottawa:

• Thursday, Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Nepean Sportsplex,
• Thursday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. at Ben Franklin Place on Centrepointe Drive.

The city's draft 2018 budget will be released on Nov. 8, then will be discussed by councillors, experts and the publicat committees over the next four weeks.

It goes to city council for approval Dec. 13.