More than 20 Ottawa residents and community advocates gathered at City Hall on Dec. 11, 2024, to rally against the 2025 city budget.
Speakers and attendees raised concerns about higher transit fares and an increased police budget, as well as lack of spending on climate action, affordable housing, and cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
On the same day of the rally, the annual budget was approved by city council. It included a $16-million increase in the police budget, a $1.2-million increase for affordable housing development and a $485,000 boost for climate resiliency initiatives.
The Ottawa Coalition for a People’s Budget brought together more than 50 community organizations to create an alternative budget document and organize the budget rally, which was led by advocacy group Horizon Ottawa.
“The budget doesn’t have to be the way that it is. [The city has] the resources,” he said. “It just takes the correct priorities.”
Through his Fairness for Ottawa campaign, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has said the city is facing a financial crisis because it is “getting less than [its] fair share of support” from the provincial and federal governments.
Sutcliffe has called on those governments to provide further funding for the city and “to recognize that we didn’t create this mess.”
Hersh said rather than blaming other levels of government, it’s important for the municipal government to take accountability for the city’s deficits, including its “transit death spiral.”
“This budget, this mess that we’re in, is a mess of the city’s own making,” he said.
Hersh added that the city’s lack of consultation with affected communities, including students, is the root of the budget’s shortcomings.
In a Jan. 9 email statement to the Charlatan, the city’s chief financial officer Cyril Rogers said the city values “extensive input on the City budget that directly shapes the decisions made towards investing in a sustainable, secure, and prosperous city for all.”
To shape the city’s 2025 budget, Rogers said the city gathered year-round feedback from Ottawa residents who shared ideas with their councillors or city committees.
The city also hosted public consultations and polls between August and September 2024 and gathered resident input through digital platform Engage Ottawa until Dec. 9, 2024.
Sam Genest, a rally attendee, said he thought the rally’s impact would be limited.
“I don’t think that our city government system is organized in a way that’s very responsive to citizens in general,” he said.
He added that the city’s budget should have prioritized affordable housing and transit over increasing the police budget.
“You see homeless people everywhere. You also see people struggling to get from place to place in a housing crisis,” Genest said. “A lot of people are really suffering and it doesn’t make sense in a city that’s so rich.”
Valerie Stam, the policy director for the City for All Women Initiative, also said she attended the event to voice her transit and housing concerns.
“We just think this is a budget that really isn’t for the people,” she said.
The city’s statement said it “remains committed to an open, transparent, and inclusive budget process that reflects the diverse needs of residents and demonstrates responsibility to the community it serves.”
Kallioinen said students are an “ignored group in the city” who are “upset” with the lack of affordable housing options near campus and the unexpected U-Pass increase that would breach current agreements.
“At the very least, what I’d hope for is better consultation,” he said. “Just come talk to students.”
Hersh said while public consultation is still “subpar” in the city, he believes the campaigns had some impact.
“I think that we were able to push,” he said. “Things weren’t as bad as they could have been.”
Featured image by Marissa Meilleur.
