As Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe settles into term, Carleton University students hope the city can become more affordable and provide more reliable public transit for them.
“I know that the cost of being a student today is a lot higher than it was [when I was a full-time student] and there are housing challenges,” he told the Charlatan.
Sutcliffe, 54, volunteered at CKCU-FM during high school in the late 1980s and was accepted to Carleton for a BA in political science. He left his studies in second year for a radio job with CHEZ 106 but has continued to take courses for his program until a few years ago.
He said he’s excited for Ottawa to complete Phase 2 of its LRT which involves upgrading the north-south line. The intent of this expansion, Sutcliffe said, is for residents to have a better, more frequent service between university campuses, downtown and elsewhere in Ottawa.
“I’d be interested to hear from students about what they think about the public transit.”
Sutcliffe said a downside of the bus service during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a prioritization of longer routes between Ottawa’s downtown and suburban areas at rush hours, rather than shorter connections in the city. But he noted traffic data from 2022 suggests there’s good reason to believe that transit ridership across Ottawa in 2023 will exceed last year’s.
“I’d be interested to hear from students about what they think about the public transit,” he said.
A ‘shocking’ transit system
Ally Krueger-Kischak, a third-year history and political science student at Carleton, said OC Transpo isn’t meeting her needs.
“One expectation would be that buses show up on time,” she said, laughing just after getting home on a bus that was 40 minutes late in snowy weather.
Second-year political science student Sam Lehtinen had similar experiences last semester.
“I’d be waiting at Lyon Station downtown to catch a bus back to campus and the bus schedule says the bus will be there in two minutes,” he recalled. “Ten minutes pass, no bus. Then I either have to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus or it’s simply just faster to start walking.”
Lehtinen wants OC Transpo to take inspiration from transit in European and southeast Asian cities, as well as Toronto, and implement more LRT lines. He said more car-free areas and bus-only lanes in Ottawa would incentivize people to use transit more, adding city councillors who commute from the suburbs by car could be oblivious to transit issues.
“I want to see our mayor focusing on the disaster that is our public transit system.”
Alexandra Graber-Olm, another second-year political science student at Carleton, said she found the state of OC Transpo shocking after arriving in Ottawa from her home in Vancouver. She drives to campus from the Township of Russell through heavy traffic, a commute that takes 40 minutes, but said having the LRT running at Carleton would be a game-changer for students living closer to campus.
“I want to see our mayor focusing on the disaster that is our public transit system,” she said.
In the past, Sutcliffe was a regular transit user who made use of the O-Train line near his home. He said it was always the best way for him to get downtown.
“I understand why some people are not using public transit if it doesn’t serve their needs well, and I know some people feel it’s not as reliable as it should be,” Sutcliffe said.
Rising costs of living for students
Sutcliffe emphasized the need to build affordable and market-rate homes for both ownership and rental living, noting he committed in his mayoral campaign to building 100,000 houses in Ottawa. He said increased stock might not lower housing costs in Ottawa but could potentially slow down the rate real estate prices are increasing at.
“As a city, we’re committed to doing our part in keeping costs as low as possible for things like transit fares and recreation fees and taxes that we collect,” Sutcliffe said, adding the budget is expected to include a freeze on transit fares for this year. “Students will be paying the same in 2023 for transit that they did in 2022.”
Despite having stable rent, Krueger-Kischak said a long-term rise in housing prices, paired with unreliable transit, “is not drawing anyone to this city.”
She added she has observed costs of staple groceries such as lettuce and coffee cream skyrocket in the last two years. As someone who eats little meat, Krueger-Kischak wants cheaper produce.
“[Sutcliffe] is not going to deal with lettuce prices,” she said. “[But] I do know that he has jurisdiction over rental policies in Ottawa, and I think that I’d like to see him get a bit stronger on that.”
Graber-Olm described rent in Ottawa, while cheaper than in other major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, Hamilton and Mississauga, as “astronomical” for students like her. She said it’s upsetting to think about people having to choose between financing their education and affording food and housing bills.
“If you’re paying $7 for a loaf of bread when it used to be $2, you really start to understand that everything is starting to cost triple the price,” Graber-Olm said, adding the hike in egg prices often comes up in conversation among her friends.
To meet his tight monthly budget, Lehtinen no longer eats out and rarely buys alcohol. Chicken regularly bites his budget, but he prefers it to more processed meats.
“At Costco over the break, the price of chicken went up by at least five bucks for the big packs, which in the long run is a lot of money,” he said. “I’ve seen my grocery bills go up by up to $50 to $100 a month in the last year alone.”
Lehtinen suggested Sutcliffe visit Carleton to speak to students and take questions to better stay in touch with the needs and interests of Ottawa’s university population.
“I think Ottawa’s direction is generally in a good one,” he said. “But it does need some careful supervision by a mayor who actively wants the community to get better and is actively engaged with the community.”
Featured image provided by Liam Harrington/The City of Ottawa.
