A New Deal for Ottawa

For years, Ottawa has been forgotten by the Ford government. It is time for a new deal for Ottawa.

Ottawa is Canada’s capital, a growing economic engine, and a region that stretches well beyond the city’s own borders. Thousands of people commute in every day from Rockland, Kemptville, Arnprior, Carleton Place, Orleans, Kanata, Barrhaven, Stittsville, Findlay Creek and other neighbouring communities.

It’s time for a government that treats Ottawa and the surrounding region as one economy and invests accordingly.

1. Get Ottawa and the region moving

Ottawa’s LRT problems can’t keep falling on the city alone. Lee will work with the City of Ottawa to upload responsibility for the LRT to the province, bringing real funding and accountability to the system.

The suburbs and rural communities around Ottawa need the same kind of regional transit that Metrolinx provides in the GTA. Lee will fund an eastern Ontario regional transit authority, governed by a local board that crosses municipal boundaries, so that commuters from surrounding communities finally get the benefit of coordinated, affordable transit. Lee will also explore two-way all day service to connect communities in the same way GO Transit serves the GTA.

Highway 174, the main route connecting Orleans and the surrounding rural areas into the city, has not kept pace with growth and needs to be widened to Rockland. Lee will also work with the city to upload major provincial routes, including Highway 417 to get trucks out of the downtown core, and will get the Barnsdale Road and Highway 416 interchange built to serve Ottawa’s fast-growing south end.

Lee will also explore a new connecting ring road to Highways 416 and 417 as a new 400 series highway. Lee will also work with Ottawa and Gatineau municipalities, the federal government and others to address better transit connections between the two regions.

2. Finish the job on health care

Ottawa needs modern hospital infrastructure that matches its growth. Lee will get the new Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus built and opened without further delay, and will expand and modernize the Queensway Carleton Hospital emergency department so families in the west end aren’t waiting hours for care.

The Montfort and Bruyère hospitals remain essential providers of care to the francophone community, and Lee will continue to support them and other critical organizations supporting the francophone community. CHEO needs the funding, workers and infrastructure to keep up with demand for children’s health, mental health and rehabilitation services. Lee’s commitment to primary care for every Ontarian, through family medicine, nurse practitioner-led care and community health centres, applies here too.

3. End homelessness and the addictions crisis with real urgency

The homelessness crisis in Ottawa is among the most severe Lee has seen anywhere in the province. Ottawa lost its supervised consumption site in Sandy Hill, and overdose-related emergency visits have climbed since. Lee supports reopening a mental health emergency department at the Royal, and will work to expand addictions and mental health capacity alongside safe, supportive housing.

Finland cut its homelessness rate by 72 per cent in a single year by setting a clear goal and pairing housing with wraparound social supports. Lee will bring the same seriousness to Ontario, with a one-year target to dramatically reduce chronic homelessness in the cities facing the greatest urgency, including Ottawa.

4. Build an Ottawa and Eastern Ontario innovation corridor

Ottawa has real strength in technology, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, health sciences, defence, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing. As the federal public service changes, the region needs a more diversified economy. Lee will work with Ottawa’s colleges, universities, businesses and entrepreneurs across Eastern Ontario to build a stronger regional innovation corridor, supporting the commercialization of research, expanding co-op and work-integrated learning, and helping promising companies grow here instead of leaving.

5. Give Ottawa a seat at the table

Most importantly, Ottawa needs a provincial government that shows up.

I will work directly with municipal and federal leaders, Indigenous partners, businesses, health care workers, educators including from Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, St-Paul University as well as Algonquin College and La Cité, and communities across the city instead of imposing one-size-fits-all solutions from Queen’s Park.

Ottawa contributes enormously to Ontario. It’s time Ontario had a government that recognized it – and gave Ottawa the partnership and investment it deserves.