Mayor seeks strategic review of city spending by February

Ottawa's new mayor wants a high-level review of city spending done by Feb. 1 when the 2023 draft budget is tabled and says a more in-depth inspection of the books should follow.

One of the first big tasks for the new city council is to approve a municipal spending plan. The City of Ottawa faces various pressures, including rising costs across departments due to inflation and less pandemic-related funding from upper levels of government. 

During the election campaign, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe promised to launch a line-by-line review of existing city spending within his first 100 days in office, looking for $35 million in "efficiencies."

Such a detailed inspection of city finances and programs will take time, Sutcliffe now tells CBC News, but he does believe staff can do a "strategic review" in the coming weeks. That would involve quickly comparing Ottawa's spending to what happens in other cities to find savings "opportunities," he explained.

Sutcliffe still wants to do the full-blown review by the 2024 budget cycle to "make sure that every dollar we're spending at the city, we're getting maximum value." 

• ANALYSIS | For incoming mayor Mark Sutcliffe, the hard part starts now

Perhaps some areas don't need as much money, which can be redirected to other priorities such as housing, he said.

"It's all about priorities and it's all about the changing needs of Ottawa residents," said Sutcliffe.

Budget talk on Wednesday

The new city council began that debate at its meeting last week when a pair of motions hit the table seeking some form of review of spending and programs.

The city's interim city manager Wendy Stephanson described how a universal review took place in 2004, shortly after amalgamation. Since then, city staff have also routinely looked for other savings and found $361 million over two decades, she said.

On Wednesday, council will continue the discussion and weigh whether the auditor general, outside experts or staff might do that review.

At the same meeting, council will be asked to limit any property tax increase to two or 2.5 per cent.

• City could aim for 2 to 2.5% tax increase while facing inflation pressures

Ahead of that meeting, Sutcliffe's office invited CBC News to a sit-down interview to explain he is convinced he can keep that campaign promise, along with promises to increase spending for social service agencies by $4 million and freeze transit fares.

"I heard throughout the campaign from residents across the city that they're worried about the rising cost of food and rent and all kinds of other things in their lives," he said.

"They don't want to see a huge property tax increase on top of that."

'More realistic' transit budget

At the same time, Sutcliffe has promised not to cut services and programs that people rely on. Asked how he can achieve that, Sutcliffe said reserves should only be used for emergencies.

Instead, staff have advised him they can find the needed "efficiencies." Sutcliffe didn't provide specifics, saying he wanted council to be involved in that discussion.

One of the city's biggest costs — compensation — is relatively predictable for a couple more years, he noted, because the biggest union's collective agreement is in effect through to the end of 2024.

The transit department's spending will need particular attention in the coming year, however. Its shortfall for 2022 was not fully covered by upper levels of government and city staff are assuming COVID relief funds will cease. 

Sutcliffe acknowledged this year's projection for ridership was too high and next year's will need to be "more realistic." That will mean less revenue for city coffers. 

"Going forward we're going to need to re-calibrate the service so that it's taking people where they need to go, and at the times they need to go there, because we know that's changed as a result of the pandemic," he said.