At the November 6th, 2019 meeting of Ottawa City Council, we tabled the 2020 Draft Budget. The total budget is projected at $3.76B and includes a 3% tax increase. However, that includes the increase to the transit levy, which is more in the urban area. Therefore, the rural impact of the 2020 Budget would be a 2.5% increase on your property tax bill.

From a high-level perspective, the draft 2020 Budget includes increases to winter maintenance and road renewal over last term of Council. It also includes increases to transit to overcome some of the many challenges we have experienced since the Confederation Line launch. Specifically, as it relates to Rideau-Goulbourn transit, we will be adding an additional morning bus and extending more of the routes to Munster for the 283 that serves the Goulbourn area. For those commuting from the Manotick end, we are adding more capacity to the 75 to help alleviate overcrowding.

As usual per recent budgets, much of the focus is on our infrastructure. Resurfacing projects will include all or parts of Nixon Farm Drive, Huntley Road, Barnsdale Road, Roger Stevens Drive, Stittsville Main Street, Malakoff Road, Trail Road and Mackey Road. We will also be upgrading a portion of Ashton Station Road, between Purdy Road and Franktown Road to a hard surface. Further, the Church Street bridge is slated for renewal. This project will be quite impactful from a traffic perspective and the City is currently planning a meeting to communicate the project and its impacts to the community. That meeting is not yet scheduled.

Keeping with infrastructure improvements, more work is scheduled for the Richmond Forcemain and Pumping Station to accommodate the current growth we are seeing and to improve reliability in the wastewater network. In Manotick, work will begin on a two-year project to improve reliability for Manotick residents serviced by municipal water.

In Parks & Recreation, two projects are being worked on for the Richmond Arena. One is the modernization of the elevator to bring it up to current accessibility standards and the other is something that I have been working on thanks to a suggestion from a resident about accessibility within the seating area. We are in the final stages of planning a new access from the second floor directly into the seating area of the rink thus providing proper wheelchair access. Additionally, the playground at Healey’s Heath Park is slated for renewal. Click here to have your say on the options for the park’s equipment and design. The city will also undertake an assessment of the roof at Dickinson House for the purposes of future replacement.

With that brief update, there is much more in the budget documents than stated here. These are just some local highlights. There are many more projects that could impact your daily lives, especially when it comes to road construction. Feel free to review the budget at Ottawa.ca/citybudget. If you have any questions about the draft 2020 Budget, please contact myself or provide comments online at the link previously mentioned

If you have any comments, questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or contact me by phone at 613-580-2491. For information on Rideau-Goulbourn issues, please visit RideauGoulbourn.ca.