City of Ottawa budget to be finalized this week

Councillors will vote on the final budget Wednesday after a month of committee meetings and public delegations on the $5.5-billion spending plan.

Ottawa city council will finalize the 2023 budget this week.

Councillors will vote on the final budget Wednesday after a month of committee meetings and public delegations on the multi-billion dollar spending plan that includes $4.5 billion in operational expenses and $1.06 billion in capital spending.

Some final committee meetings are being held ahead of the budget vote on March 1, including the Ottawa Police Services Board and the Ottawa Board of Health on Monday and the Community Services Committee on Tuesday.

The police services board will finalize its $401.2 million budget Monday and hear from public delegations. Police are budgeting an extra $15.2 million in 2023, but there have been demands from the public to freeze police spending for the past couple of years. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe ran on a campaign that included increasing police spending and hiring more police officers.

Also of note is nearly $54 million in "efficiencies" included in the draft budget, $47 million of which come from the transit file. Documents presented to the transit commission earlier this month show $4.4 million in savings under bus and Para operations, including a projected savings of $1.5 million in overtime expenditures and $2.9 million in materials and services, defined further as a reduction in bus fleet size to match current service levels. The other $42.7 million that makes up the $47 million in transit efficiencies comes from a reduction in contributions to the capital reserve.

The city says it is getting rid of 117 buses that are no longer roadworthy or are too costly to maintain and several infrastructure projects are being delayed until 2024 in order to find savings this year.