The past month has seen increased calls from municipalities, including Ottawa, for more support from federal and provincial governments. Cities and towns are putting up distress signals that they are facing challenges that are too large to deal with on their own.
Fairness for Ottawa
On August 21st, Mayor Sutcliffe launched the Fairness For Ottawa campaign, calling on federal and provincial governments to fulfill their financial responsibilities towards the City of Ottawa.
The Alliance was invited to provide feedback on this campaign, and we have endorsed the following statement:
"This is a critical time for our city. We are facing unprecedented challenges, including for the most vulnerable in our city, that require an immediate response. As organizations committed to Ottawa's success, we support the Mayor and city council's pursuit for fairness and their continuing efforts to ensure Ottawa receives the funding it needs from other levels of government. We will continue to work together to respond to the historic changes we are seeing in Ottawa.”
We know that when services are cut, people in poverty suffer the most. With this in mind, we support the City’s efforts to pursue funding from federal and provincial sources that will allow it to reduce the impacts of service reductions on the people who will be most impacted.
Solve the Crisis
This August, Ontario's Big City Mayors also launched a campaign called Solve the Crisis asking the Province to:
"Appoint a responsible ministry and Minister with the appropriate funding and powers as a single point of contact to address the full spectrum of housing needs as well as mental health, addictions and wrap around supports."
In our 2023 report, Our City Starts With Home: Scaling Up Non-Profit Housing in Ottawa, we also identify that Ottawa needs more support from federal and provincial governments to be able to meet the city’s needs for supportive housing. The report calls on the City of Ottawa to pursue funding from provincial and federal governments to create new, deeply and permanently affordable housing, including supportive housing, as well as to maintain existing supportive housing.
It is possible to acknowledge the scale of the homelessness crisis without stigmatizing the people in our community who are living outdoors and in encampments. It will take investment and collaboration from all levels of government to solve this crisis.
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