Here are some of the campaign promises by Ottawa’s mayoral candidates

It’s the final days of Ottawa’s municipal election, and mayoral hopefuls are doing their best to reach undecided voters. CTV’s Peter Szperling reports.

Ottawa’s municipal election campaign hits the finish line on Monday after the 178-day municipal election for mayor, councillor and school board trustee.

The four leading candidates for mayor – Alex Lawson, Jeff Leiper, Neil Saravanamuttoo and incumbent Mark Sutcliffe have made dozens of promises during the campaign covering everything from property taxes and transit to parking, public spaces and swimming lesson registration.

There are 14 candidates for mayor of Ottawa: Queen Divine Priya Amber Bakshi, Zed Chebib, Bernard Couchman, Suraj Harish, Lawson, Leiper, Geoff Nicholas, Josh Rachlis, Saravanamuttoo, Ali Shayvard, Jacob Solomon, Sutcliffe, Amjad Ali Syed, and Peter Westaway.

• OTTAWA ELECTION: Full coverage from the campaign trail
• MEET THE CANDIDATES: Fourteen people are on the ballot for mayor of Ottawa

CTVNewsOttawa.ca looks at some of the campaign promises by the four mayoral candidates on key issues.

• WALK MY WARD: Issues that matter most to voters

Property taxes

Alex Lawson

• Promises a zero per cent property tax freeze in 2027, with tax increases of one per cent in 2028 and at or below two per cent in 2029 and 2030.
• Lawson’s campaign platform identified between $77 million and $148 million a year in budget savings and growth revenue, including $20 million to $40 million in savings a year by opening procurement so more companies bid on city contracts.
• Proposes raising the small business tax discount from 15 to 25 per cent, which his campaign says would cost about $8.4 million a year.

Jeff Leiper

• Leiper has not announced a property tax target, but promises to keep property tax increases “affordable, reasonable and predictable.”
• Proposes a one per cent infrastructure levy on property tax bills to pay for infrastructure

Neil Saravanamuttoo

• Has not committed to a property tax pledge during the campaign but proposes a zero-based budgeting approach each year and says he would conduct a “comprehensive spending review” of city programs and spending.
• Saravanamuttoo told reporters in September, “my commitment is to keep it as low as possible.”
• Promises to open the City of Ottawa’s books within 100 days

Mark Sutcliffe

• Promises to keep tax increases to between 2 and 2.5 per cent for the first two years of the term (2027/28)
• Pledges to find $250 million in new savings and efficiencies in the City of Ottawa budget
• Sutcliffe promises to freeze recreation fees for seniors and families for at least one year, freeze municipal fees on new housing and maintain the small business tax reduction

Transit

Alex Lawson

• Lawson’s plan includes bringing back rush-hour bus rapid transit and resetting run times and rebuilding the OC Transpo bus schedule
• Lawson’s plan for OC Transpo does not promise any new money, saying, “the system is not ready for more money yet.”
• Operate on-demand service in rural areas
• Install cameras on every OC Transpo bus
• Boost transit fare enforcement

Jeff Leiper

• Unveiled the “Transit that Works” plan that includes restoring previous OC Transpo bus route cuts
• Proposes a “Transit Service Guarantee” that sets clear standards for on-time performance
• Pledges dedicated bus lanes and to “move the Baseline Bus Rapid Transit forward as a priority project.”
• Leiper says he would establish a long-term fleet replacement and maintenance plan
• Restore the citizen seat on the Transit Commission
• In October, Leiper announced he would raise the income limits for the EquiPass

Neil Saravanamuttoo

• Proposes “Buck a Ride” transit fare, with a monthly cap of $40, using funding from the proposed O-Train upload to Metrolinx
• His four-point plan includes being “honest about the state of our LRT and what it will take to fix it,” redesigning the bus network and finding new ways to fund transit.
• Create a new transit development agency to generate revenue by leveraging land around transit stations

Mark Sutcliffe

• Pledges to cut the cost of an adult monthly bus pass to $95 a month, using funding from the proposed upload of the O-Train to Metrolinx.
• Purchase 200 more buses by 2030, hire 250 new drivers and mechanics
• Reintroduce express routes from key locations in the east, west and south
• Sutcliffe also promises to invest funding into major bus rapid transit projects and “immediately begin work on securing” federal and provincial funding for Stage 3 LRT

Infrastructure

Alex Lawson

• Promises to focus the “city’s spending on getting the basics right.”
• Improve rural infrastructure maintenance and adopt a rural road safety standard
• Construction projects have a set end date, with late penalty fees
• Work with the Ontario government to build a ring road

Jeff Leiper

• Proposes a one per cent infrastructure levy to pay for infrastructure
• Leiper says he would focus spending on infrastructure, including transit, roads and bridges and community assets. He told CTV News Ottawa he will “fix what we have” with a multi-year plan to address the maintenance backlog and improve parks, lighting and public spaces in neighbourhoods.
• In October, Leiper unveiled a $50 million plan to upgrade sewer and green infrastructure in Bay, College and Knoxdale-Merivale wards following the summer flooding

Neil Saravanamuttoo

• His campaign platform includes developing a “comprehensive infrastructure plan” after opening up the city’s budget
• Pledges to “move faster” to replace aging sewers that “failed to manage” the heavy rain this summer.
• Build new housing where infrastructure already exists
• Proposes a “People’s Office for Better Construction” to coordinate underground infrastructure work across agencies and utilities

Mark Sutcliffe

• A $10 billion infrastructure plan to fix Ottawa’s roads, pipes and city facilities, including $500 million for infrastructure in flood-prone communities
• $500 million by 2030 to develop 1,000 kilometres of new or resurfaced traffic lanes, increases funding for rural roads by $60 million.
• Pledges to expedite $400 million worth of renewal work at city recreational facilities
• Fix Ottawa’s 50 worst intersections
• Create 150 new parks and build four new community centres/recreation complexes
• Move ahead with plans for a ring-road

Other campaign promises

Alex Lawson

• The “Grow the Police with the City” plan calls for Ottawa police to raise the patrol minimum to 64 calls. “About 110 more officers, roughly $20 million a year.”
• The “Recovery First Ottawa” plan proposes a 200 bed “HopeWorks Recovery Campus,” paid for by the Ontario government. He also pledges to expand Hart hubs across Ottawa
• Pledges to eliminate paid on-street parking on City of Ottawa streets
• Scrap the three-item garbage limit, moving forward with building a waste-to-energy plant
• Promises to end the vacant unit tax
• Lawson says he will work with the federal government to build federal worksites outside the Greenbelt

Jeff Leiper

• The “Housing that Works” plan includes building 1,500 new non-profit homes on city-owned land each year
• Promises to reverse the City of Ottawa’s five day in office mandate. Will work to expand federal workplaces in Kanata, Orléans, Barrhaven and Ottawa’s south end.
• Proposes a new, permanent festival plaza for JazzFest, the Franco-Ontarian Fest, Children’s Festival and markets
• Leiper’s “Safety that Works” plan includes making ANCHOR funding permanent and expanding it city-wide, and increasing staffing for Bylaw Services enforcement
• Expanding the ByWard Market Night Ambassadors program
• Open libraries on Sundays

Neil Saravanamuttoo

• Saravanamuttoo says “one of my first actions as mayor” will be to ask the federal government to evaluate how well the four-day a week return-to-office mandate worked through September and October.
• Establish a public option for housing in Ottawa to double from five per cent to 10 per cent the share of non-market housing.
• Pledges building tiny homes in a transitional village
• The platform says he will expand the ANCHOR program to respond to non-threatening mental health calls and provide same-day access to detox and recovery beds
• Proposes transforming York Street in the ByWard Market into a new public square, overhaul the ByWard Market plan
• His plan for Gig Workers includes updating Ottawa’s Vehicle-for-Hire bylaw to “prevent predatory practices by ridesharing platforms”

Mark Sutcliffe

• Build 650 new supportive housing unis in the next five years, complete 10,000 more affordable homes as compared to 2020
• Hire 350 new police officers, paramedics and firefighters
• Appoint a Downtown Safety Czar to coordinate the City of Ottawa’s response to the toxic drug and mental health crisis
• Double the city’s investment in the alternative response teams, such as ANCHOR and the Mobile Crisis Response Team, by 2030, expanding it to more communities
• Proposes restricting parents from outside of Ottawa from signing up for swimming lessons for up to 48 hours after registration opens
• Sutcliffe says he will leverage existing municipal facilities and land to secure agreements with telecom companies to provide better cellphone service