A plan to turn the rest of William Street in the ByWard Market into a pedestrian zone could be in jeopardy.
But it won’t happen without council having final say after a motion was passed at Wednesday’s meeting.
The city first proposed pedestrianizing the narrow street that runs along the main market building back in 2021. The province granted the city $11.8 million in 2024 for the project.
Fast forward two years and city staff is now proposing to defer work on pedestrianizing William Street and reallocating the funding elsewhere.
At Wednesday’s council meeting, several councillors raised concerns about the plan and grilled city staff on what prompted the change in direction.
Coun. Jeff Leiper (Kitchissippi), who is running for mayor in the fall municipal election, questioned why the city wanted to defer the project.
Debbie Stewart, the city’s general manager of strategic initiatives, responded that it was because there are now more businesses in the area that are “very concerned” about the project than there were back in 2021. She blamed this on “a very uncertain economic environment.”
“There is a particular context today where those compounding impacts were really causing a much higher degree of concern,” she said.
Leiper was not satisfied, and asked for further clarification on the consultation process, as well as how the money would be reallocated.
He then joined to second a motion from Coun. Stéphanie Plante (Rideau-Vanier) that the proposal to reallocate the provincial funding towards the pedestrianization of William Street be subject to approval by council.
The motion passed, meaning city staff will have to present a report on the proposal to the finance and corporate services committee before advancing further.
Plante’s ward includes the Byward Market.
Responding to Leiper’s concerns, Stewart said consultations were led by the business improvement areas and business and property owners completed “their own parking survey and analysis with regards to the needs of parking.”
She said the money could be redirected to enhancing safety in the Market but it wouldn’t be spent on private security guards.
“There is recognition that for Ottawa, there are security challenges related to public drug use and an unhoused population, and … part of supporting the businesses is to support safety and security,” said Stewart.
“But it really is business focused in terms of … the measures that would support safety that the province does feel aligns with the priorities of that funding.”
Coun. Laine Johnson (College) expressed similar concerns surrounding the process that led to the proposal.
“Is this a typical process?” asked Johnson. “Are there other examples where we would see a change order of this magnitude on a grant received being done without any committee or councillor opportunities for motions?”
“I’m not aware of any, so I think this is quite a unique situation,” said Stewart.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe clarified to council that the proposal was for a deferral, rather than cancelling the plan altogether.
“The idea is that the pedestrianization of William Street is still planned to go ahead, but the work would be done in line with the work that is done on the ByWard Market building… So it’s not a change in vision, not a change in plan, just a change in timetable.”
