Mayor sees post-election opportunity for Ottawa despite its PC showing

With Ottawa voters sending just two Progressive Conservative MPPs to Queen's Park, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe isn't stressing about the city having fewer voices in government.

He seems confident outgoing city councillor George Darouze will be Ottawa's champion as the city looks for results on transit, the economy and housing.

In a news conference on Friday, Sutcliffe congratulated Darouze on his election as MPP for Carleton, and Premier Doug Ford on his third-straight majority government. He laid out a set of priorities he hopes to co-operate on.

Above all, he's looking to make quick progress on a transit deal that could save the city a fortune. During the campaign, Ford committed to upload responsibility for the LRT to provincial agency Metrolinx and suggested it could free up about $4 billion for Ottawa over 30 years.

"This is a huge opportunity for our city.… I can't think of anything bigger, anything more significant that would have an impact on our residents," Sutcliffe said. 

"We have to negotiate the right deal for Ottawa residents and taxpayers, but this has the potential to be a real game changer for Ottawa."

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In his view, the "right deal" would see the provincial government own and maintain the infrastructure, but keep day-to-day decisions on schedules, routes and hiring in the hands of OC Transpo. He also wants the deal to prioritize housing development at or near transit stations.

Sutcliffe expects to have a timeline or roadmap to announce soon, possibly next week.

'My ears are going to be open,' Darouze says

Ottawa has been without a seat in cabinet since Merrilee Fullerton resigned in 2023 and the PCs won't have many options to rectify that situation after Thursday's election.

After losing Nepean, a riding they've held for decades, the governing PCs will have just two MPPs who represent Ottawa residents: Darouze and Stéphane Sarrazin, whose riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell includes Navan and Cumberland.

Two city seats went NDP and the other five, Liberal.

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"You want to have as many representatives within the government as possible. But at the same time, I think over the last two years we've had a very strong working relationship with the provincial government," Sutcliffe said. "We've gotten a lot done together."

He said Darouze, who is in his third term on city council, will be "a very strong voice" and "a champion for Ottawa."

At his victory party on Thursday night, Darouze said he's ready and willing to play that role.

"The mayor and I, we have a really good relationship talking about our issues in our city, and I understand the files," he said.

"My ears are going to be open to them."

Faced with questions about whether Ford should name Darouze to cabinet, Sutcliffe said he doesn't want to tell the premier how to do his job.

"If it were up to me, my preference would be to see a local representative at the cabinet table," he said.

Byelection likely option to fill council seat

With Darouze heading to Queen's Park, residents in the expansive rural ward of Osgoode will be without a city councillor. 

Council now has two options to fix that: hold a byelection or simply appoint someone to fill the seat. It has 60 days to make that decision.

When former city councillor Jenna Sudds was elected to the House of Commons in 2021, council opted to appoint, tapping Cathy Curry for the role. But that was just over a year out from the next general election.

This time, it would be nearly two years.

Sutcliffe said council will start talking about those options right away and a plan should be ready for a council meeting in the near future.

Later Friday, a special council meeting was called for March 5 to talk about the vacancy, on the condition his resignation is official by then.

In the mayor's view, the byelection scenario is more likely. In the meantime, he said two neighbouring rural councillors — Catherine Kitts and David Brown — will help represent Osgoode residents.