Blais: Doug Ford’s deal for Ottawa isn’t as generous as touted

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The following is offered in response to Randall Denley’s column, Ford steps up for the city of Ottawa. Now it’s Trudeau’s turn, published April 2.

Let’s be clear: Some provincial funding is better than none. But let’s also be clear: The recent Ottawa funding agreement with the province is short on cash and long on spin.

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With numerous elected officials proudly declaring triumph, why is this agreement a raw deal for Ottawa?

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Simply put: Is an Ottawa resident worth only 46 per cent of a Toronto resident? As with all financial deals, the devil is in the details and these figures are hellish.

Last November, Ontario announced a massive new deal for Toronto. Over three years, the province will give Toronto $1.2 billion, which is about $396.61 for every resident of that city.

Meanwhile, the deal announced last week for Ottawa will see $197 million in operating investments over three years. That is about $181.81 per Ottawa resident.

I find it difficult to support the idea that our residents are not, at the very least, equal to Toronto residents and that they somehow don’t deserve equal investment per capita.

And the inadequate treatment does not stop there.

In Toronto, they expect a capital investment of up to $7.6 billion over the next 10 years. Here in Ottawa, we’ll get $346 million over the same period. We can all see that this is also disproportionally weighted in favour of the Big Smoke.

There has been no bigger champion of re-uploading Highway 174 to the province than me. As a city councillor, I had council endorse this idea, and as MPP I have introduced legislation to make this happen.

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So let’s be clear: While the premier said he would upload the highway, that isn’t what his government said in its own news release.

The government’s news release says that the province will help pay maintenance and rehabilitation costs for the 174 while “a three-stage phased assessment of potential provincial ownership of the road is underway.”

“Potential provincial ownership.” We are a government town. Politicians and bureaucrats alike know what a sentence like that means. Lots and lots and lots of wiggle room to end up doing nothing.

So, is Highway 174 being re-uploaded or is there just a possibility of it being re-uploaded? My wife frequently teases me by saying that one is either pregnant or not pregnant; there is no middle ground.

Important questions remain unanswered. How much will this phased approach cost, who is paying for that, and when will it conclude?  Could this lack of clarity be a deliberate strategy by the Ford government and city council to extend the timeline beyond the 2026 election cycle, given the plan’s three-year operating timeline?

The new deal for Ottawa is also completely silent on the major operating deficits faced by OC Transpo. Transit, on the other hand, is a major factor in the deal with Toronto. By failing to address this issue, OC Transpo users will face increased fares and diminished service quality.

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Even beyond the new deal for Toronto, GTA transit users just received a major subsidy courtesy of Ontario taxpayers. The Ontario One Fare program will give transit users in the GTA a $1,600 discount on their fares with integration with the TTC. But alas, nothing for Ottawa.

This approach is not uncommon for the Ford government. For example, the premier promised to help pay for Ottawa’s recovery from the 2022 derecho, which totalled $50 million in expenses, but he has not provided a single dollar in support.

Ottawa politicians are trying to dine out on this announcement. But instead of a gourmet meal, residents in Ottawa are only getting Toronto’s table scraps.

Stephen Blais is the Liberal MPP for Orléans, and critic for Municipal Affairs and Infrastructure.

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