Budget day in Ottawa: public transit at the heart of the discussions

Ottawa city council is preparing to adopt its budget for 2025 on Wednesday. The difficulties in financing public transit service received particular attention during the budget consultation process.

The process of the last few weeks has not been easyexplained Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to city council Wednesday morning.

He said the issue of public transit has particularly frustrated him, since the burden of funding these services has been placed on citizens rather than governments.

We should instead be talking about the fact that the provincial and federal governments are not paying their fair sharehe said.

All in all, the City of Ottawa is preparing to adopt a historic investment of $856 million for OC Transpo and Para Transpo, according to the mayor. This represents an 11.4% increase in investments compared to the 2024 budget.

Mark Sutcliffe, however, called for changes structural and systemic in terms of financing public transport. He hopes that the provincial and federal governments will offset a third of OC Transpo’s $120 million shortfall caused by a decrease in ridership and an increase in operational costs. He thus repeats a request already made to these levels of government this summer. He then declared that Ottawa risked, without their help, sinking into a financial crisis.

In addition to public transportation, the municipal budget includes investments to improve security in the capital, repair roads and fight poverty. The budget is expected to be officially adopted by the end of the day Wednesday.

Price increases possibly less significant than expected

The city council could adopt lower public transit fares than those provided for in the preliminary budget.

Instead of a 120% price increase for the monthly pass for seniors, the increase would instead be 19%, in response to opposition from certain users. The cost would therefore be $58.25 as of 1^is FEBRUARY.

Following a new motion presented Wednesday morning, seniors should also be able to continue to use OC Transpo services for free on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Furthermore, the proposed 5% increase for passes for university students could be put on pause until September 2025. The goal is to consult universities and student associations first. The latter still have an agreement with the municipality which does not authorize a rate increase of more than 2.5% per year.

What will your property tax look like?

If the budget is adopted in its current form, the majority of citizens will see a 3.9% increase in their residential property tax. It is mainly due to an 8% increase in the tax intended for public transport. The residential property tax increase will be lower for people who live in rural Ottawa.

Ottawa’s operating budget will cost $4.98 billion in 2025, if it is adopted as is Wednesday by city council. The majority of the municipality’s revenues will come from property taxes, which finance 45% of the operating budget.

With information from Frédéric Pepin