Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Payback at the polls: A projected 4% property tax hike will arouse and anger even the sleepiest voters

Leadership, more specifically, economic leadership -- both within and beyond City Hall -- is already emerging as a key theme of the 2010 municipal election. And Election Day, slated for Oct. 25, 2010, is just 303 days away. Yes, you read correctly, Oct. 25, not Nov. 8 as originally planned.

Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson ushered in this change, which I support. Having the election two weeks earlier will give more Snowbirds the opportunity to vote, ensure that volunteers and candidates work completely in daylight savings time hours and it should save on expenses given the vandalism of election signs that always occurs on Halloween.

However, voting a fortnight earlier will not diminish the economic challenges the next mayor -- re-elected or a newcomer -- and council will face.

To start, City Hall's present spending trajectory is unsustainable. A 4% property tax hike (the best case scenario) in an election year -- down from the initial 10% estimate -- is hardly an homage to fiscal prudence. At almost three times the rate of inflation, a 4% increase will arouse and anger even the sleepiest voters come October.

As well, civic morale from the front lines to senior leadership is low and it will likely get worse since getting control of wages and benefits growth -- up almost 60% since amalgamation -- must occur. A top to bottom budget review exercise will also be needed; even with provincial uploading changes and the nickels and dimes we squeeze from the feds for "unique" transfers because we are the national capital, it simply won't be enough.

And I haven't even addressed ongoing capital needs for our growing city or the city's transit vision and where this money will come from. In fairness, many of these problems did not originate with the current council; nonetheless they need to be addressed.

More problematic for the next council is the fact that appeals to the feds and the province for any meaningful financial relief or structural funding changes will be as popular as bankers' bonuses in a recession. The federal and provincial deficits -- projected at $56 billion and $25 billion respectively -- obliterate any municipal dreams of funding beyond present economic stimulus dollars.

Forget the old saying that there is only one taxpayer; the new mantra will become "there is only one priority, debt reduction." Which brings us to the issue of investment attraction given our city's reliance on federal, provincial and other para-public sector -- hospitals, schools, etc. -- jobs.

We would be foolish to believe that curbing -- even if that's just slowing present growth rates -- public wage and program expenditures will not be amongst the deficit reduction measures employed by both senior levels of government, regardless of who holds the reins of power on Parliament Hill or at Queen's Park.

As I've written before, a coordinated economic development partnership between the city and local business organizations will no longer be a nice to have, but an absolute necessity. Candidates for mayor must tell us how they will use the suasion of their office to not only rally stakeholders together, but how they will actually diversify industry and jobs in our city.

And platitudes about clean energy, a resurgence of hi-tech, life sciences or enhanced tourism won't cut it with voters; a real plan is needed and is long overdue.