When Ottawa residents elected Mark Sutcliffe, they were hoping for a mayor who would bring fresh energy, vision, and the resolve to tackle the city’s mounting challenges. Instead, two years in, it’s clear Sutcliffe is more of a city manager than a transformative leader. His term has been defined by bureaucratic processes, empty promises, and tax hikes that hit the average Ottawa resident harder than ever. With a lacklustre approach that prioritizes endless planning over decisive action, Sutcliffe’s leadership has left Ottawa in limbo.
Bureaucracy Over Action: The “Night Mayor” Debacle
Consider the introduction of Ottawa’s “Night Mayor,” a role intended to revitalize the city’s nightlife and support after-hours businesses—a concept that, in theory, should address the challenges faced by small businesses operating at night. But the reality has left many of those business owners rolling their eyes. Rather than pursuing creative, practical solutions like offering free night parking, cleaning up the often dirty ByWard Market, or lowering taxes on pubs and night venues, the Sutcliffe administration’s solution is predictably bureaucratic: they hired Ottawa’s first “Night Mayor,” officially titled Special Liaison for Nightlife and Economy.
This choice for Night Mayor Mathieu Grondin was selected despite having no established ties to Ottawa’s business community or deep knowledge of its unique challenges. Since starting, he’s spent months assuring residents that Ottawa isn’t a “boring city” and unveiled a “plan” to establish a volunteer advisory board that won’t begin “advising” until 2025. After six months, that’s the major announcement—another committee, more meetings, and zero tangible outcomes for the city’s struggling nighttime businesses. This misguided initiative has done nothing to actually support Ottawa’s nightlife sector; instead, it’s added yet another layer of bureaucracy and expense without solving a single problem.
Tone-Deaf Leadership at the ByWard Market Association
The ByWard Market District Authority, led by Executive Director Zachary Dayler, was created to revitalize Ottawa’s oldest and most iconic market. Yet Dayler’s leadership has fallen short, drawing criticism from frustrated businesses and residents who see little urgency or action.
Despite a hefty $1.2 million taxpayer-funded budget, pressing issues like rising rents, rampant drug use, and visible crime are worsening. The area now resembles a scene from The Walking Dead, with open drug use, waste left in public spaces, and a sense of decay that drives away families, tourists, and locals alike.
Instead of immediate, practical solutions, Dayler’s approach has been bogged down in bureaucracy, with extensive planning phases and consultations but little to show for it. Local business owners and city officials argue that ByWard Market doesn’t need more plans or advisory boards; it requires urgent action to improve safety, clean up the streets, and support struggling businesses.
Together, Dayler’s position and the Night Mayor role cost taxpayers over half a million dollars annually—funds that have yet to yield any tangible improvements. This ineffective spending does little to address the real challenges facing the ByWard Market and Ottawa’s nighttime economy.
High-Speed Cameras: A Backdoor Tax
Under Mayor Sutcliffe’s administration, Ottawa has ramped up its reliance on high-speed cameras, generating over $100 million in ticket revenue annually. While ostensibly aimed at public safety, this substantial revenue source has essentially become a backdoor tax on Ottawa’s residents. Instead of directing these funds toward road safety or infrastructure improvements, they are absorbed into general revenue. Residents are left footing the bill with little evidence of increased safety or improved traffic management.
Ottawa’s Overlooked Fentanyl and Drug Crisis
Sutcliffe has shown little urgency in addressing Ottawa’s worsening fentanyl and drug crisis. The city is in dire need of a comprehensive harm-reduction strategy and increased support for addiction treatment facilities, yet Sutcliffe’s administration has done little beyond maintaining the status quo. Ottawa’s families and communities are bearing the brunt of this crisis, and the lack of action is an alarming failure to protect the city’s most vulnerable residents.
The Public Transit Crisis
Despite Sutcliffe’s promises to prioritize public transit, OC Transpo is on the brink of financial collapse, facing a projected $120 million operating deficit. Instead of a concrete recovery plan, Sutcliffe is relying on uncertain federal and provincial funds.
The mismanagement of OC Transpo stems in large part from Suttcliffe’s inability to manage or replace the General Manager of Transit Services, Renee Amilcar.
However, he created the Light Rail Sub-Committee, subservient to the Transit Commission and the City Council by extension. At their February 16, 2023 meeting, while discussing a motion for stricter oversight of the LRT’s daily operations, Amilcar angrily lashed out at Councillors, saying, “I’m not paid to be told what to do.”
One out of every four buses in Ottawa is consistently late. Instead of prioritizing improving subpar bus services, OC Transpo appears to be more dedicated to updating its fleet with electric buses. However, the delivery of these buses is significantly delayed, exacerbating the burden on the already ageing fleet. When they do arrive, there is no guarantee that they will perform well in our climate, as the city of Edmonton’s program has shown. In addition to charge issues in the winter affecting range, more than half of their four-year-old fleet of 60 e-buses are no longer road-worthy.
Ridership is down, fares are up by five percent, and residents are expected to shoulder an eight percent increase in the transit levy. This lack of strategic planning speaks volumes about Sutcliffe’s complacency, leaving Ottawa’s transit system at a breaking point. Despite this, it’s business as usual.
Tax Hikes and Fewer Services
After two years of holding property tax increases to 2.5 percent, Sutcliffe is now proposing a 3.9 percent hike for 2025, surpassing his campaign promises. Ottawa residents will pay more for public transit, while students face a reduced discount. This combination of higher taxes and fewer services exemplifies Sutcliffe’s approach: more revenue from residents without delivering meaningful improvements.
Mishandling Queen Elizabeth Driveway
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s response to the Queen Elizabeth Driveway could serve as a metaphor for how the city has been managed under his leadership. His response to this ridiculous NCC closure was timid and revealed an unwillingness to stand up to the NCC and protect the interests of Ottawa residents, especially given the evident negative impacts on traffic and local communities. A stronger leader might have pushed back, asserting that city streets should be managed with the needs of residents in mind rather than allowing a federal body to impose costly, ineffective policies.
Sutcliffe could have used the city stick to warn the NCC if they didn’t back down; the city could take countermeasures that would directly impact the NCC. Instead, he did nothing but complain in a video about this ridiculous bureaucratic overreach. He allowed the closure to disrupt daily commutes and frustrate drivers, compounding the myriad of existing traffic issues downtown that were all caused by city mismanagement of the traffic file. Complaining and then prolonged inaction as things just happen is becoming emblematic of his leadership style.
“Fairness for Ottawa” Campaign: A Feeble Show
Sutcliffe’s “Fairness for Ottawa” campaign, launched to secure additional funding from higher levels of government, has yielded little. It was another round of complaining and blaming other levels of government and doing nothing except raising property taxes again after the federal government ignored his complaints. This weak effort lacks both strategy and results, making it feel more like a show than an actual fight for the city’s needs. Rather than effective lobbying, Sutcliffe has settled for vague assurances and no concrete gains for Ottawa.
Ottawa Needs a Leader, Not a Bureaucrat
Sutcliffe’s administration has focused on “savings and efficiencies” of $208 million, yet residents are hard-pressed to see these reflected in their daily lives. The city’s core services are in decline, public transit is unreliable, and critical infrastructure remains neglected. Ottawa’s issues won’t be solved by adding layers of management, committees, or advisory boards. The city needs bold, immediate leadership that prioritizes outcomes over processes.
Ottawa deserves a mayor who looks beyond endless meetings and advisory boards and instead takes decisive action. Mark Sutcliffe’s term has shown a fixation on managerial tasks at the expense of visionary leadership. Ottawa’s residents deserve better. They deserve a leader with the courage to make real changes, not just a manager to oversee the status quo.
Mayor Sutcliffe is a genuinely decent person. People want him to succeed. But he is failing the city with his go-along, get-along bureaucratic approach. Ottawa deserves more. It needs a mayor who can light the fuse and get basic things done like transit, responsible budgets, and spending controls. There needs to be a sense of urgency rather than the comfort of complacency that is hollowing out the city one neighbourhood at a time.
Photo: Mayor Sutcliffe via ca.news.yahoo.com