Scooters And One Wheels

Return to Ottawa Metropolis Corridor may have council contemplating authorized battle funding, e-scooter program and obligation as capital metropolis

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The council meeting could end with a new municipal tax.

Ottawa City Hall. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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A meaty agenda awaits an Ottawa city council hungry to govern in person.

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Wednesday’s meeting will be the first to allow members the choice to participate either in chambers at Ottawa City Hall or via Zoom.

It’s also the first time in two years that council members, other than Mayor Jim Watson and occasionally other councillors chairing committees, have been invited back to chambers for a regular meeting. COVID-19 has forced nearly all municipal policymaking to happen through videoconferences.

Here’s what will be served up.

Proposed $100,000 contribution would help fight Quebec’s Bill 21

Councilors Diane Deans and Rawlson King will ask for support to use $100,000 in property tax money to help fund a legal challenge to Quebec’s Bill 21.

The law, which was passed in June 2019, prevents Quebec public servants in positions of authority from wearing visible religious symbols, such as a cross, hijab, turban or kippah.

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Other Canadian municipalities, including several in Ontario, have provided funds to an ongoing legal challenge by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the World Sikh Organization of Canada and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Mayor Jim Watson has said he opposes the motion because he doesn’t support using City of Ottawa tax dollars to fight another level of government.

The motion was originally scheduled to be debated on Feb. 9, but the “Freedom Convoy” occupation dominated the city’s attention and the debate was punted to the first council meeting after the state of emergency lifted.

E-scooter program recommended to continue in 2022

A third e-scooter season could get an easy ride from council.

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Earlier this month, an overwhelming majority of the transportation committee endorsed another year of profitable e-scooters under an ongoing pilot program despite hearing concerns from accessibility advocates.

If the council decides to continue with the program in 2022, the city will only select two companies to collectively offer up to 900 profitable e-scooters in the central area. It would be a decrease from 2021, when three companies deployed 1,200 e-scooters.

The transportation committee recommended that the e-scooter geofencing — the boundaries of operation based on GPS coordinates — make sure e-scooters don’t work on sidewalks, in addition to the usual areas, such as land owned by the National Capital Commission.

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New property tax would bolster rental market, collect housing funds

The council meeting could end with a new municipal tax.

The proposed residential vacant unit tax is designed to keep units available in Ottawa’s rental market and to collect revenue to fund housing programs.

Starting in 2023, property owners with up to six units on a lot would need to declare if any unit was vacant for more than 184 days in the previous year. An additional one-per-cent property tax would apply in those cases.

The city estimates about 330,000 property owners would need to complete declarations.

Annual net revenue from the new tax would be $5 million, according to the city’s estimates.

The city would also allow exemptions related to property sales and for property owners receiving treatment in health facilities. The tax also wouldn’t apply to principal residences.

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City hall’s role in Canada’s capital questioned amid occupation fallout

The truck occupation is over, but the political fallout continues.

count Mathieu Fleury wants council to ask the federal government to strike a working group of politicians from all three levels of government and other agencies. He wants to “modernize the needs and responsibilities of Ottawa’s jurisdiction as a capital city.”

Fleury is aiming to reduce the financial burden on city hall for managing events of national scope while determining the municipal government’s responsibilities and authority.

The occupation exposed to a jurisdictional Quagmire, with the city and the municipal police service responsible for managing a disruption largely aimed at upper levels of government.

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Debate potentials: E-bus audit, housing task force response, road expansion and police board addition

A hodgepodge of other reports and anticipated motions could trace debates.

An audit report is recommending the city scale back a planned purchase of 74 battery-electric buses so staff can wait for the full results of an ongoing pilot project.

The city has a proposed response to the provincial housing task force’s 55 recommendations to build 1.5 million more homes over 10 years in Ontario. The city fears losing local land-use planning authority.

The transportation committee has recommended the city ask the National Capital Commission to enter a 100-day negotiation over the city-preferred route to extend Brian Coburn Boulevard in the east end.

And, council still needs to appoint another member to sit on the Ottawa Police Services Board, which is short one member to do legal business. The next police board meeting is Monday. The province hasn’t announced its own appointees to the revamped board.

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