Going.........Going.......Gone !

Another city council dinosaur is riding off into into the sunset -- presumably on a bicycle.

After 19 years at the trough, Councillor Jacques Legendre is calling it quits. Despite having previously indicated his intention to run again, he announced his departure in his "annual report" to his constituents which was circulated in Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward last week.

While his constituents were digesting this piece of news, the councillor was swanning around Copenhagen -- ostensibly attending a cycling conference or studying how the Danes have managed to convince their citizenry that cycling is the only way to go.

Now there's something in that. Citizen Ellie was in Copenhagen herself some six years ago and she couldn't help but notice the thousands of bikes parked on lots adjacent to the train station when she arrived in the city in the evening. The following morning, the bikes were gone and the lots were empty, only to fill up again at the end of the work day. Citizen Ellie's budget-priced hotel was adjacent to the railway station so she was able to observe this phenomena first-hand.

According to Citizen Ellie's tour guide, no one steals bicycles in Copenhagen -- thus the sucess of their "bikes in the downtown core" program. Councillor Legendre probably could have elicited this information from the Danish Embassy right here in Ottawa, thus saving the taxpayers the cost of this junket. But what's a few thousand bucks .............

Councillor Legendre knew in May (when his "annual report" went to press) or even sooner, that he was not going to run again. At the New Edinburgh Community Alliance annual general meeting earlier this month, he advised those in attendance that he was not going to give a verbal report to the meeting as his annual report was on the way and we could read about his "accomplishments" for ourselves.

So that begs the question: why, if you're not going to seek re-election, would you go off on a fact-finding jaunt when you know you aren't going to be around to present those facts to council or champion the cycling cause at the council table during the next four years ? Was this his version of the "farewell tour ?" The Tivoli is particularly nice at this time of year.

Councillor Legendre will be back at City Hall tomorrow. Never let it be said that he missed an important vote. He already telegraphed his position at the aforementioned NECA meeting where he exorted the audience to join him in objecting to the Lansdowne Live project on the basis that "if they could do it to the Glebe, they could do it to you" implying that evil developers could convince some future city council to OK construction of a football stadium and a shopping mall in Stanley Park. Enthusiastic applause from his pal, Councillor Clive Doucet, who just happened to be in the audience, having ridden to the meeting on his bicycle.

In the meantime, Citizen Ellie waits with baited breath for the councillor's response to the e-mail she sent to him (at his request) on the morning following the NECA meeting. It's now 20-plus days and counting. It's interesting that after announcing the "Legendre Watch" in last Sunday's edition of The Pitchfork, Citizen Ellie received an e-mail from one of his staffers apologizing for the fact the councillor did not have time to reply prior to leaving the city. Didn't see storm sewers and resurfacing of The Mews Lane in the list of 2010 and 2011 works projects approved for Rideau-Rockcliffe which he included in his annual report. Didn't see anything about cycling or trips to Copenhagen either !

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Financial Sustainability ? Not For These Dolts !

There's a certain arrogance evident when only two councillors show up for the financial sustainability summit which was held on June 22 -- especially since some 19 of them voted in favor of holding such a summit back in April.

Talk about thumbing their collective noses at the electorate, especially in an election year. They must all feel very secure in their positions. A big mistake if they thought taxpayers and the media didn't notice !

While some councillors may have had good reason to be absent, it's obvious that money management -- fiscal responsibility when it comes to spending your tax dollars -- isn't a priority for most of these people. Is it because they can't grasp the concept of money management ? Is it because they prefer not to think about the possibility of the well running dry, leaving them without the power to grant the wishes of every special interest group that knocks on the city hall doors ? Is it because they're afraid of having to take tough measures such as trimming the city's payroll ? What is it about "no new money" that they don't understand ? Questions you should ask when they come knocking on your door seeking your vote in October.

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Biking In The Capital

If members of city council (Councillor Clive Doucet, mayor wannabe Councillor Alex Cullen et al) are serious about encouraging people to ride their bikes to work, they need to campaign to make bicycle theft a really serious offence with an appropriate penalty. Knuckle-rapping just doesn't cut it.

Citizen Ellie suspects that the reason Ottawans aren't emulating their Copenhagen counterparts is that there are no safe places to leave one's bike in this city. Even if it's stored in your backyard, let alone chained to a bike rack or lamp post, you're at the mercy of crackheads and other low lifes.

In Copenhagen, citizens living in the suburbs take the train in the morning to their jobs in Copenhagen. Then they go to the bike lot where they parked their bike

the night before. Lo and behold, it hasn't been stolen or vandalized or broken up for parts-- the norm in Ottawa. They ride their bikes to their places of work where bike storage is provided and after work it's back on the bike for the ride to the bike lot at the train station and then it's on to the train and home.

In order to achieve what's been achieved in Copenhagen, there has to be a change in Ottawa's culture. Bicycle theft has to become as unacceptable as honor killings. The cops have to charge these people and the courts have to punish them severely. Safe, secure bike lots and bike storage areas have to be provided. Until then, those who advocate bike traffic only in the downtown core are dreaming in technicolor.

New posts usually on Sundays.

Are You Contributing To Ottawa's Drug Problem ?

Yes, it's true. There are none so blind as those who cannot see -- as goes the old saying.
Maybe you're one of those who is blind ? Maybe you're an enabler ? Maybe you're a big part of the problem. Bet you didn't think of that the last time you forked over spare change to a panhandler.
Fact is, most of these panhandlers are crack cocaine addicts (tweakers) and your loonie is helping them towards their next "fix". Ottawa's got a big problem with crack cocaine and other street drugs and you're not helping matters any. When you give these people money, you make the situation worse.
Perhaps Citizen Ellie should be grateful to you. Your loonie likely has spared her from having her car broken into, with the thief stealing her sunglasses or something else which might be sold for a buck or two or traded for a "tab".
Many Ottawans believe that panhandlers are homeless and need money for food.
Please ! Rid yourself of this notion. More free meals are handed out in this town than there are eaters.
Why is the food bank seeing greater demand from suburban areas such as Barrhaven and Orleans ? Could it be because crack cocaine has now found its way into the suburbs and addicts are making choices about feeding their families or feeding their habit ?
A couple of years ago, not too long after he was elected, Mayor Larry got into hot water with the city's bleeding heart lefties and chardonnay socialists for suggesting Ottawans should "stop feeding the pigeons" when asked how he was planning to handle the growing panhandler problem in the By Ward Market and Rideau Centre areas. Apparently referring to panhandlers as "pigeons" wasn't politically correct in the minds of those who make a living from the poverty industry and the other self-appointed apologists for the so-called "weak and downtrodden" .
Last week, Ottawa's Police Chief Vern White addressed the issue when he appeared before a senior citizens' group. While he didn't mention "pigeons" in his talk, he didn't mince words about the city's growing drug problem and how those who dole out spare change to panhandlers are contributing to it. Stop giving them money, he said !
Chief White produced some eye-openers. There isn't a high school in this city that doesn't have its student drug dealers. There isn't a 15-year-old kid in this city who doesn't know where to get drugs at his/her school. Some kids as young as 10 are coming to school with prescription medications pinched from the parents' medicine chest -- which they sell to classmates. You'll be able to read plenty about this crisis in our midst in a major series by reporter Chris Cobb in The Citizen this coming week. If that doesn't open your eyes, Citizen Ellie doesn't know what will !
Crack cocaine and oxycontin are the scourge of our times. Perhaps you've noticed large signs in your local pharmacist's window advising that oxycontin and other narcotics are not kept in the store any more. Those with prescriptions for these meds must call in advance and the pharmacist will order the necessary amount from the secret pharmacy supply house. Why is this happening ? It's because there's been a rash of pharmacy hold-ups by tweakers looking for drugs. Hopefully the signs will discourage this activity and prevent something worse from happening to store staff and innocent shoppers during the course of these robberies.
So, folks ! Take off the blinders. You can be the solution instead of the problem. Keep your spare change in your pocket or purse. Don't feel sorry for them. They don't want your money for food. They want it for drugs ! Don't feed the pigeons.

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Legendre Watch

It's now 13 business days since Citizen Ellie sent her councillor, Jacques Legendre, an e-mail containing three questions. Citizen Ellie had attended her local community association meeting on June 1, had spoken to the councillor and at his request, fired off the e-mail the following morning.

Citizen Ellie has sent previous e-mails to the councillor -- rarely has there been a response.

In the e-mail in question, Citizen Ellie asked:

1) Why has work ground to a halt on the apartment building at 245 Crichton Street and how long do neighbors have to put up with the current eyesore ?

2) What is happening with the sustainability summit proposed in a motion by Councillors Wilkinson and El-Chantiry in April -- which Council Legendre supported. When is the summit going forward and when will the public be advised?

3) When is the city going to install storm sewers and resurface The Mews Lane so that pedestrians do not have to wade through ankle-deep water during the spring melt and whenever there is a heavy rain ?

None of these are questions which require copious and lengthy research in order to provide answers. Three phone calls from the councillor's office by the councillor's highly-paid staff to the appropriate city departments (also staffed by highly-paid people) should have elicited answers forthwith.

Citizen Ellie thinks 13 days is surely enough time to provide a response. So she's going to keep track of exactly how long it takes. Watch this space. The "Legendre Watch" starts on Monday, June 21.

New posts usually on Sundays

Increase our taxes....Please.....Please !!!!

Earlier this week, The Ottawa SUN trumpeted on its front page that the majority of Ottawans are quite prepared to pay more property taxes and user fees in order to maintain city services. According to the SUN's exclusive Leger poll, some 43 per cent of us don't mind being bled white by the bloated bureaucracy on Laurier Avenue.

Those of us who are familiar with polling techniques know that the responses depend on how the question is formed. In this case, the question was: Which of the following statements most accurately reflects your view on city taxes today ? a) The city must maintain its current level of city services, even if that means some increases in user fees or taxes; b) I would be willing to see a significant cut in services in order to hold the line on taxes; and c) Neither statement.

This question was put to some 600 adult Ottawans (over age 18) during the period between May 14 and May 21 and according to Leger, their polls are accurate to within +/- 4 per cent 19 times out of 20.

Forty three (43%) of those polled answered "yes" to (a); 28 per cent answered "yes" to (b);

27 per cent answered neither (a) nor (b) and two per cent said they didn't know. Wouldn't these figures indicate that rather than the majority of Ottawans being OK with a tax or user fee hike, the majority falls into the groups which are either not in favor or haven't made up their minds yet. Citizen Ellie suspects that those who haven't made up their minds yet are likely to be opposed to tax and user fee hikes when they finally do make up their minds. If these folk were hoo-haw happy with tax and user fee hikes, they would have answered (a) in the affirmative -- without stalling.

So before the tax-and-spend chardonnay socialists at city hall start dancing, rubbing their hands together and salivating with glee at the prospect of yet another automatic budget increase without having to undertake any measures which might bring relief to ratepayers, they should think again.

City politicians and bureaucrats have long used the spectre of cutting services to justify their laziness with the red pencil and their unwillingness to change the way they do business. Give the public a good scare -- we'll have to close your library; no indoor rinks will operate next winter; your house might burn down because there won't be enough firefighters -- and Joe and Jane Lunchpail will fall into line. Citizen Ellie has heard them all over the years she's been following municipal politics. And it never ceases to amaze her at the number of well-educated, thinking Ottawans who routinely fall for this guff. Could it be that because Ottawa is a civil service town and the bureaucratic mentality of never changing the operating methodology permeates every segment of life in this city ? Would things be different if the private sector dominated Ottawa's economy --like Windsor, for example ?

Some councillors -- Eli El-Chantiry, Marianne Wilkinson and Rick Chiarelli -- are not averse to looking at new ways. Councillors El-Chantiry and Wilkinson moved the motion back in April supporting a " financial sustainability summit" proposed by the Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group (Ottawa TAG) and slated for June 22. This motion, to gather input from the public pending review of the Long Range Financial Plan and future budget process, was supported by Councillors Legendre, Feltmate, Deans, Hunter, Wilkinson, McRae, Desroches, El-Chantiry, Bloess, Monette, Bellemare, Bedard, Jellett, Leadman, Quadri, Cullen, Doucet, Hume and Chiarelli. Nays were Councillors Harder ( a surprise) and Holmes (no surprise).

Ottawa TAG has prepared a series of questions for the summit, questions which examine departmental costs with a vew to maintaining services while at the same time implementing a two-year budget freeze -- i.e. "no new money" -- which is what the federal government has done in its budget process.

There are those who say this is impossible -- including the SUN's city hall columnist Susan Sherring -- on the basis that the city's unionized employees won't accept pay cuts or wage freezes. Non-acceptance of taxpayers' financial realities on the part of unionized city workers is a given. but that doesn't mean throwing up one's hands in defeat ! A wage freeze is one potential tool, but there is no need to be concerned about job losses. If staff reductions are necessary, they can be achieved by attrition or staff can be absorbed by a service which needs to grow. Under a "no new money" program, funding for wage increases would have to be found from within a department's existing budget. That's what the feds have told their employees, and Citizen Ellie would not be surprised if something similar occurred at the provincial level. It would mean department heads would have to work harder to eliminate waste and featherbedding. And there's no reason why non-union, management and executive wages can't be frozen. There are too many on the "sunshine list" anyway !

In order to move away from the generic response that a two-year budget freeze would mean taking fire, police and snow plows off the streets, an Ottawa TAG member who holds a Master's degree in Business Administration, has spent a month conducting a line-by-line review of the city's budget. A herculean task and a volume of information has been amassed. Fifty core services, non-core services and administration costs were identified and each of these was broken down into 20 subgroups. There are efficiencies to be had by taking a serious look at spending on promotional items, performance measurement, communications, planning, billing, processing expense claims, office stationery and furniture, procurement, record-keeping etc. Non-core service items. And there's the all too familiar technique of continuing to carry unfilled positions on departmental personnel rosters in order to bolster departmental funds.

Ottawa TAG has determined that $243 million can be found by implementing a 10 per cent reduction in these areas: executive/board/management; non-service administrative excluding Hydro); non-departmental costs (excluding Hydro); administrative costs for core and non-core services; outsourced legal and consulting services (excluding Hydro); some capital costs; some core services (five per cent cut); and non-core services.

Ottawa TAG also believes the city should look at innovative ways of providing services by putting some of these services out by tender to the private sector. Ottawa contracted out its garbage services long ago. And Windsor is currently looking at outsourcing its parking enforcement branch.

One of Ottawa TAG's suggestions which caught Citizen Ellie's eye was using cheaper civilian employees to conduct police reference checks rather than have highly paid police officers do this job. Citizen Ellie knows of at least one jurisdiction in North America where volunteers are used for this purpose -- Yavapai County in Arizona, where the sherriff's department makes good use of volunteers in a number of capacities, including police reference checks.

Financial sustainability is not something to be sneered at, nor should its proponents be summarily written off as a bunch of kooks who know not of which they speak. Citizen Ellie just sent the city her second property tax payment -- total this year was $7,261.20. In return, she gets the bare minimum of snow removal in the winter. In the spring, summer and fall, when snow melts or it rains, her street is ankle-deep in water as there are no storm sewers. Citizen Ellie supports Ottawa TAG's efforts to force serious public discussion of the city's financial sustainability prospects. It would be better for the city to act in a studied fashion now than react in a panic at some later date when the well truly does run dry.

New posts usually on Sundays

Random Thoughts During an Unseasonal Heatwave........

Reconsider ! Postpone ! Delay ! These are the words which immediately jump to mind when contemplating the decision-making process currently in favor in the council chamber at Ottawa's city hall.
So Councillor (and mayor wannabe) Alex Cullen did not disappoint when he took a look at the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG)'s magnificent plan for Lansdowne Park and loundly proclaimed that any decision on moving forward with the plan should be left to the new council which will be elected on October 25.
We can only hope that he, along with several other councillors who also exhibit a reluctance to make the hard decisions, are put out to pasture by weary taxpayers who've had a bellyful of tax, spend and nothing to show for it.
Citizen Ellie likes the OSEG plan. She also likes Plan E which is one of the five plans for the parkland adjacent to the canal which were released earlier. All of these plans can be viewed on the city's web site and Citizen Ellie suggests that before you make up your mind, take a good look at what's on offer so you'll be in a position to make an informed decision.
Citizen Ellie is also sick and tired of efforts made by certain community groups, aided and abetted by their elected representatives, to "demonize" the principals of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group in the hope that this demonization will turn the citizenry against Lansdowne development.
On the contrary. While public-private partnerships are hated by unions and their left-leaning supporters, most thinking people see such partnerships as a reasonable way of getting things accomplished at a time when public funds are stretched to the limit. It's time everyone realized that the property tax base is not cash cow which can be milked incessantly. When homeowners' property tax payments exceed their mortgage payments, something is drastically wrong with the system.
Citizen Ellie believes it's time to get on with it at Lansdowne. OSEG's design for rehabilitation of the stadium/Civic Centre along with retail and residential components is good for the city and will turn the current wasteland into a showpiece. OSEG has met all the city's requirements, and for someone who wants to be mayor to suggest at this late date, after OSEG has spent a ton of money on architect's fees etc., that decisions be delayed until a new council is in place is a slap in the face to Roger Greenberg, Jeff Hunt et al, and tantamount to asking for another lawsuit. It's no wonder Ottawans shake their heads and snicker when talk turns to municipal affairs.

Shall We Dance ?
Try as hard as he might, Councillor (and mayor wannabe) Alex Cullen can't get his chief opponent (some say shoo-in) for the mayor's chair, Jim Watson, to engage in debate.
Earlier this week Councillor Cullen had a campaign ad in the local newspapers setting out some of the things he would do if elected mayor and he's miffed that Jim Watson hasn't done the same.
One of these items is giving Citizen Ellie and her property taxpaying friends heartburn.
Due to the province uploading some of the costly services it downloaded on municipal ratepayers a decade ago, the city will have approximately $23 million in revenues which it doesn't have to send to Toronto.
One might reasonably expect that this $23 million could come back to the ratepayers in the form of a rebate cheque or perhaps a reduction in next year's taxes. Not if you elect Councillor Cullen as mayor. He has plans for that $23 million and it does not include benefitting Joe and Jane Ratepayer.
He wants to use this money for the homeless. This begs the question: why is homelessness still an issue, given the amount of money governments at all levels collect in the form of taxes, given the much-vaunted social safety net we all pay for, and given the generous donations made to charitable organizations set up to help the less fortunate ? Citizen Ellie is tired of being "guilted" about homelessness by politicos, social agencies and professional do-gooders. How about you ?
But back to Cullen vs. Watson. Jim Watson is a very skilled, wiley politician and he ain't going to engage himself in a pissing contest any time soon

Ottawa Voters' Coalition Event
Citizen Ellie will be MC-ing a "Candidate Focus Session" being presented by the Ottawa Voters' Coalition (OVC) on Saturday, June 12 from 10.30 a.m. to 12 noon at the Royal Oak (800 Hunt Club Road at Uplands Drive).
Ottawa SUN columnist Walter Robinson will open the event, outlining what voters will expect of candidates in the upcoming municipal election on October 25. He will also review the Ottawa Voters' Coalition founding principles which include revamping the governance structure at city hall and establishing term limits for mayor and councillors.
This is a "by reservation only" event -- you can get your name on the list by contacting OVC at: www.ovc.name/candidatefocus.html

New posts usually on Sunday

Fighting Crime in Ottawa......

A New Edinburgh resident whom we'll refer to as "Citizen Mark" normally stores his bicycle in an area beneath the rear deck of his home. This area is usually secured with a padlock as Citizen Mark's property backs on to one of New Edinburgh's "lanes" -- used by himself and his neighbors to access their garages or other parking for their cars.
Unfortunately for Citizen Mark, the padlock was not in place on the day his bicycle was stolen.
But luck was with Citizen Mark. A couple of days later, he saw an individual riding his stolen bicycle on his street, in front of his house. Imagine the nerve! Talk about criminal returning to scene of the crime !
Citizen Mark, a man of action, immediately jumped into his car and commenced following the stolen bicycle. The first stop -- parking lot of a coffee house on Springfield Road near the Beechwood corner -- where Citizen Mark watched as the guy who'd stolen his bike tried the door handles on about 20 vehicles. Finding none left unlocked, and no easy access to helping himself to stealables, the bicycle thief took off, with Citizen Mark following in his car.
Next stop -- the Union Mission downtown. The thief parked the bicycle outside and went in. Citizen Mark used his cellphone to call Ottawa Police, reporting that he'd not only found his stolen bicycle, but the thief as well.
You'd think that Citizen Mark would be happy he got his bicycle back. He is, but he's also angry that the thief received little more than the proverbial slap on the wrist -- go and steal no more -- after claiming he'd "found" the bicycle.
Turns out that the thief was a tweaker -- one of those crackheads who needs to feed his habit on an almost hourly basis and steals other people's property in order to obtain the wherewithall to do it. In Citizen Mark's view, property crimes are not treated seriously by either the police or the courts and if this continues, it will lead to other types of criminal activity, namely vigilante justice meted out by ordinarily peaceful, law-abiding citizens who are tired of being ripped off.
If you are familiar with the By Ward Market, you're familiar with tweakers. They're the ones with the glassy eyes who hang around at the Pay-n Park kiosks menacing old ladies such as Citizen Ellie who just want to park their cars and buy veggies from the market's vendors without being harassed or threatened. They're the ones who lurk in the stairwells of the city's parking garage demanding "spare change". They're the ones who are quickly turning the By Ward Market area into a "NO GO" zone.
Tweakers are also the ones who break into your home or your car looking for change or anything of value which can be sold on the streets or given in exchange for drugs.
Nowadays we have to turn out homes into fortresses -- motion-sensor security lights, expensive alarm systems, burglar bars on basement windows, stockade-type fences around our yards, gates padlocked from the inside, solid oak entry doors with stainless steel hardware, peepholes in the solid oak entry doors (including the door from garage into house) so we can see who might be trying to get in. We have alarm systems in our cars, not to mention locking wheel nuts and gas caps plus steering wheel and pedal "clubs".
Citizen Ellie knows of what she speaks. She's been the victim of property crime on seven occasions since purchasing her Val-des Monts cottage 30 years ago. In the past two years, she has experienced two break-ins. Last November's, with the attendant vandalism (discharging fire extinguishers inside the place) was the straw that broke the camel's back. Call the MRC des Collines cops ? Might as well forget it -- they can never find the place without a family member leading them to it (strangely the criminals don't seem to have this problem) and they never seem to catch the perpetrators. The solution ? Cottage now sold.
In Citizen Ellie's view, the next logical step in home security is the installation of wrought iron entry/exit door enclosures. If you've seen any news clips on TV from east L.A. or other major U-S citizes, you 've seen these. Citizen Ellie's sister who lives in Cottonwood, Arizona, purchased hers at the local Home Depot. They haven't started to carry them yet at big box home improvement stores in the Ottawa area, but they can be obtained here -- look in the yellow pages under Home Security.
The police budget in Ottawa is huge. The force always seems to be expanding and demanding the latest in technological crime-fighting tools. Chief Vern White now has his own LAV (light armoured vehicle) at a substantial cost to the taxpayers. Despite all the property tax dollars being consumed by policing, ratepayers can't help but feel they're on their own when it comes to protecting their property and their persons from light-fingered tweakers and home invaders.
When Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York City, he made it a priority to change the city's image and set about doing this by ordering the city's various law enforcement agencies to start cracking down on even the smallest offence. People who normally avoided paying for their subway tokens by leaping over the barriers suddenly found themselves being arrested. Obnoxious and threatening beggars were carted off to the slammer. Sleeping in cardboard boxes on 45th. Street was no longer tolerated. Curfews were enforced. Lo and behold a majority of those picked up were found to have criminal records, had jumped bail or were wanted for other offenses. Of course there was the usual hue and cry from the ACLU and other bleeding hearts, but Mayor Rudy persisted and even though he's no longer the mayor, New York City is still a great safe place to visit.
With the municipal election looming in October, it would be interesting to hear what the mayoral and council candidates have to say about cleaning up the city of Ottawa -- please don't pretend that its' reputation as "the big easy" for tweakers, panhandlers and vagrants doesn't exist.
PS: this is a warning to watch your purses and wallets when shopping in area supermarkets. Citizen Ellie knows of three older women who recently had their wallets stolen out of their purses while shopping at the local grocery store. The thieves' modus operandi will be familiar to anyone who has travelled in Europe. One of the thieves distracts the shopper by asking for assistance in finding something or helping to get something down from a high shelf while the other -- sometimes a child -- lifts the wallet from the unsuspecting victim's purse. In Spain, the woman offers a flower or sprig of rosemary to distract the unsuspecting tourist while the child steals the wallet. In Europe, they will come to your front door and use a pretext to get into your house -- emergency need to use the phone, for example -- and if your purse is nearby, your wallet will be taken while you are distracted. Coming soon to Ottawa, perhaps ?

New posts usually on Sundays

Election Off To Slow Start

Must be hard to come up with a political platform when your one great claim to fame is taxing and spending. Could that be why mayor wannabe Alex Cullen has taken refuge under the cone of silence -- keeping Ottawa ratepayers in the dark as long as possible about what he plans if elected to the city's top job in October ?
Jim Watson, considered the frontrunner in the so-far yawn of a campaign, held his kick-off event a week ago without much fanfare -- but at least we know he's leaning towards the cautionary and the conservative when it comes to new programs and more spending. Watson -- the uncrowned king of the city's new culture of frugality ?
One good thing about this campaign is that property owners are taking more interest. There are now three credible taxpayer organizations on the scene and this is good news for the beleaguered ratepayer.
The Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group (OTAG) has been around the longest and while the organization got off to a slow start, it has come up with a sensible "litmus test" for incumbents and newbies vying for council seats.
"No new money" is their theme -- not "zero means zero" which is unattainable. "No new money" is now the operating imperative at the federal level, and has been somewhat replicated by the province in its latest budget.
"No new money" means that if there's to be a new initiative, it must be funded out of existing departmental budgets. At the federal level, there's a two-year departmental budget freeze and deputy ministers know that new programs and new hires mean staff cuts and program cuts elsewhere in the department in order to fund the new program and new hires. No more automatic dipping into reserves, running a deficit or hands deeper in taxpayer pockets.
OTAG sees no reason why something similar couldn't be implemented at city hall. The Ottawa Citizen's municipal affairs columnist Randall Denley, who's not been an OTAG fan, supports "no new money" and noted in a recent column that such an initiative was an important tool in a move towards fiscal restraint. OTAG is proposing a two-year departmental budget freeze and uses the recent decision to purchase 226 new buses using borrowed money as an example of how it would work.
If the city gave the New Flyer company 226 old buses and received 226 new buses in exchange, it would be a good deal. However in order to get the 226 new buses, the city must cough up $155 million for a depreciating asset. On the assumption that this purchase meets long-term LRT needs, that the costs are accurate, that the interest on the borrowed money is included in the cost, and "long term" means five years, then in August, when the new buses are expected to arrive, OC Transpo should be reducing its parts and labor budget by 15% and taking other measures to ensure that these buses will pay for themselves within five years. The salient point here is that in the private sector, money would not be borrowed to purchase a depreciating asset unless in the long-term, said asset was going to make more money than it cost to buy it with the borrowed money. If OC Transpo can't find the funds through cost reductions within its own house, then because it's a core service, there is a business case to find the money by postponing some capital projects such as the new central library or, by (heaven forbid !) cutting the budgets in other non-core services at city hall such as communications, HR, corporate services, administration, finance etc. Simple. No rocket science required here ! You can learn more about OTAG by accessing their excellent web site at http://www.ottawataxpayer.com/ .
The Ottawa Voters' Coalition (OVC) how has its very professional-looking website up and running and it can be accessed at http://www.ovc.name/ . This organization is interested in governance, recognizing that the current council set-up does not work. OVC advocates redrafting ward boundaries, reducing the number of ward councillors and re-establishing a Board of Control or executive committee which would see the mayor plus four others elected city-wide. Why does the current council set-up not work ? Too few of the current bunch can see beyond their ward boundaries. No " big picture" vision among this crowd and that's been the curse of amalgamation.
The third ratepayer group which has come to the fore is the Carleton Landowners' Association. It represents rural ratepayers who believe (and rightly so) that they were shafted by amalgamation -- in that they're now paying for city services which they don't receive. These are people who chose to live outside the city's boundaries, who chose to live with septic tanks and wells and do without other amenities in order to have lower property taxes. They were dragged into amalgamation kicking and screaming, they've seen their property taxes increase and they're mad !
These three organizations have come together to host a "Taxpayer Cocktail" this afternoon from 3.00 to 5.00 p.m. in the Hungarian House at 43 Capital Drive in Nepean. They're invited all the candidates in the upcoming municipal election to attend and present their platforms.
Only three incumbents -- Councillors Marianne Wilkinson, Doug Thompson and Rick Chiarelli -- are among the attendees but some 17 hopefuls have signed on. Representatives from OTAG, OVC and the Landowners will talk about their respective organizations, MP Pierre Poilievre will address the federal government's departmental budget freeze, MPP Norm Sterling will discuss reforming the municipal electoral process and MPP Lisa MacLeod will speak about the "Truth In Government" Bill coming before the provincial legislature.
Is the poor showing on the part of incumbents a reflection of what seems to be the view held by more than a few of them that they can't be unseated ? Some of them will learn, come October, that this was not the election year to treat voters with disdain. Arrogance doesn't cut it when taxpayer anger reaches the level it has now reached in Ottawa. A lot of us will be going to the polls determined to vote for anyone but the incumbent !

New posts usually on Sundays. Next post on May 9.

A Fable For Our Time.......

It's the summer of 2011. Ottawans have lived for a year now with a 25 per cent increase in hydro rates which was introduced in the summer of 2010. Interesting things have been happening as the citizenry struggles to make ends meet, having also been burdened with a huge water rate increase, property tax hikes in excess of inflation and a new provincial HST which has added an additional cost to just about everything they purchase, including funerals -- the latter having caused a near-stampede at funeral homes by senior citizens trying to make their "arrangements" prior to the new tax coming into effect.
In an effort to effect economies, lights and electricity-consuming devices have been turned off all over the place.
Canadian Tire can't keep up with the demand for hurricane lanterns, kerosene lamps, lamp oil and candles.
COSTCO outlets are mobbed when gas generators are on sale -- Joe and Jane Lunchpail having learned that it's cheaper to run certain appliances off a gas generator than it is to use hydro.
More people are doing the bulk of their cooking outdoors -- on barbecues, hibachis, turkey fryers and two-burner camp stoves. The smell of propane and charcoal hangs in the air.
The clothesline has made a comeback.
The freezer has become a repository where electricity-sucking X-Boxes, WIIs, PS3's, Game-Boys, computers etc. are stored under lock and key -- only to be brought out on special occasions.
Teenagers no longer hang out at malls. They're needed at home to hang out the laundry which they've washed by hand after they've washed the family's dishes by hand.
In winter, thermostats are turned way down and Stanfield's one-piecers are the latest fashion accessory. People learn to live with sweltering summer temperatures -- movie theatres are packed for every showing because they have air conditioning.
Folks shop for perishable foods and dairy products on a daily basis, having converted from the 15-cubic foot fridge to the bar-sized model which sucks far less juice.
City council no longer frets about cow statues on fromagerie roofs. The problem of unsightly clotheslines in Kanata and Rockcliffe, not to mention the increasing number of rooftop and backyard electricity-generating windmills has their collective knickers in a twist.
Senior citizens are now in demand to give advice and guidance -- especially depression babies who remember what it was like to live with the icebox, the daily shopping, the outdoor clothesline and the hand-cranked radio.............
The premier of Ontario and the mayor of Ottawa congratulate the citizenry for their efforts to conserve electricity. The comes the bad news. Efforts have been so successful that Ottawa Hydro is no longer generating sufficient revenue to meet its operating costs ! Ottawa Hydro must increase its base rate !
Think it can't happen ? Well it just did-- with Ottawa's water/sewer rates. Bad enough that taxpayers are hit with a nine per cent increase in these rates, but now we're going to have to pay a higher base rate because we've taken water conservation to heart and are using less of it in our daily lives.
Citizen Ellie always believed conservation should be rewarded. Silly me ! Apparently this is not the view held by elected officials in the city of Ottawa -- where conserving is deserving of a penalty in the form of an additional hike in water/sewer rates.

Urban Chicken Update

Popular Montreal chef and TV personality Ricardo Lavallee (Ricardo & Friends, 7.00 p.m. Mon.-Fri., The Food Channel) has come out in support of the urban chicken movement.

In the most recent edition of his glossy magazine (Ricardo -- which is found everywhere French-language magazines are sold) he writes of his love for his "poules" (hens), his childhood memories of his sisters feeding the hens his father had introduced to their Quebec backyard and how he hopes to see Montreal and Chambly follow cities such as New York and Vancouver in allowing residents to keep small flocks of hens. Nothing better than stepping out the backdoor into the garden henhouse and gathering some nice fresh eggs for breakfast. If it happened here, in Citizen Ellie's neighborhood we'd have to figure out a way to keep the urban raccoons from getting to the eggs first.

New posts usually on Sundays