Ottawa Budget 2012: Students learn important lessons in municipal politics

by Kelly Black and Phil Robinson

For the past two years, students at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University have been guinea pigs in a study they have been asking for since the 1990s: the implementation of a universal, mandatory transit pass (U-Pass). U-Pass programs are intended to offer affordable transit to students while providing the city with environmental and economic benefits.

Since its inception, the U-Pass has decreased congestion across the city as students have flocked to public transit. According to OC Transpo, this has resulted in thousands of cars being taken off the road each and every day. The public benefits of creating a “transit generation” are why over 30 U-Pass programs have been implemented across Canada. But at the current $145 per semester rate, Ottawa’s U-Pass is the most expensive in the country. Costs of other programs range from $125 a semester in Edmonton to $40 a semester at the University of the Fraser Valley.

In anticipation of a new round of negotiations over the price of the U-Pass, student union representatives at both Carleton and U at Ottawa prepared a detailed analysis of the program to date. This cost-benefit analysis presents an inclusive view of both the revenue and savings that are generated by the program.

Despite this analysis, City Council voted to increase the price of the U-Pass by 24%. City Council also voted to cancel semester and annual student passes for postsecondary students at Algonquin, La Cité collégiale, and St. Paul’s University. By cancelling alternatives to the U-Pass, it seems the city is strong-arming students at every university and college into adopting the program at an increased cost. These decisions came on the heels of a $22 million transit cut – or “route optimization” – that has left riders reeling.

While the actions of the Transit Commission, City Council and the mayor are clearly not what students had hoped for, no one can say the experience has not been educational.

The experience has yielded several important lessons. No longer are meetings with city councillors a phone call away. Under the new regime, councillors avoid meetings while deferring to the mayor or bodies like the Transit Commission. City councillors seem to be mere bystanders charged with repeating the talking points passed down to them.

Lesson 1: Municipal decision making is becoming increasingly centralized in Ottawa.

OC Transpo and elected officials do not always talk to one another. Students were promised consultations regarding the calculation of “revenue neutrality.” These consultations have not only proven to be a bluff, but staff did not even bother to tell city councillors of these commitments.

As a result, misinformed city leaders took the path of least resistance by assuming students didn’t know what they were talking about. In the end, students were chastised and no official assumed any responsibility.

Lesson 2: It is important to keep a paper trail and get everything in writing, but don’’t assume this provides any guarantees.

In other instances, OC Transpo management misled elected officials, telling the Transit Commission that the effect of cancelling semester and annual passes was negligible for students at Algonquin College because most are part-time students. In fact, approximately 18,000 full-time students attending Algonquin are eligible for these student passes.

To use another example, students provided every member of the Transit Commission with meeting minutes that clearly indicate it was OC Transpo that did not have its act together in time, but Mayor Jim Watson has frequently referred to the students’ unions’ “failure” to hold referenda on a new price early in 2011.

Lesson 3: Don’t assume elected officials are or want to be accurately briefed.

Students discovered that the city lacks either the ability or interest to question the work of its consultants. Even when consultants make obvious and significant errors – such as claiming 98% of Carleton students used public transit – the word of the consultant is held as unquestionably true. This provides an easy excuse for elected officials who might otherwise feel compelled to pay attention to details.

Lesson 4: The avoidance of detail or holistic thinking is widespread.

Some officials seem to relish the opportunity to point out that a “revenue neutral” approach to the U-Pass should only consider revenue and not cost savings like decreased road maintenance and the elimination of commissions paid to third party vendors. Quality-of-life and environmental benefits from decreased congestion were also given no value.

Lesson 5: The city will not get its hands dirty with budgeting that incorporates costs and benefits in financial, social, and environmental terms.

City councillors, the mayor and OC Transpo repeatedly pitted students against  taxpayers and property owners. Students were never placed in opposition to other taxpayers. During presentations at the Nov. 2011 Transit Commission meeting, Councillor Steve Desroches asked,“Why do you think you have the privilege to argue on what we deem is the price?” While students wondered whether Desroches spoke to other “taxpayers” with such hostility, the Ottawa Citizen’s David Reevely tweeted “The students are getting a really, really rough ride from the commissioners. Downright hostile. Holding their own, for sure.”

As property renters, students pay the highest property taxes in Ottawa. Yet rather than promoting the financial, environmental and quality-of-life benefits the U-Pass brings to all residents of the city, “students” and “taxpayers” were set against each other.

Lesson 6: Students are not equal in the eyes of the city.

Perhaps the ultimate lesson for the over 110,000 students in Ottawa is that good intentions and good research guarantee neither fair play nor a positive outcome. Valiant efforts at speaking truth to power are commendable but not always enough in and of themselves: once all students are paying a mandatory fee, an opportunistic city will try to increase that fee and cut service to milk students for everything they can.  This lesson is reinforced by the city’s decision to cancel the alternatives – namely the annual and semester student bus passes – in an effort to push students across the city to adopt the mandatory $180 U-Pass. Students need to understand that if we aren’t going to stand up for ourselves, no one else will.

It is entirely possible that the whole U-Pass experiment will fail in required student referenda. After pushing students into a corner, the city needs to drastically improve service levels and expand the ability to opt-out of the mandatory program, especially for rural students. If the project fails and ridership plummets, it will be to the detriment of all taxpayers, be they students or otherwise.

Quatre manifestations ont lieu sous la bannière d’Occupons Ottawa: Les manifestants démontrent leur soutien aux employés de Novotel

Par Andy Crosby
Traduction par Stéfanie Clermont

Le 17 novembre, plus de cent personnes se sont réunies dans le parc de la Confédération avant de se séparer en quatre groupes pour aller manifester dans le cadre de la journée d’action internationale en solidarité avec Occupons Wall Street.

Les facilitateurs ont annoncé que quatre manifestations auraient lieu simultanément au monument pour les droits de la personne, devant l’ambassade état-unienne, dans le centre médiatique et commercial de la rue Sparks et devant l’hôtel Novotel, contre lequel ses employés luttent pour obtenir une convention collective équitable.

Au monument pour les droits de la personne, un petit groupe a brandi des bannières et encouragé les passants à se joindre à eux.

Un autre groupe a descendu la rue Sparks et s’est arrêté devant la Banque Royale du Canada, qui est souvent critiquée en raison du financement qu’elle fournit à l’industrie albertaine des sables bitumineux. Sous le regard des policiers, les manifestants ont occupé l’espace devant la banque par un sit-in et ont collé une bannière aux fenêtres de la banque sur laquelle on pouvait lire « Pipelines Spill, Tar Sands Kill » (les pipelines fuient, les sables bitumineux tuent).

À l’ambassade état-unienne, des manifestants ont réussi à occuper un côté de la promenade Sussex devant le bâtiment hautement surveillé.

Devant l’ambassade, une manifestante a expliqué pourquoi elle comptait rester au campement d’Occupons Ottawa même si le camp recevait un ordre d’expulsion. « C’est devenu ma communauté. Il n’y a nulle part ailleurs en ville qui donne un sens à ma vie. »

À l’hôtel Novotel, les travailleurs et leurs alliés se sont rassemblés devant l’entrée, où ils ont fait jouer de la musique et fait griller de la nourriture. Un ancien employé de Novotel ainsi que des représentants de différents syndicats se sont adressés à la foule.

Jeff Segat, un cuisinier qui a été congédié de Novotel pour avoir soutenu une accréditation syndicale, a déclaré : « Nous sommes rassemblés ici pour soutenir les autres employés de l’hôtel qui sont punis par Novotel en ce moment. Nous sommes ici par solidarité. Nous savons que si nous poursuivons notre lutte, un syndicat verra le jour dans cet hôtel. »

Lynn Bue du syndicat canadien des employées de la poste a fait un discours exprimant son soutien aux travailleurs de Novotel. « Les employés de la poste soutiennent la lutte que mènent les employés de cet hôtel, tout comme des citoyens et des travailleurs nous ont soutenu quand on nous a illégalement poussés au lockout avant de faire passer une loi pour nous forcer à retourner au travail alors que nous essayions d’obtenir une convention collective équitable. »

Avant les marches, les manifestants ont suspendu une bannière à la passerelle pour piétons au dessus de la rue Rideau sur laquelle on pouvait lire « Écart de revenus, terreur environnementale, terres volées, traités rompus ».

Partout en Amérique du Nord, les confrontations des autorités au mouvement « Occupy » augmentent d’intensité. On a vu une série d’expulsions et des instances de brutalité policière. À New York, où le mouvement a vu le jour, les manifestants ont été retirés de force du parc Zuccotti le quinze novembre. Le matin du dix-sept novembre, de nombreux manifestants ont convergé sur Wall Street dans l’espoir d’empêcher la bourse de New York d’ouvrir.

Le mouvement Occupons Ottawa demeure fervent malgré les inquiétudes de la Comission de la capitale nationale et des commerces avoisinants, qui prétendent que le campement posera un problème durant Bal de neige. Les activités hivernales ont lieu chaque année au parc de la confédération, qui est le site d’Occupons Ottawa depuis le quinze octobre. Les manifestants ont exprimé qu’ils souhaitaient partager l’espace, mais pas abandonner le camp.

Occupons Ottawa a été critiqué par d’anciens participants, qui prétendent que le camp n’est pas un endroit sécuritaire et que des problèmes sérieux tels que des actes de racisme et d’agression sexuelle dans le camp n’ont pas été abordés. Des membres du centre de soutien aux victimes d’agressions sexuelles d’Ottawa ont récemment organisé une formation au parc de la confédération, mais une présence policière envahissante les a empêchés de donner l’atelier. La formation a été reportée et sera agrémentée d’un atelier anti-oppression

From Wall Street to Ottawa: “Occupy” movement makes final preparations for Oct. 15

by Andy Crosby
Oct. 14, 2011

In the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street movement, hundreds of Ottawa residents are preparing to descend on Confederation Park at noon on Oct. 15 to hold a people’s assembly, according to a press release issued by the Occupy Ottawa Media Division.

The occupation surrounding Wall Street began in mid-September when demonstrators gathered in New York City to protest the vast concentration of wealth in the hands of society’s richest.

“We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,” according to occupywallst.org.

The “Occupy” movement has quickly spread to hundreds of cities around the globe and is slated to hit at least two dozen Canadian cities on Saturday, including Ottawa.

“Occupy Ottawa gathers in peace and solidarity with Occupy Wall St., and the 99%, to reclaim our planet from the unfettered capitalist corporate oligarchy that has commodified everything, rendering our citizens impotent, our governments corrupt, and destroying the ecosystem on which all humanity depends,” according to a communiqué issued by occupyottawa.org.

The group aims “to force a reconsideration of our current economic and political systems, and offers hope to those who previously felt alone in their belief that the current system is broken, and that the time for systemic change is now.”

The diverse protest movement is attempting to emulate the Arab Spring and anti-austerity protests that have swept parts of Europe and Latin America.

A preliminary organizing meeting was held on Oct. 6 in which around 150 people crowded a small room on the University of Ottawa campus. Participants democratically decided on a location to host the next general assembly where the occupation site would be determined.

Various working groups were formed to tackle important issues surrounding, among many others, safe(r) spaces, food, sanitation, education, legal, and media.

The organic movement is grassroots and horizontal in nature and uses a consensus-based decision making model. The participants represent a diverse array of backgrounds, from veteran community organizers to newcomers to activism.

The Occupy movement has presented an opportunity for people to come together in a spirit of solidarity and resistance, while creating opportunities to listen to one another and actively participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives.

The enthusiasm has been contagious.

The movement is not without its challenges. Many have pointed out the trouble surrounding the terminology, as the United States and Canada are already occupied.

At a meeting to organize the logistics in preparation for Saturday, Mohawk activist Ben Powless acknowledged that, “Ottawa is situated on already occupied land never given up by the Algonquin people.”

Indigenous peoples throughout Turtle Island (North America) continue to be dispossessed of their lands and marginalized through the ongoing practices and processes of colonialism.

“We’re not simply occupying Ottawa,” Powless continued, “Ottawa is on occupied land.”

Participation of the Algonquin nations will be crucial in giving the movement legitimacy.

In New York, despite threats made Thursday by the mayor and the police to “clean” protesters from Zicotti Park – renamed Liberty Square – the movement has held its ground and remains steadfast.

In Ottawa, protestors ready themselves for a rainy weekend and prepare to settle in for the long haul. The communiqué promises that, “This is a demonstration you will remember.”