This is the first edition of iPolitics’ Ottawa mayoral candidate series. Over the next weeks, we will sit down and interview every major candidate for the mayor’s office in this fall’s election.
If there’s one thing Jeff Leiper believes sets him apart in Ottawa’s mayoral race, it’s experience.
After 12 years of representing Kitchissippi ward, the chair of the planning and housing committee says he’s ready to move from council chambers to the mayor’s office, and get the city “back on track.”
“I am frustrated after 12 years of being a city councillor at the direction we’re going, and there’s only so much I can do from the city councillor seat,” Leiper said in an interview with iPolitics.
“I know how the city works, I know its policies, I know its statutes, I have a wealth of experience to bring.”
Leiper, who currently polls second, chairs the planning and housing committee and serves as a member of the transit, built heritage and finance and corporate services committee.
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His campaign comes amid growing dissatisfaction with city hall. A recent Liaison Strategies poll commissioned by iPolitics and Ottawa Compass, found widespread frustration with both Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and the current council.
Asked how he responds to voters who may be looking for an outsider to shake up city hall, Leiper argued Ottawa has already tried that approach.
“I know what residents want for their city, and I know how to achieve it,” he said.
While acknowledging Ottawa’s urban, suburban and rural communities have different priorities, Leiper said his campaign is built around improving the services residents rely on most: the transportation system and the city’s infrastructure.
Transit
“Sutcliffe has taken us in a direction on public transit that’s less convenient, it’s less reliable,” he said. “As a result, fewer people are taking transit and our roads are more congested.”
One of Leiper’s pledges is reversing service cuts made under the “New Ways to Bus” plan, which eliminated roughly 70,000 hours of service while saving the city about $10 million.
Leiper frames transit reliability as an affordability issue, arguing that when buses are infrequent or unreliable, residents often end up paying more for alternatives such as driving or ride-sharing services.
He said restoring service cuts would require additional investment, but would ultimately save riders money by making transit a viable option again.
“Not all bus reliability problems are due to a lack of buses or lack of routes,” he said. “Some of it is just that the buses get caught in traffic and that traffic is getting worse because people are abandoning the bus, so we’re in a vicious circle here.”
Part of that plan also involves expanding dedicated bus lanes and other transit-priority measures to improve reliability and reduce congestion.
“A big part of solving congestion is making sure that we have bus service that is reliable so that people want to take it and get more people who can use the bus, onto the bus,” Leiper said.
But he argues Ottawa’s transit challenges run deeper than recent service cuts. Leiper said one of city hall’s biggest mistakes was purchasing much of its bus fleet in a single batch in 2009, leaving hundreds of vehicles reaching the end of their lifespan at roughly the same time.
Delays in the delivery of replacement electric buses have only compounded the problem, he said.
Housing
Housing is another pillar of Leiper’s campaign.
He argues Ottawa cannot rely solely on market forces to solve the affordability crisis, saying younger residents are struggling to find apartments they can afford, while families are being priced out of homeownership.
Instead, Leiper wants the city to accelerate the construction of non-profit housing of 1,500 units annually, by leveraging public land to increase supply.
Leiper also pointed to the massive zoning overhaul that he’s been working on for the last four years on the planning and housing committee, which seeks to expand zoning permission that allows more “missing middle housing.”
That includes multi-unit housing, long semi-detached housing and triplexes.
“We’ve created the zoning permissions that will allow for more of it to be built, and as we build more not-for-profit housing, because public dollars are going to be spent on it, then we have more flexibility to try to satisfy some of that missing middle,” he said.
Transparency
Leiper has also made transparency and accountability a central part of his campaign.
He has pledged not to accept donations from developers and argues there is a growing perception that city hall operates in the interests of a select group of developers and large businesses rather than residents.
While he stresses developers are important partners in addressing Ottawa’s housing shortage, he says reducing their role in municipal campaigns is necessary to rebuild public trust.
