A great public forum on city governance

Councillor Clive Doucet sponsored an excellent forum, “Governing Ottawa Better”, last evening in the council chamber at City Hall. It was very well attended; there was a well informed panel of speakers; and there was lots of opportunity for individual citizens to speak and make their views known.

I think that a majority of people attending were likely in favor of some form of re-amalgamation of the city from its present structure. However, we also learned that getting the mission accomplished might not be easy.

There a couple of ways that a re-amalgamation (sounds more positive than de-amalgamation!) could be pursued by:

- local referendum or
- direct legislative change initiated by City Council.

Both options have pros and cons, but either way the provincial government has to buy in. The past history of attempts to de-amalgamate in the Province of Ontario shows that the government has rejected past attempts on the basis of uncertainty regarding fiscal sustainability, adverse property tax shifts (property tax fairness) and lack of council endorsement. Any proposal to change the present municipal structure would have to address the first two issues effectively. This requires a lot of effort.

If this initiative moves forward Clive and his team will need a lot of help and support.

If you are willing to help lobby your local MPP for municipal reform in Ottawa, or participate in working groups looking at alternate governance structures, please visit Clive’s web site. Electronic copies of a governance questionnaire are also available at Clive’s web site: http://www.clivedoucet.com/.