Continued protection of our critical infrastructure and assets! Keeping our communities safe and vibrant! Making the environment a top priority! A progressive future for our city and its residents!
That’s how the City of Ottawa’s PR department touts the 2018 draft budget. News outlets like CBC have done a good job at outlining the city-wide, big picture spending items. (You should definitely read Joanne Chianello’s analysis.) But what are the specifics for Stittsville?
Here’s what you’ll find amid hundreds of lines of budget documents and public relations material released so far.
PARKS
- New play structures at Bryanston Gate Park ($163,000) and Amberway Park ($113,000).
- Johnny Leroux Arena gets new handrails in the arena stands.
- The City’s PR material for Stittsville announcing funding for new parks: $127,000 for Hazeldean Gardens, $577,000 for Minto Potter’s Key Park, $639,000 for Stittsville South Cavanagh Park, and $394,000 for Stittsville South Regional Park …except that all of these projects have been previously announced. Hazeldean Gardens is funded through the cash-in-lieu of parkland budget, and was announced earlier this year. The other three were included in last year’s budget.
ROADS & TRANSIT
- New midday and evening service for OC Transpo route 167, plus improvements to several Kanata routes.
- There’s about $340,000 in the budget to re-pave Liard Street from Fernbank Road to Stittsville Main.
- There’s just over $3-million in the budget for “intersection control measures” (aka traffic lights?) at Stittsville Main Street and West Ridge Drive, and to reimburse developers for existing infrastructure at Terry Fox & Westphalian, Fernbank & Robert Grant, and Terry Fox & Albert.
- A continuation of $40,000 per ward for traffic calming, and additional funding to add one pedestrian crossover per ward, costing anywhere from $3,500-$40,000, depending on what’s required.
- $24-million for the Kanata South Link in the transportation budget. This is a big project to make it faster to get from Hope Side Road in Kanata to the 416.
- $760,000 for work on the Ashton Bridge over the Jock River.
- Nearby in Kanata, there’s money to re-pave Terry Fox from Campeau to Palladium.
INFRASTRUCTURE
- Another $307,000 to complete “Kanata West Transmission Main Oversizing”. That means installing bigger pipes for delivering water.
MORE
- A 2% tax rate. The average Ottawa homeowner will see taxes go up by about $74 per year. It could be more for you, since Stittsville has higher-than-average property values.
- Stittsville will benefit from other city-wide funding buckets that don’t yet have specific ward-by-ward breakdowns, for example, $900,000 for bus stop improvements.
Under transit, you omitted the introduction of the EquiFare which will give lower income residents access to OC Transpo at half the regular fare which will mean $1.75 each way. This is an addition to the EquiPass that was implemented last year and gives lower income residents a monthly pass at $57 or half the regular pass price. This is available to anyone whose income is under the Stats Canada Low Income Cut Off which is a sliding scale and is just over $20,000 for a single person and about $45,000 for a family of four.
This measure will make it easier for our less well-off neighbours to get around to school, work, medical appointments and shopping.