City Budget 2025

The results from the survey have been presented in the "As We Heard It" report showcased on this page and can be accessed here.

Thank you for your input into the 2025 Draft Budget. Your comments and concerns regarding the reduction of discounts to senior’s fares have been forwarded to OC Transpo. Please note that the proposed changes to fares will be discussed at Transit Commission on November 25 and a final determination will be made by Council on December 11.

The Draft Budget 2025 reflects a commitment to transparency and fiscal responsibility while addressing the city’s pressing needs, in particular the budget pressures facing Transit Services. The budget proposes a balanced approach, including a 2.9% increase in the citywide tax levy and an 8% increase in the transit levy. These measures aim to sustain essential services and invest in critical areas such as housing, public safety, and transit.

Through service reviews and continuous improvement initiatives resulted in $207.7 million in efficiencies since 2023, translating to avoiding approximately 10 per cent in tax levy increases. However, the reality of rising costs and variable revenues, necessitates ongoing discussions about sustainable funding solutions.

The City is committed to engaging with residents and having honest conversations about the financial realities and the need for potential tax increases to maintain and improve services. Public consultations and feedback mechanisms are in place to ensure that residents’ voices are heard in the budget process.

The Draft 2025 Budget calls for expenditures of $22.5 million in Forestry Services and $45 million in Parks Maintenance Services.

The budget for Forestry Services funds tree planting, tree and forest maintenance, tree protection, invasive pest management and the implementation of the City’s Urban Forest Management Plan. Further details can be found on page 17 of the Environment and Climate Change Committee’s draft 2025 budget document.

The budget for Parks Maintenance funds the operation and maintenance of parks grounds, open spaces, leased hydro easements and naturalized areas. This includes sports fields, ball diamonds, turf, beaches, wading pools, play structures, outdoor rinks, trails and municipal facility grounds. Further details can be found on page 43 of the Community Services Committee's Draft 2025 budget document.

The City does issue debenture for capital projects. We are a leader in the issuance of labelled bonds (green debenture, sustainable debenture) and are one of the largest government issuers of these type of debentures in the country.  The debentures are distributed through a syndicate of Bank Dealers who market and sell the debentures in the capital markets on the City’s behalf. Investor participation has been oversubscribed for our issuers leading to attractive funding levels when issuing.

Thank you for your inquiry.

As Ottawa’s population is growing, changing, and aging, the City of Ottawa is committed to responding to these demographic changes and has been implementing an Older Adult Plan (OAP) since 2012.

The latest iteration of the OAP in 2020, committed to 24 actions organized around four (4) strategic areas that were consistent with the provision of City services for older adults: Aging with Choice, Transportation and Mobility, Well-being, and Communication. The OAP assigned responsibility for each action to a City Department, which had committed to its implementation within the stated timeline. The Community and Social Services Department provided the overall coordination and monitoring function for the OAP.

In 2020, City Council approved $350,000 in the Community and Social Services Department (CSSD) annual operating budget for the implementation of Corporate-wide Older Adult Plan initiatives. CSSD invited City Departments to submit proposals to fund initiatives that align with the priorities of the previous OAP. This process allocated $350,000 to initiatives and projects that aligned with the priorities identified in the last iteration of the OAP.

City staff are currently working on the renewal of the City’s OAP, which began with a fulsome consultation strategy from June to September 2024. City staff consulted and engaged with residents and community agencies to ensure the development of the renewed plan is adapted to new and emerging needs of older adults. The consultation process was structured to align with the Ministry’s Creating a More Inclusive Ontario: Age-Friendly Community framework, along with the World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Cities framework. The frameworks characterize Age-Friendly Communities as responding to both the opportunities and challenges of an aging population by creating physical and social environments that support independent, active living to enable older adults and people with disabilities to continue contributing to all aspects of community life. The findings of the consultations will inform the development of a new iteration of the OAP, which will be released in 2025.  

As the new OAP is under development until 2025, the 2025 funding allocation process will occur once the plan priorities and the governance structure are established. The funding allocation process will be reviewed and updated to align with the new governance structure, the Community Funding Framework, and the new OAP priorities. This process will allocate $350,000 for the selected initiatives. Therefore, we are unable to confirm at this time the amount that will be allocated for “aging in place” initiatives. However, the funded initiatives will align with the priorities established from what we heard from the public during the consultations.

This request has been sent to the Planning, Development and Building Department for their feedback as well. The following has been provided:

Official Plan includes Healthy and Inclusive Communities as a “cross-cutting issue” where implementation policies span multiple themes and sections in the Official Plan, City policies, other master plans, by-laws, or other practices. Healthy and Inclusive Communities in section 2.2.4 of the Official Plan also includes the following policy intent:

2) Build accessible, inclusive communities, and design for all ages, including children and older adults

Health is shaped by the conditions in which we live, work and play. These are known as the social determinants of health and can affect some groups’ health and well-being more than others. Inequities in communities can be mitigated through the design of the built environment. Planning decisions shall support development of equitable, inclusive, gender and age-friendly communities in ways that build the city’s vibrancy and resiliency and foster community health and well-being. Plans and policies shall ensure that communities and places are designed to consider a diversity of experiences, including children, older adults, people with disabilities, women and gender-diverse persons, those identifying as 2SLGBTQQIA+ and people living with lower incomes. An equitable and inclusive community considers the needs of various cultural groups and seeks to reduce barriers and promote equity for people who are racialized. It integrates opportunities to advance reconciliation and engage with Indigenous peoples. Neighbourhoods designed to be inclusive help to ensure communities are built for everyone, meet needs across the lifespan and contribute to overall health and quality of life.

Healthy, inclusive communities:

• Integrate and honour Indigenous values, knowledge and cultures in city-building, through relationship-building and engagement. This includes through Indigenous representation in planning, placemaking, as well as environmental stewardship;
• Integrate age-friendly design by considering the needs of children and older adults, and support aging-in-place;
• Are designed to be universally accessible;
• Provide housing across the city for a range of ages, income levels and backgrounds, and help meet housing needs across the lifespan;
• Support, and prioritize, active transportation for all ages and abilities. This includes the needs of children and older adults in the design of safe, convenient active transportation infrastructure and sustainable mobility options that can be used all seasons, including winter;
• Support placemaking features that consider the needs of women, children and older adults and cultural groups. This could include child-friendly urban design, inclusive public gathering places and cultural assets; and
• Leverage opportunities to respond to land use, transportation and infrastructure needs in neighbourhoods identified in Ottawa’s Neighbourhood Equity Index, as having strong equity concerns. Master plans, local plans and development can help strengthen neighbourhoods, providing a better quality of life.

Thank you for your question regarding the City of Ottawa’s climate resiliency initiatives.

The 2025 Draft Budget continues Ottawa's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing climate resiliency, continuing our efforts to transition the City to a clean, renewable, and resilient community by 2050. The 2025 Draft Budget invests in initiatives that take Ottawa further toward the goals outlined in the Climate Change Master Plan (CCMP). Most significantly, it continues to prioritize the integration of climate and resiliency into the day-to-day operations of the City. 

This is the third consecutive budget cycle where a climate lens has been applied to new capital budget requests. Overall, 217 capital budget requests were rated as having a climate contribution in the 2025 Draft Budget. There were 22 rated as having a moderate or major contribution, totaling $375 million in new investments, more than $22 million of which is expected to make significant contributions to building climate resiliency. This includes:

• Programs to reduce flooding and erosion, including additional investment in the Residential Protective Plumbing program

• Additional back-up generators at community centres to ensure continued community services during power outages
• Improved streetscaping to include shade and other measures to reduce the urban heat island effect and manage increased rainfall
• Access to building retrofit training and education for private building owners
• Continued upgrades to support the City’s Emergency Operations Centre during extreme weather events

For 2025, $6 million will go towards initiatives identified through the CCMP, including funding to support the reduction of emissions and build resiliency to current and future climate conditions. The CCMP capital fund will be used to help catalyze new actions, address capacity issues, and support moving projects from a like-for-like to like-for-better replacement approach. As directed by Council, projects will be prioritized with a focus towards resilience; corporate building retrofits and energy conservation; urban forest management; electrifying city owned vehicles and infrastructure; and extreme weather preparedness and response.

The Climate Change and Resiliency Service Area is working on key initiatives that align with the Term of Council priorities to bolster resilience against extreme weather and climate changes. While the team continues to advance many resiliency related initiatives at the City, we will also be bringing forward a Resiliency Strategy for Committee and Council consideration next year. You can read more about that by visiting: Climate Resiliency Strategy | Engage Ottawa

This year’s budget has allocated $2.75 million toward rural road upgrades, which will go towards pavement and base repairs, reconstruction, strengthening, hard surfacing, resurfacing, and drainage improvements.

Community centres are not currently undergoing upgrades, however, Facility Operations has installed generators at select sites and any new builds or expansions are required to meet higher LEED standards.

More information on the budget as it related to climate change and resiliency can be found in the 2025 Draft Budget on page 44.

Thank you for your inquiry.

Food insecurity is a concern for us all. The recently approved Poverty Reduction Strategy is committing to address household food insecurity through policy making, funding and coordination. In support of this, the City will hold a community-led Food Security Forum in 2025 in partnership with the food sector. We invite you to follow progress on the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan.

Draft Budget 2025 includes a 3.11% additional inflationary increase for food serving agencies in receipt of Sustainability Funding, representing $262K. This increase is in addition to the 2.5% inflationary increase that Sustainability Funded agencies will receive, for a total of $841K in inflationary increase in 2025. In 2025, pending Budget approval, over $5M will be invested in food security, directly towards emergency food services and through programs including a food security lens. Just Food, who oversees the Community Gardening Network, is one of the agencies that will receive a 5.61% inflationary increase on the 2025 Sustainability Funding allocation to support their food system work.

Additionally, the City is currently reviewing its Community Garden Action Plan. This review is informed by a thorough interdepartmental review, an external municipal scan of best practices, as well as virtual community engagements with residents and community stakeholders. Engagement was also held on the Engage Ottawa Community Gardens and Community-Led Green Initiative platform areas where community members requested City support. We are currently finalizing a ‘What we heard report’ for Council and community consideration, before a report is brought to Council on March 2025. The city is committed to ensuring the review of the Community Garden Action Plan reflects residents' needs and promotes sustainable urban agriculture and includes a food system lens.

No it does not.

The City has 3 separate levies and various levies have different impacts to property owners. The impacts of the Citywide tax levy, Police levy and Transit levy are broken down in further detail as per the various budget documents and information. The following table (for reference) is provided as part of the Tabling documents on November 13^th, which provides the details on the various levies and average assessed property for Urban/Rural and Commercial properties.