Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is warning that transit fare hikes of as much as 75 per cent, or a transit levy that could add seven per cent to property taxes just to cover the cost of OC Transpo alone, might be needed as the City of Ottawa begins a “challenging” 2025 budget debate.
In a briefing to reporters Wednesday morning, Sutcliffe said he was aiming to limit the tax increase for all city services — except transit — to 2.9 per cent. That’s less than half a percentage point higher than the 2.5 per cent increases the mayor promised and delivered in his first two years in office. But it doesn’t include the cost of OC Transpo, which is facing a devastating $120-million shortfall.
The 2.9 per cent increase for the non-transit portion of the budget is in keeping with Sutcliffe’s election promise, he said. But critics, including some councillors, say Ottawa’s increases have been far below those of other Canadian cities. Property taxes in Toronto jumped 9.5 per cent in 2024, while they climbed 7.5 per cent in London and 6.1 per cent in Waterloo.
Meanwhile, Sutcliffe says he’s continuing to talk with the federal and provincial government for more funding, including the $90 million the city says it’s owed for federal payments in lieu of property taxes. Kanata-Carleton MP Jenna Sudds, the minister of Families, Children and Social Development and the senior MP for the Ottawa region, has been cool to the mayor’s arguments for budget help, saying the city must “get its own house in order.”
