On Wednesday November 13th, 2024, the People’s Official Plan coalition co-sponsored an event focusing on Building a Better Budget for the City of Ottawa. This event was planned in response to the City’s release of the draft operating and capital budget for 2025, and was held at 464 Metcalfe Street, home of the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation.
Along with partners: Synapcity, Horizon Ottawa, and the City for All Women Initiative, the event spotlighted the need for a more inclusive municipal budget that will implement revenue raising tools to fund social programs, invest in community services instead of cutting them, invest in transit as a vital community service, invest in climate change mitigation, and seriously address the housing crisis.
During the event, attendees heard a keynote presentation from Neil Saravanamutoo, Director of CitySHAPES. Neil is an advocate for housing, transit and climate action, and is an economist who has held senior roles at the Department of Finance Canada and at the G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub. He and former City Councillor Catherine McKenney founded CitySHAPES in 2023 as a national organization advocating for better cities across the country. Neil is a vocal supporter of several community initiatives and is also the author of the 613 substack.
After Neil’s presentation, Horizon Ottawa’s Sam Hersh moderated a panel that included Farnaz Farhang, Researcher at Vivec Research and Nate Wallace, Program Manager at Environmental Defence. Following the panel, attendees broke off into several smaller breakout groups to discuss critical components of the city budget including Transit, Climate Action, Community Safety & Well Being. The event also featured a workshop training session to prepare residents to make deputations at City Council meetings.
Check out the full series of photos from the event HERE!
