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- 2002-10-07
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There are now three mayoral candidates registered for this October’s municipal elections, although it’s a little difficult to take the latest addition too seriously.
Robert White just joined the slim ranks of those running for mayor. He registered for the 2010 election — but withdrew after a month. We’ll see how long he lasts this time around.
But Mike Maguire is a different story. Although he’s also taking his second turn at the city’s top job, Maguire is running a bona fide campaign as witnessed by his launch Thursday evening attended by about 50 people.
By all appearances, Maguire is a smart entrepreneur, a committed family man, and a pretty good speaker. And he’s coming at the job from a fiscally conservative angle: The municipality’s debt is too high ($1.6 billion, we found out this week), property taxes need to be contained, and the city needs to get back to basics. All perfectly valid reasons to run for mayor.
His key platform planks include a “back-to-bascis” approach to funding core services and not “nice to haves” — as Maguire put it in his launch speech — lowering hydro rates (a little more on that in a moment), scrapping the second phase of LRT and using existing rail lines for a commuter-type service, and bringing back weekly garbage pickup.
Let’s take those issues in reverse order.
Maguire’s promise to reinstate weekly garbage pick up will likely be the proposal that appeals to the most voters. He’s cast doubt that the city is actually saving any money with the every-other-week pick up. (The city says that it would cost $10 million more for weekly garbage collection, although it’s not immediately apparent from the 2014 budget line item — which bundles all garbage and recycling into one expenditure — that that’s the case.) A segment of the local population is still steamed about moving to every-other-week collection, and there’ll be some who vote for Maguire on that issue alone.
Then there’s the plan to use our existing rail for some sort of commuter rail service. Maguire argues that his plan would take pressure off Highway 417 by giving far-flung commuters another option for getting in and out of the city’s core. And it would likely be cheaper than light rail. But the problem is that big swaths of these existing railways go through parts of the city — like industrial and business parks — where no one lives.
The other issue with using existing rail is that the light-rail train has so left the station. Even if you hate the idea of the LRT, we are building a 12.5-kilometre piece of it smack in the middle of the city. If we don’t extend that piece of the system to other parts of the city, we will have completely wasted $2.1 billion.
Then there’s Maguire’s promise on hydro rates, which is pretty interesting. Hydro Ottawa is owned by the city, which every year receives a “dividend” from the public utility. For 2013, Hydro Ottawa gave $19.3 million of the $32.1 million in profit it made to the city. Maguire — quite rightly, frankly — believes that the utility should be run on a break-even basis, that any profit Hydro Ottawa makes should be returned to electricity users. After all, why should we subsidize property tax payers through electricity bills?
Returning Hydro Ottawa profit to electricity users won’t make much a dent in their bills — with more than 392,000 homes in Ottawa, we’d all get back about $81. As for the rest of Maguire’s plan to buy cheap power from Quebec, well, it turns out we already do that and Quebec doesn’t have much more to spare without the province building new dams.
Finally, there’s Maguire’s promise to return to more basic city services.
It’s not yet clear exactly what Maguire means by this, but he’d certainly be looking at some big cuts if he wants to rein in spending. But he is already looking to take $29 million out of the city’s coffers ($10 million extra for weekly garbage pick up, plus forgoing the $19-million dividend in Hydro Ottawa dividends).
When and if Maguire’s campaign gains steam, we’ll want to grill him more closely on which services he’d plan to cut. But that’s still a big “if.” Maguire is up against a very well-organized (and fairly well-liked) incumbent in Jim Watson. As a newcomer, he should have started his campaign earlier, knocked on more doors, been out and about more often.
Now, Maguire will do a heck of a lot better than the 6,600 votes he scored in 2010 when there was a slate of 20 mayoral candidates splitting the vote. He might well be the only one on the ballot with Watson by the time Oct. 27 rolls around. It’s also a fairly conservative platform and whether it will appeal broadly enough to win him the big job is doubtful.
Still, at least someone is taking a serious run at the mayor’s job, which, if nothing else, will force a debate with Watson on the issues facing our city.
jchianello@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/jchianello
查看原文...
Robert White just joined the slim ranks of those running for mayor. He registered for the 2010 election — but withdrew after a month. We’ll see how long he lasts this time around.
But Mike Maguire is a different story. Although he’s also taking his second turn at the city’s top job, Maguire is running a bona fide campaign as witnessed by his launch Thursday evening attended by about 50 people.
By all appearances, Maguire is a smart entrepreneur, a committed family man, and a pretty good speaker. And he’s coming at the job from a fiscally conservative angle: The municipality’s debt is too high ($1.6 billion, we found out this week), property taxes need to be contained, and the city needs to get back to basics. All perfectly valid reasons to run for mayor.
His key platform planks include a “back-to-bascis” approach to funding core services and not “nice to haves” — as Maguire put it in his launch speech — lowering hydro rates (a little more on that in a moment), scrapping the second phase of LRT and using existing rail lines for a commuter-type service, and bringing back weekly garbage pickup.
Let’s take those issues in reverse order.
Maguire’s promise to reinstate weekly garbage pick up will likely be the proposal that appeals to the most voters. He’s cast doubt that the city is actually saving any money with the every-other-week pick up. (The city says that it would cost $10 million more for weekly garbage collection, although it’s not immediately apparent from the 2014 budget line item — which bundles all garbage and recycling into one expenditure — that that’s the case.) A segment of the local population is still steamed about moving to every-other-week collection, and there’ll be some who vote for Maguire on that issue alone.
Then there’s the plan to use our existing rail for some sort of commuter rail service. Maguire argues that his plan would take pressure off Highway 417 by giving far-flung commuters another option for getting in and out of the city’s core. And it would likely be cheaper than light rail. But the problem is that big swaths of these existing railways go through parts of the city — like industrial and business parks — where no one lives.
The other issue with using existing rail is that the light-rail train has so left the station. Even if you hate the idea of the LRT, we are building a 12.5-kilometre piece of it smack in the middle of the city. If we don’t extend that piece of the system to other parts of the city, we will have completely wasted $2.1 billion.
Then there’s Maguire’s promise on hydro rates, which is pretty interesting. Hydro Ottawa is owned by the city, which every year receives a “dividend” from the public utility. For 2013, Hydro Ottawa gave $19.3 million of the $32.1 million in profit it made to the city. Maguire — quite rightly, frankly — believes that the utility should be run on a break-even basis, that any profit Hydro Ottawa makes should be returned to electricity users. After all, why should we subsidize property tax payers through electricity bills?
Returning Hydro Ottawa profit to electricity users won’t make much a dent in their bills — with more than 392,000 homes in Ottawa, we’d all get back about $81. As for the rest of Maguire’s plan to buy cheap power from Quebec, well, it turns out we already do that and Quebec doesn’t have much more to spare without the province building new dams.
Finally, there’s Maguire’s promise to return to more basic city services.
It’s not yet clear exactly what Maguire means by this, but he’d certainly be looking at some big cuts if he wants to rein in spending. But he is already looking to take $29 million out of the city’s coffers ($10 million extra for weekly garbage pick up, plus forgoing the $19-million dividend in Hydro Ottawa dividends).
When and if Maguire’s campaign gains steam, we’ll want to grill him more closely on which services he’d plan to cut. But that’s still a big “if.” Maguire is up against a very well-organized (and fairly well-liked) incumbent in Jim Watson. As a newcomer, he should have started his campaign earlier, knocked on more doors, been out and about more often.
Now, Maguire will do a heck of a lot better than the 6,600 votes he scored in 2010 when there was a slate of 20 mayoral candidates splitting the vote. He might well be the only one on the ballot with Watson by the time Oct. 27 rolls around. It’s also a fairly conservative platform and whether it will appeal broadly enough to win him the big job is doubtful.
Still, at least someone is taking a serious run at the mayor’s job, which, if nothing else, will force a debate with Watson on the issues facing our city.
jchianello@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/jchianello
查看原文...
