A City that Knows Value: Clive Doucet?s Platform for Fiscal Responsibility

 

For release: September 30, 2010

Advance copy of speech

Backgrounder

 

Clive Doucet will manage the city?s finances in a way that enables Ottawa to move forward to a successful and sustainable future investing only in initiatives that provide a real service or revenue return, to provide taxpayers with value for each tax dollar.

 

1. Invest smart

To lower taxes we must restructure spending and the way we service our city so that, as we grow, we proportionately reduce servicing costs. Currently:

• Ottawa spends $600million per year, on road construction and maintenance, about 35% more per capita than any other Canadian city.

• The $735million transit tunnel will cost about $360 per household a year for 20 years and yield no increase in transit ridership. It makes no economic sense.

• The city's $345million public expenditure for a Lansdowne Park solution that gives away public land will return minimal revenue to the city.

Clive will work to ensure that we do not create new debt that cannot be secured by increased service improvements or revenue streams.

 

2. Manage smart

Open the doors. Special deals and arbitrary decisions rarely produce beneficial results for everyone. They benefit one party more than the other.

• Clive will ensure that there are no more sole-source and behind-closed-door deals such as the Bus Station re-location and the Lansdowne Park deal.

• All contracts over $75,000 will go to open tender. Competition makes economic sense. It has the potential to both reduce costs and to bring better solutions to the table.

Cut out waste. Over the past four years taxpayers have had to pay large sums for situations that should have been avoided.

• $70million was wasted on a lengthy transit strike that could have been shortened through a more consensual approach to negotiation.

• Cancellation payments were made for $37million for the Light Rail project (cost per resident $46) plus the city spent $75million in development costs.

Clive will require full and open discussion of major initiatives and their implications before commitments are made.

 

Respectful, local negotiation. Confrontational approaches to negotiations rarely produce satisfactory results and long-standing grievances and often greater costs. Clive will introduce an approach that relies on respect and agreed arbitration. He will also ensure that negotiations with the city?s unions will be fair and are tied to local conditions and the city?s ability to pay, not province-wide settlements.

 

3. A new deal for Ottawa

As we manage the cost side of running the city, we must manage the income side. Clive will make it his priority to work with the Provincial government to obtain a better deal for Ottawa to diminish the burden on Ottawa taxpayers. He will particularly focus on:

• contributions through mechanisms such as Gas Tax Transfers to offset the costs of services previously downloaded on the city such as social housing.

• develop a fairer system of property evaluation than current assessment by MPAC.

• opening negotiations for a City of Ottawa Act which, like the City of Toronto Act, will create a framework of broad powers for the City.

For more information: Daphne Towers, Campaign Office, [masked] begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              [masked]      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
OPEN HOUSE: Meet with Clive and discuss his platform on fiscal responsibility.

Saturday, October 2,  4:30 p.m. To 6 p.m.

Campaign Office: 1014 Wellington St. West (near Fairmont)

Also available on Twitter during the Open House. Advance questions at hashtag #AskClive