Latest news with #BetterOttawa
Ottawa Citizen
24-06-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Why one Ottawa councillor wants to put the brakes on the Lansdowne 2.0 project
Article content Moore said city planners have been working 'hand-in-glove' with OSEG throughout the planning stage. Article content 'We're designing with OSEG, so they are embedded in our design process with our architect,' he said. 'OSEG knows the business of their tenants and the teams they own and the facilities have been designed hand-in-glove with the tenants to make sure the facilities are professional and meet the needs of the fans and the teams.' Article content The new arena will feature 'multiple levels of fan experience, with suites, bars and standing areas, premium seating and bowl seating,' Moore said. 'The fan experience is not comparable to the old (built in 1967) arena. It will be an amazing fan experience.' Article content Article content Menard's initial call for a referendum was met with a counter-motion that effectively took the item off the agenda for the next finance committee and, according to Neil Saravanamuttoo, removed the ability for residents to voice their concerns to the committee through public delegations. Article content Article content Saravanamuttoo, who launched a petition through Better Ottawa that has collected 6,000 signatures from residents opposed to the plan, hosted his own public consultation on June 23 where residents were able to voice their concerns without the customary five-minute time limit at city committees. Article content 'If the city is shutting us out of the finance committee, we decided we were going to go ahead and hold our own committee meeting so people could have their opportunity to voice their thoughts on Lansdowne, and particularly this question of whether there should be a referendum,' Saravanamuttoo said in an interview. Article content 'We want to give the people the chance to weigh in on this very important, very large financial decision… People are really concerned that we are spending this $493 million, but we also know the city is on the hook for any cost overruns,' Saravanamuttoo said. Article content Article content The auditor general's 2024 report on Lansdowne 2.0 found the city's estimated $419 million construction cost to build the event centre and north side stands were 'optimistic' and 'on the lower end' of acceptable ranges for contingencies and construction costs. Article content 'Given the inherent risks related to construction, including the delayed construction horizon and already increasing construction costs… estimates could be understated by $74.3 million (at) the time of our audit,' the report stated. Article content 'The Auditor General has said the (city's estimated $419 million construction cost) is not realistic, and that's before any other cost escalations from tariffs,' Saravanamuttoo said.
Ottawa Citizen
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Pellerin: Ottawa People's Summit shares ideas for a better city
Maybe I'm too optimistic for my own good, but I have a feeling we'll look back on this time as when people power was born. In the United States, so many Americans are organizing to resist abuses coming from the White House. We don't have Donald Trump in the capital of #Never51, thank goodness, but enough of us are sick and tired of being unheard when it comes to making this the best city it can be that we're organizing. Article content Article content Article content On Tuesday evening, I was downtown for the first People's Summit, put together by Better Ottawa and supported Horizon Ottawa as well as by other community organizations including a few I've written about before, such as Ottawa Community Land Trust and the Urbanism Book Club. Article content The sold-out crowd packed Impact Hub on Slater Street. This in itself was impressive given that the event wasn't advertised very much, and there was a $25 admission fee. Organizer Neil Saravanamuttoo told me he was hoping for 30 or maybe 40 people. Nearly 100 bought a ticket, including Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, who said he went to listen. Article content People came for different reasons, including networking with like-minded folks and debating issues that are front of mind. I walked around the room listening to conversations, and I heard 'Lansdowne' mentioned more than once. Urban gardening and LRT were often heard, too. Article content Article content Mostly I think people came because, as Saravanamuttoo said in his opening remarks to enthusiastic applause, 'we love this city, but we don't like what's happening at City Hall, and we want to do something about it.' Article content Article content The crowd was treated to a live recording of the Better Ottawa Municipal Panel with the fantastic duo of municipal journalism experts Joanne Chianello and Jon Willing. They answered questions from the audience covering subjects such as leadership, engagement, security, public bathrooms (or rather, the ever-frustrating lack thereof), and why councillors' emails often provide better information than anything the city puts out, regardless of platform. Article content Events such as this People's Summit help address a challenge that activists often face when dealing with a large city that is so bureaucratic it moves at a glacial pace — when it moves at all, that is. It takes years to approve simple changes like allowing residents to grow carrots in their front yard. Now imagine more complicated matters like, I don't know, running a transit system that works or building sidewalks that aren't full of badly patched cracks.
