Mayoral candidates clash over transit and vacant unit tax at Thursday debate

Four leading mayoral candidates squared off Thursday morning, September 24, at a debate organized by the Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association and the Ottawa Real Estate Board to discuss housing policy, transit, vacant units, and development approval processes.

The debate highlighted sharp disagreement over transit. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe cited his accomplishments: launching two new LRT lines, increasing the transit budget by 30 per cent, and purchasing 500 buses to replace diesel vehicles with electric ones. "Transit is one of the big reasons why I ran for mayor four years ago. It was a catastrophe," Sutcliffe said at the debate. But challenger Alex Lawson fired back: "On transit, you have failed. It hasn't gotten any better. Our transit system lost $54 million last year while still providing terrible service."

Jeff Leiper said residents do not believe transit has improved, while candidate Neil Saravanamuttoo called out the spending scale: "The crazy thing is we're spending close to a billion dollars a year on a transit system that doesn't work. That should be shocking to all of us."

The candidates also sparred over the vacant unit tax, approved by Council in 2022 to encourage homeowners to rent properties rather than leave them vacant. Every homeowner must register their property status annually. In 2022, the city identified 3,672 vacant units and the tax generated $12.6 million in revenue. But Lawson said if elected he would introduce a motion at his first council meeting to reverse it: "We're forcing somebody that's lived 30 to 40 years (in a house) that's paid for and we're forcing them to either rent out a chunk of it or move."

Saravanamuttoo did not state his position on the tax but said city staff needed to conduct an analysis on its practicality.