A request for Assistance from the Province of Ontario

I wrote a letter to the Mon. Jim Watson, MPP (Ottawa West - Nepean), Minister of Municipal Affairs asking for assistance addressing potential conflicts of priorities regarding the building of new roads needed to service an ever growing Ottawa Hospital complex at the General Campus site. This is contrary to "smart growth" and the city of Ottawa's "Vision 2020" planning principles that encourage use of public transit, alking and cycling options instead of drivivng.

The need for this new road has been the subject of challenges by citizens groups for a number of years. however City Council elected to proceed with the project and it is currently in the design phase. A local councillor (Peter Hume) claims that the road is needed because of expected growth of the Ottawa Health Sciences Centre that is expected over coming years. It is unclear to me, and many others in the community, what the urgency is to complete this "hospital link" given that no development of ajacent hospital lands can take place for several years and that planned changes to transit in the area might well resolve existing problems anyway.

Further, the Province of Ontario's plan to expand health care services at one site that is far away from where constituents live and increasingly work is questionalble at best. The cost of the hospital link is estimated at $65 million (more likely $100 million). This money could go a long way to building urgent care and other small hospital facilities in suburban areas where they are most needed. This would reduce the transit strain on the hospital lands and likely extend their development shelf life into the next century.

It is clear that different Provincial government departments do not consult closely together when making expansion plans. Unfortunately, the city appears to accept Provincial planning decisions without practicing due diligence. This results in bad planning decisions on the city's part: building roads that might not be needed and reducing the effectiveness of its public transit systems for the long term.

Investigation of this issue also requires consultation with other Provincial government ministries including Health & Long Term Care as well as Infrastructure.

Introduction

This blog provides a channel to present my views on municipal government issues within the City of Ottawa. I’m stimulated to broadcast my views to a wider audience by:

Ongoing City plans to build new roads for private vehicles even in the light of rapidly escalating fuel prices and in direct contravention with its commitments to “Smart Growth.” “Vision 2020” planning principles encourage use of public transit, walking and cycling options instead of driving. This is an important issue that needs timely action, especially as the City is in the process of reviewing and updating its Master Plan.

Overall, the performance of City Council is less than satisfactory. I agree with the plethora of articles in local Ottawa papers recently, suggesting that it is the people working on council that present the problem, rather than the system of local government itself. Its time for a change; so a focus of this blog will be to identify steps that can improve things in the short term; as well, to encourage new intelligent players to come forward in time for the next election (Nov 2010).
Other issues will likely stimulate my interest in the coming months, but for now I’ll concentrate on these areas.