Growing pricetag, LRT washroom closures raise questions about proposed downtown public toilet

Long-awaited plans to install a stand-alone public washroom in Centretown are set to come to fruition this year, but as the city’s other public restrooms face vandalism and safety hazards, the Centretown facility could be on the chopping block.

To make going to the loo more accessible, the city announced plans to build its first stand-alone public washroom near the corner of Somerset and Bank Streets in Centretown, something that Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster has been pushing for since she was elected in 2022.

The concept drew pushback almost immediately due to the pricetag. Now, it's facing renewed scrutiny, and concerns are being raised over how they will be kept safe and operational in the long term.

Earlier this week, Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo got the discussion going when a resident emailed to ask why the bathrooms at Tunney’s Pasture and other light rail stations had remained closed for months. When he asked city staff for details, he learned it was due to repeated vandalism and discarded needles. 

“It wasn’t at Tunney’s, but it was another washroom at Bayview, where they had found needles placed in a seemingly deliberate way to cause harm to either staff or customers,” he told the Lookout.

That hasn’t been the only concern. There have been repeated instances of broken stalls and mirrors. In one instance, Lo said concrete was flushed into a station toilet, forcing crews to excavate the floor to repair the plumbing.

The current closures remain in place while the city conducts a risk assessment to determine how washrooms can safely reopen — and stay open.

Measures could include blue lighting to discourage drug use, improved monitoring and enforcement, more frequent maintenance cycles, or expanding Ottawa’s Anchor program onto the transit network.

The timing of those closures has added a new layer of uncertainty to the city’s planned stand-alone public washroom on Bank Street — a facility expected to be roughly 400 square feet and among the first of its kind owned directly by the municipality. 

Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster, who has championed the project since being elected in 2022, has previously argued that the lack of accessible public washrooms in Ottawa is a basic service gap. 

Troster declined to comment for this story when reached by the Lookout on Thursday.  

Lo said the recent transit washroom closures reinforce concerns that had already existed about maintaining any new downtown facility.

“On principle, I think it’s a good thing to have,” he said. “But the costs on the surface for me are concerning, and then the whole thing with the LRT washrooms is just another layer of things to consider.

Mary Huang, president of the Centretown Community Association, said her group supports improving washroom access — but she questions whether the city’s current approach is the best use of limited resources.

“I hear the capital cost is $1.7 million and the operating budget to run the bathrooms was $500,000,” Huang said. “That’s a significant amount of money.” The Lookout could not independently verify this number.

Rather than building a single stand-alone facility, she said the city should explore whether existing infrastructure could be adapted instead.

“Has the city worked with the businesses and the community for alternative options that cost less money? Maybe we can have more of them spread around,” she said. 

Huang pointed to places like libraries and community centres — including the Main Branch and McNabb Recreation Centre — as examples of existing public facilities that could potentially stay open longer with additional staffing.

“That’s a lot less than $500,000 in no capital cost,” she said.

She also suggested the city could consider renting vacant storefront space to host supervised washrooms operated alongside peer-support services.

“$500,000 can go a long way for something else,” Huang said. 

Part of the concern stems from the fact that Centretown is in a social service emergency. The drug and homelessness epidemic has brought many challenges to the downtown area. 

Huang worries it will only get worse when the supervised consumption sites at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre and Inner City Health close in a few months. 

She said expanding outreach programs such as Anchor — alongside investments in supportive housing — may ultimately do more to stabilize conditions than a single new facility.

“I truly think that there needs to be discussions with the business as well as the community,” she said. “Because while that is one solution, there could be other solutions.”

There is $1 million earmarked for two new public washrooms in the 2025 budget, and construction is anticipated to begin this fall. The budget allowed for two self-cleaning washrooms, which is no longer expected to be the plan.

Beacon Hill–Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney is chair of the city’s public works and infrastructure committee and confirmed to the Ottawa Lookout that the project was halted two weeks ago due to “escalated costs.”

“The original agreed-upon two self-washing toilets for $1 million was unable to proceed due to further evaluation or unsuitable for this climate,” he said. 

However, further discussions changed the ideas about what the facility could look like and, in turn, raised the pricetag.

“Since this is a change of what the initial proposal was, the increased cost would be dramatic, and unlike the proposed self-cleaning options, the single permanent washroom requires operational cost,” he said. 

Yet, the city says everything is on track.

In an email to the Lookout on Thursday, the City of Ottawa said there are no additional updates on changes to funding or timelines. 

Currently, the webpage for the project says the facility is entering the design phase this spring and will feature a stand-alone structure wth “two fully accessible washroom units,” both equipped with a toilet, sink, soap dispenser, waste receptacle, and a baby-change table.

Tierney added that with recent developments at other public restrooms across the city, even more details could be up in the air.

“In light of the vandalism and drug use experienced on the O-Train stations that are now closed, any discussion preferring further proposals would not only have the substantial increase costs, but now on top of operating costs, security would most likely have to be looked at,” he said.

The Lookout asked specifically if the operating costs for the project address possible vandalism and public drug use, as seen with public restrooms in LRT stations, or if the costs have been updated to reflect these increasing concerns. The city did not respond to this part of the request.

Although the facility is expected to also serve pedestrians, tourists and families on a daily basis, it is also meant to provide a dignified option for people experiencing homelessness.

Kaite Burkholder Harris, executive director at the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, has advocated for more public restroom facilities in Ottawa.

Currently, there are very limited places where unsheltered and unhoused people can access washroom facilities in Ottawa.

“Increasingly, you see spaces shut the doors on this and not really have the option available. I see more coffee shops where it's like you have a key, and you have to be a paying customer to access the bathroom,” said Harris. “That is happening, anecdotally, more frequently than I've certainly seen in the past. 

“I think it's to cut down on worrying about people who might come into a place and may be having a mental health crisis,” she said. “It all speaks to the fact that there’s a much bigger challenge we're facing right now, and that's a lot of people in distress who don't have safe housing.”

She said in an ideal world, people would be housed, and the washrooms would be used by pedestrians or tourists. But until that happens, Burkholder Harris said it’s just a matter of giving the right resources to ensure the facilities are clean, safe and accessible.

“I do appreciate the challenge of being worried about safety concerns, being worried about vandalism,” she said. “The reality is that those things are going to happen in or without a closed space, and to at least have the option to use the bathroom in a dignified way is really important.”

While no motions or inquiries about addressing this renewed debate have been made public, questions are expected to be raised at committee meetings next week.