City considering parking tax to fill hole in transit budget

Good morning!

Hard to believe we’ve hit the end of July already. Even with the seeming early start to the warm weather this year, it still seems to have flown by.

Good news to start the week, both the LRT and the 417 are set to reopen this morning!

Today, we’ve got some news about measures the city is considering to shore up the OC Transpo budget, a round-up of everything that happened over the weekend, and plenty of arts and other events so you can get the most out of your week.

Let’s get to it.

— Robert Hiltz, managing editor

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign up for free.

Monday: 30 🌡️ 19 | 🌤

Tuesday: 31 🌡️ 20 | ☁️

Wednesday: 26 🌡️ 20 | 🌧

TRANSIT

Parking levy could be option to lessen OC Transpo budget deficit

What happened: The city is considering imposing a levy on private parking lots to help shore up the OC Transpo budget, according to a staff memo. A working group is also looking at possible adjustments to the urban transit area.

“A review of the Urban Transit Area and a Private Parking Levy as an additional revenue option is ongoing, the results of which would be provided in future updates,” the memo said.

The city believes that over the next 30 years, there will be an $8.6-billion funding gap for transit.

Parking levies: One option under consideration is adding a tax to off-street private parking lots. The exact shap hasn’t been revealed yet, but other cities offer some possibilities.

How it could work: According to the recent End of the Line report on the budget struggles of different transit systems across the country, both Montreal and Vancouver charge a parking levy to feed into the transit budget. Transit in the Vancouver area takes a percentage of all parking sales in the city, while Montreal imposes a tax based on the area of the parking lot and its location in the city.

The report’s authors write that in addition to bringing more revenue to the transit service, such a tax would encourage more people to take alternate modes of transportation (including transit) because of higher parking fees. And, depending on how it’s designed, the increased taxes may see landowners reduce or eliminate the number of spaces they offer to avoid paying the additional fee.

In a previous issue, we looked at some of the different fees and levies that could help fix the transit budget. You can read that here.

Urban area changes? It’s not clear what a change to the urban transit area would look like. Right now, the city aims to have transit service within 400 metres of 95% of residents in the urban area. If the city was looking to save money it’s possible they could redefine the urban area, or perhaps redefine the distances or percentage target for transit access.

The working group: The is made up of the elected chairs of the transportation and planning committees, the head of transit commission, the mayor, and senior city bureaucrats. The working group will report back to council later this year on ways the city could shore up transit budget over the next few years.

“These [budget] levers could be implemented within a year or two to solve the more immediate financial pressures as staff continue to advance work on the longer-term solutions,” the memo said.

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OTTAWA BY THE NUMBERS

🔬 $1.5 billion: The amount of money the federal government announced will go to constructing two laboratories — one on transportation safety, the other on low-carbon technologies — in the east end. [Ottawa Citizen]

🏖️ 6: The number of beaches in the Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark Health Unit closed because of E. coli after heavy rain. [CTV]

NEW LOCAL JOBS

Check out the new open positions in Ottawa.

1. Research officer at Ottawa Carleton District School Board

2. Internal communications senior advisor at Canadian Air Transport Security Authority

3. Labour relations staff representative at Canadian Media Guild

4. Operations specialist at Ontario Health

5. Bilingual returning officer at Elections Ontario

Local jobs are selected by the Lookout team and are not paid ads, unless specifically noted. 

THE AGENDA

🅿️ A group of activists argued passionately that on-street parking along Bank should be a thing of the past. Some shop owners along the route aren’t so sure. [Ottawa Citizen]

🚜 Local farmers are worried about the future, after a large amount of rainfall is making for a tricky growing season. The frequency of extreme weather isn’t much help either. [CBC]

🪧 Residents of the Aspen Towers on Richmond Road are fighting to stop being evicted en masse as a new owner wants to renovate the entire building and increase rents. [CTV]

🪫 Battery parts manufacturer Umicore stopped construction on a Kingston-area parts plant after a softening in the electric vehicle market. The company said a lack of new contracts raised questions about the $2.76-billion facility’s viability. The federal and provincial governments planned to invest nearly $1 billion in the construction. [CBC]

🚧 The weekend Preston Street overpass replacement on the 417 led to some pretty awful traffic, especially with the LRT also down for maintenance. The Queensway is expected to reopen today at 6 am. [CTV]

🚨 A woman allegedly shot by a man with a pellet gun on an OC Transpo bus was shocked to escape the war in Ukraine without injury, only to be wounded on an Ottawa bus. A man faces 10 charges including assault with a weapon. [CBC]

🚒 Multiple people were displaced after a serious fire damaged a Barrhaven townhouse complex. Fortunately, no one was injured in the blaze. [CTV]

💐 Bob Jones, an assistant coach with the Ottawa Senators, died at the age of 54. Jones was diagnosed in 2022 with ALS. [CBC]

😷 The city is seeing COVID hospitalizations at levels not seen since last winter. [Ottawa Citizen]

FROM THE ARCHIVE

More than just a stat: Suburban moms fight to end opioid overdoses

What happened: Natalie Bernard's world changed in April 2022 when her son died from an accidental overdose of Flubromazolam. 

William Bernard, 21, had generalized anxiety disorder and was doing well until he had to come off taking antidepressants to pursue pilot lessons at the Ottawa Flying Club. The Barrhaven resident, “who was born to fly,” attended Algonquin College for Aviation Management, but decided just weeks before his death to take a break on getting his commercial pilot licence so he could become mentally strong again.

“Three weeks before he died I asked William when the last time he felt well was and he said it was when he was on his medication. We both made a decision to put this dream on hold for now and focus on his mental health,” Natalie told the Ottawa Lookout. 

CAPITAL EATS

Coming up this week: The search for hidden treasure

With so many Vietnamese restaurants in Ottawa, it’s easy either stumble on, or miss, the occasional treasure.

As a result of yet another frustrating attempt to review a different restaurant, I made the best of the situation and soon found myself eating some finely prepared foods. Better yet, this restaurant has ties to one of my favourite Vietnamese restaurants in Ottawa.

To instantly subscribe to our food publication Capital Eats, click here.

EVENTS

What to do this week

🎇 Les Grand Feux Casino Lac Leamy, July 31 to Aug. 17: The international fireworks competition returns this week, with teams from around the world competing to dazzle. At the Canadian Museum of History. Ticket prices vary.

🥟 Journée Dumplings & Saké, Saturday 1 pm: Enjoy some housemade dumplings and saké while learning to paint porcelain. French-language event, with English translation available. At Ras L'BOL, 137B Rue Principale, Gatineau. Price varies by food/drink order.

⛏️ Public Archaeological Digs, all August: Supervised digs where you can learn hands-on about the pre-contact history of the region. At Parc Lac Leamy. Free.

🐝 See the Bees at Gees Bees, Saturday and Sunday: Get up close and personal (but not too personal) from a screened-in area to learn all about bees and beehives. At Gees Bees, 538 River Rd. Tickets $5.

Arts events

📖 Les lundis des tout-petits, Monday 10 am: French story time with Luana, telling magical and enchanting stories en français. At Peter A. Herrndorf Place at the NAC. Free.

📚 The Writer's Circle, Wednesday 7 pm: Artists of any medium are invited to join to discus the creative process and take part in a creative exercise. At Art House, 555 Somerset St. W. Tickets $8.

📽️ Twilight Cinema, Wednesday 8:30 pm: An outdoor viewing of the Quebec-produced documentary L’OCÉAN VU DU CŒUR, exploring the impact of people on the creatures of the ocean. At Terrasse du Square, 248 Old Chelsea. Tickets $5.

🤹‍♂️ Ottawa International Busker Fest, Friday to Monday: Come out for a fetival of all sorts of performers from across the globe. Four days of performances at four stages. On Sparks Street. Free.

🎨 Soul Sisters Art Workshop - flower yarn painting, Saturday 10 am: An art class for women to paint a bouquet of flowers using watercolours and mixed-media materials. At Kemptville Campus, 40 Campus Dr., Kemptville. Tickets $50.

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COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• Congrats to Ottawa’s Nancy Hugget, who won the RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award for her collection of poetry Revelation. [PEN Canada]

• Get delicious local foods and great variety delivered to your door from Aliments Farmhouse Foods! Sign up for weekly or bi-weekly deliveries! [Sponsored]

• What does it take to keep a giant pipe organ working? Quite a bit, it turns out. [Ottawa Citizen]

• We all like to gawk, so here are seven of the most expensive homes for sale in the city right now. [CTV]

• A local group of scouts who were in Jasper National Park during the wildfires are finally home safe. [CBC]

• You want it darker? Check out this goth garden in Carleton Place. [CBC]

• Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

OTTAWA GAMES

Congrats to everyone who got last week’s Ottawa Wordle, the answer was TOWER, as in the proposed large tower in Barrhaven.

For this week’s Ottawa Quiz, we want to know…