This is the latest edition of iPolitics’ Ottawa mayoral candidate series. Over the next weeks, we will deliver coverage on the candidates and polling in this fall’s election. You can check out Jeff Leiper’s profile here, Neil Saravanamuttoo’s profile here, and Alex Lawson’s profile here.
When Sutcliffe was elected mayor in 2022, Ottawa was grappling with the aftermath of the Freedom Convoy, lingering disruptions from the pandemic, mounting concerns about public transit and questions about confidence in city institutions.
Nearly four years later, Sutcliffe is making a simple case for re-election: the city is in a better place than when he found it.
Sutcliffe argues that message resonates at a moment when many residents are feeling anxious about affordability and broader economic uncertainty.
“We need to reassure residents that our city is going in the right direction, that there’s strong leadership in place to continue moving forward and making progress, building a stronger city, protecting affordability, making our services more reliable, making it easier to get around the city, and protecting and strengthening our local economy,” he said in an interview with iPolitics.
Transit
Ottawa’s public transit system is where Sutcliffe says boils down to “fairness.”
When he was first elected in 2022, the city’s LRT system had just gone through a reckoning. Sutcliffe said
“I wasn’t around when these deals were made, but we didn’t get a great deal when we built our light rail system,” Sutcliffe said.
He pointed to GTA, where the cost of building and maintaining rapid transit systems is mostly paid for by the provincial and federal government. Local taxpayers paid about five per cent of that cost on average, he said.
Ottawa’s LRT, which started its construction in 2013, paid 50 per cent in tax for the cost of building and maintaining those systems.
READ MORE: It’s been four years since Ottawa’s LRT public inquiry. Where does the train stand now?
“Which just isn’t fair,” Sutcliffe said, adding that he set out the agenda to work with the provincial government.
It’s one of political assets that Sutcliffe emphasized: an established relationship with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, involving a deal where the province would assume ownership and long-term maintenance of Ottawa’s LRT through Metrolinx.
“It’ll remove a huge amount of debt and also risk from local taxpayers,” Sutcliffe said, citing that the $85 million would allow the city to reinvest in the transit system.
That includes more money on transit projects, he said, such as more rapid bus routes.
He noted that the city has spent 30 per cent more on public transit than it did four years ago, and a lot of that funding went to the LRT in comparison to other communities, which saw support from the provincial government.
Sutcliffe added that while the city needs strong public transit, sidewalks and cycling infrastructure, he rejects what he describes as an “anti-road” or anti-car” mentality.
“In a city the size of Ottawa, people do need their cars to get around,” he said.
In his view, building a better transportation network means investing in transit and active transportation without ignoring roads used by families, commuters, rural residents and seniors travelling to appointments.
“I think there’s a real choice here between continuing to make great progress on our shared priorities, bringing the whole community together and getting everyone working together and going back to some of the ideas that we dealt with in the last election campaign,” Sutcliffe said.
Housing
As for housing, Sutcliffe said his goal is to make Ottawa the most housing-friendly city in Canada. And he said it’s working.
It started with a task force focused on tackling housing challenges, two years into his time in the office, Sutcliffe said. After adopting more than 50 recommendations, he said the city focused on streamlining the process, reducing fees and shortening approval time to build cheaper homes.
“There’s a lot of factors with regard to housing control, like interest rates and market conditions… supply chain issues, but for the part that we can control, we had to do more, and we did,” Sutcliffe said.
He noted a 35 per cent increase in building starts in the city in 2025, and a deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney in becoming the first city to work with Build Canada Homes.
BACKGROUND: Will ‘Build Canada Homes’ move the needle in affordable homes?
Under BCH, Ottawa will build more than 3,000 new homes in Ottawa on federal land, where the majority will be affordable housing.
Sutcliffe added that city hall is making an application to opt into the feds’ recent announcement on slashing development charges.
“We want to reduce our development charges by 50 per cent and get as much of that infrastructure money as we can,” he said.
There is, of course, the question about Lansdowne Park.
“The people of Ottawa own Lansdowne Park, and it was deteriorating,” he said.
Lansdowne 2.0 is one of the hot button issues that left many residents in ire, but Sutcliffe argues that the project is fundamentally a renewal project.
Sutcliffe maintains the project will cost taxpayers less than most major city projects because revenues from residential development and other on-site sources will offset a significant portion of the redevelopment costs.
“We’re paying something like 30 per cent of the cost, because we have offsetting revenue,” he said. “We sold the air rights for two residential towers, and we’re generating revenue on the site, which will go towards covering some of the construction costs over time.”
READ MORE: Lawson gains ground as Sutcliffe maintains lead in Ottawa mayoral race: poll
“It just would have cost us more money in the long run,” he said, pointing to 24 Sussex Drive, also known as the official prime minister’s residence, which is looking at $50 million for restoration.
