On February 26, 2007, Ottawa City Council approved the 2007 Operating and Capital Budgets with a zero percent property tax increase for all city services with the exception of Ottawa Police Services. The City's total operating budget for 2007 is $2.2 billion and the capital budget (without police) is $651 million. There is a 0.3% tax increase required to fund the operating requirements of Ottawa Police Services as directed by the Police Services Board.
As part of the budget, Council approved $46.7 million in sustainable reductions and budget reduction targets to the operating budget, as proposed by staff. Council voted to limit a transit fare increase to 2% and implemented inflationary increases to other user fees (1.7%). In order to achieve a zero percent tax increase, Council voted to use $23.5 million from the 2006 budget surplus and $8.3 million from the Tax Rate Stabilization Reserve Fund.
During the priority-setting session this spring, City Council will identify their priorities and develop a sustainable framework to guide future City budgets. Staff will continue to assist in finding efficiencies, providing options to control spending, and looking for new revenue sources to deliver services.
I was pleased to host a budget consultation with residents of River Ward to receive their input toward the 2007 budget on February 12, 2007. City Treasurer Marian Simulik joined me on this occasion. Residents asked a wide range of questions and provided some thoughtful advice regarding the 2007 budget.
The city will be launching the 14th annual Spring Cleaning the Capital campaign in April. As you know, this program encourages our residents to show their community pride and join the City's cleanup efforts by conducting clean up and beautification projects in their neighbourhoods. In 2006, over 53,000 participants from schools, businesses, community groups and associations, neighbours, friends and families pitched in to complete a record 750 registered cleanup projects. To support the growing interest in this program, the campaign was expanded to include the first ever Fall Cleaning the Capital. Over 12,000 participants rose to the challenge by completing 270 fall clean-up projects. I will provide more details on the campaign as soon as they are available.
As part of their 2006 Workplan, the City's Community and Protective Services Workplan included a Senior's Agenda. The Senior's Agenda is a collaborative effort with the Senior's Advisory Committee and other community partners. It focuses on three top priorities identified through a survey to enhance services in key areas serving Ottawa seniors, namely:
In regard to the identified need for communication, a webpage and brochure were launched on March 1, 2007. These tools will help create a seniors focus within the city and provide seniors, their caregivers and staff a one-stop information database to assist them with senior's everyday needs. The website address is: http://ottawa.ca/residents/seniors/index_en.html
The brochure is available at the Libraries, Client Service Centres, Parks and Recreation facilities through Home Help Services, Para-Transpo and Paramedic Services. I have asked for copies, which I will distribute to all community centres in River Ward.
March is the national Fraud Prevention month for 2007, and is hosted by the Competition Bureau of Canada. The theme of for this initiative is "RECOGNIZE IT- REPORT IT-STOP IT". The Ottawa Police Service is a contributing partner within a Forum that is comprised of a coalition of private industry businesses, federal, provincial, and municipal government agencies and other policing services, which disseminate brochures, pamphlets and other educational initiatives to propagate fraud prevention.
As partners in the Fraud Prevention Forum, the Ottawa Police Service is responsible to communicate these initiatives to community members to better insulate them against the wares and snares of fraud. To that end, Ottawa Police are hosting three public presentations throughout March in order to communicate fraud prevention initiatives to equip and educate people to be more proactive against fraud scams.
The partners assisting the Ottawa Police Service's, Organized Fraud Section with these community events are the Better Business Bureau, the ABC's of Fraud, and the Bank of Canada.
On March 31, 2007, there will be a national "Shred It" event, where the public can attend to have their personal and sensitive documents safely shredded. The event will take place in the Lynx Stadium parking lot at 300 Coventry Road between 10:00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m.
Examples of fraud include the following activities:
The Ottawa Police Fraud Section's public presentations are scheduled as follows:
As part of the Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) where, on a monthly basis, two initiatives are launched that target specific traffic offences, in January 2007, the focus was once again on Following-too-Close and Red Light Running. During this campaign, 524 charges were laid against drivers.
Specifically, the tailgating initiative resulted in the laying of 55 charges, and 469 tickets were issued to drivers running red lights.
In February 2007, Police targeted Improper Lane Changing and Stop Sign Violations. I will provide the charge and ticket stats for these two initiatives once they are available.
This month, Police are targeting Red Light Running and Speeding, offences that have been identified as a problem in our city.
Last Spring the City initiated a 3-Stage Stormwater Management Strategy to guide safe and effective management of stormwater runoff and protect and improve the health of our streams and rivers.
Phase 1 of the Stormwater Management Strategy, which included the compilation of and summarization of existing conditions related to built infrastructure (pipes, stormwater management ponds, etc.) as well as natural conditions (local watercourses, soil conditions, habitat, etc.), has been completed. The city is preparing proceed with the next stage of the strategy, which includes a series of Open Houses for public review and input on the draft policies. The Open Houses are scheduled as follows:
Please note that brief presentations will be made at 7:00 p.m. on all evenings and an additional presentation will be made at 5:00 p.m. during the March 28, 2007 Open House at City Hall.
I am pleased to report that the City recently signed a contribution agreement with the federal government to provide over $1.2 million in federal funding for transit security in Ottawa.
The funding, which was announced in November 2006, is part of the Transit-Secure Program and will enable OC Transpo to carry out three transit security projects:
The agreement will see Transport Canada fund 75 per cent of the program with a contribution of $907,838. The City will commit $302,613 to make up the remaining 25 per cent.
This Transit-Secure funding will enable the City's transit services branch to improve its overall security and safety over the next two years.
I was pleased to join Active Ottawa Actif and the Ottawa 67's on March 3, 2007 for a skating party to honour the participants of the 2007 IV2 Skate program, an initiative that provided over 200 children between the ages of six and 12 - who would otherwise not have the opportunity to learn to skate - with skates, helmets and skating lessons.
This event is the result of collaborative efforts by Active Ottawa Actif community partners, the Ministry of Health Promotion, the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Giant Tiger, Ottawa Public Health and Parks and Recreation.
As Vice-Chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, I am pleased to report that we have hired a new Chief, Vernon White, to replace retiring Chief Vince Bevan.
Ottawa Chief-Designate White currently heads up the Durham Regional Police Service, a community of approximately 600,000 immediately east of Toronto. Prior to becoming Chief of Police in Durham in 2005, he spent over 20 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the last position he held was that of Assistant Commissioner for Information and Identification in Ottawa. Prior to that he worked in various policy and investigational areas in a number of locations including Halifax, the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. His extensive experience includes major case management, community policing, proceeds of crime, Detachment/Unit Commander, support services management, commercial crime and program policy. He is proficient in both official languages.
Chief-Designate White has a wealth of demonstrated successes in working with diverse communities, particularly Canada's First Nations and Inuit communities. Chief-Designate White takes office in May 2007.