Joanne Chianello

The City of Ottawa has ongoing serious concerns about the Confederation Line's performance and wonders whether it has been designed, constructed and maintained properly, according to court documents filed earlier this month.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe may have run on a promise not to increase property taxes more than 2.5 per cent, but one-third of the newly elected council has not signed onto that pledge, worried that it won’t provide the city with the money it needs to serve residents.

The first budget tabled by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe delivers on some of his key election promises, including keeping Ottawa’s property tax increase to 2.5 per cent, freezing transit fares and increasing funding to social service agencies by more than $4 million.

It didn’t take long for a City of Ottawa committee to vote in favour of designating a century-old apartment complex in Sandy Hill as a heritage building, but there is now a mad dash to protect thousands of other heritage buildings by the end of next year due to Ontario’s Bill 23.

The problems that caused an August 2021 derailment and a component failure in July 2022 on Ottawa’s light rail system “continue to pose a risk to safety until the issues are resolved,” the Transportation Safety Board says.

Everyone involved in the Confederation Line agrees there’s a problem and they’re throwing everything they can at it. But there are still few details on what a long-term fix to the system might entail.

Some say John Tory needed to quit as mayor, after it was reported he was having an affair with a woman in his office. But he actually didn’t have to. Because there are actually no rules in Toronto — or any Ontario municipality — about politicians developing intimate relationships with their staff members.

Temporary scaffolding that protects public transit riders from foul weather as they dash between the LRT and connecting buses at Hurdman and Tunney’s Pasture stations is on the budget chopping block at Ottawa city hall this week.

Ottawa’s city council has passed the first budget of its term, one that hikes property taxes 2.5 per cent, freezes transit fares — while making transit free for kids under 12 — and increases funding to social service agencies and the climate change plan.

After being closed for almost three years already, the Trillium Line is supposed to open in less than six months. But will we really be riding the north-south rails soon after Labour Day? All signs point to likely not.