December OSCAR - Old Ottawa South

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Page 6 The OSCAR - OUR 38 th YEAR DEC 2011 By: Jim Watson As we enter our second year at City Hall and reflect on year one, it continues to be an honour and a privilege to work with this Council. On October 26, the day after the first anniversary of our election, we tabled the budget for 2012. Together with the City Manager and the residents who took time to offer their suggestions, we have proposed an affordable and accountable budget with a tax increase of 2.39% which is below the promised ceiling of 2.5% per year. The tabling of the budget was the first step in a month-long effort towards planning the city’s finances for 2012. Since October 26, we have By Lisa Drouillard We are pleased to present OSCA’s first concert series at the Firehall: Sirens of the Firehall will present voices from a range of musical genres: Baroque, Jazz and Celtic. The ticket price of $25 and $15 for students and seniors will support the musicians engaged for these concerts, and OSCA will take proceeds from the refreshments on offer at these events. For our first concert on Saturday February 25, 2012 we will host the MAYOR’S MONTHLY COLUMN held over 15 budget consultations across the city to let people have their say. As we did with the design of the budget, we want the debate of the budget to be an open and participatory process. Budget 2012 was designed in response to the concerns we heard from residents of Ottawa and we will continue to listen. Below is a list of some of the highlights of the budget. • A 2.39% annual increase for the coming year – the lowest rate in 5 years. • The elimination of fortyseven full time equivalent positions contributing to savings of more than $3.4 million each and every year. • Last year we cut that annual increase in transit fares by two-thirds holding to 2.5%. This year even with Toronto Baroque ensemble Aradia, led by Artistic Director Kevin Mallon (whom many of you will know as conductor of Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings chamber orchestra). Mallon’s Aradia Ensemble specializes in presenting an eclectic blend of orchestral, operatic and chamber music played on original period instruments. The concert will feature mezzo soprano Marion Newman, whose discography includes five cds with the Aradia Ensemble for Naxos: Polly by Samuel Arnold, Sacred Music by Vivaldi, and Griselda, also by Vivaldi, Handel’s Tabling Budget 2012 fuel prices up by more than 12% and ridership up by 6%, we have once again kept fare increases to 2.5%. • For the second straight year, frozen fees for city recreation programs that, in the past, have increased significantly. • The opening of 17 new parks across the City. • $3 million in the coming year for green building retrofits and $500,000 a year to expanding our green fleet program. • In 2011, we made $14 million in new annual funding available for affordable housing. Budget 2012 continues this vital funding. • $3.2 million to boost service to deal with the growth in ridership of OC Transpo. In addition to growth, Budget 2012 provides a targeted $2.3 Sirens of the Firehall Concert Series Kevin Mallon Sarah Burnell Cont’d on next page million in funds to boost capacity on routes like the 87, 94, 95 and 96. More trips and more high-capacity buses will be added to these busy routes • We will add to the Environmentally Sensitive Land Fund we created last year, dedicated to making sure we have the resources to buy key parcels of land that make sense. Already there is $4.4 million in the fund now and will be adding approximately $1.4 million in an additional contribution this year. The above highlights are only part of the budget that will be voted on by Council on November 30th. To view the budget speech in its entirety please visit ottawa.ca/mayor. Tel: 613-580-2496 Email: Jim. Watson@Ottawa.ca, Web: ottawa.ca/ mayor
DEC 2011 CITY COUNCILLOR’S REPORT Looking back on the past year and forward to 2012, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the direction we are taking as a city and as a community here in Old Ottawa South. One indication is the uncharacteristically positive reaction to the City of Ottawa’s 2012 Budget. At town hall meetings, in the media and on the street in Old Ottawa South, most people have expressed satisfaction with a budget that treads a careful line between spending and cutting. Taxpayers are generally pleased that it delivers on the promise made by the mayor — and endorsed by Council — to hold annual property tax increases below 2.5%. But there is more to creating a good budget than simply keeping people happy about the level of spending and minimizing tax bill hikes. Equally important are the priorities we choose to set for spending and cutting, and how we make those choices. The City developed the 2012 Budget through a lot of listening and a lot of input from citizens and interest groups across Ottawa. I felt the mayor and his advisors listened carefully to what I brought to them in terms of a critique of past and current spending practices, and a list of specific priorities. I developed my list by listening to you, by putting forward some ideas and priorities that I consider important, and by gathering input from our Rinaldo and Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noel and Te Deum. Aradia’s February concert, titled Capricio Extravagante, will present lavish instrumental and vocal music of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Venice, that will transport listeners to St. Mark’s square and the beautiful cathedral of the same name. It will showcase composers of the Golden age of Venice and its most famous son, Antonio Vivaldi. Juxtaposed to these works will be two new music commissions for baroque instruments by Canadian composers Rose Bolton and Chris Meyer. On Saturday, March 31, 2012 we will be featuring the sultry tones of Ottawa Jazz singer Renée Yoxon, and her trio with jazz guitarist Rob Martin and bassist Marc Fraser. Renée has become a central figure in Ottawa’s jazz scene thanks to her grace, captivating presence and beautiful voice. In only a few short years, Renée has firmly established herself as a musician dedicated to the art of jazz singing. This year, Renée received an Astral Emerging Artist Award from the National Arts Centre and Astral Radio which helped fund a summer of jazz study in New York. In the fall of 2010, Renée released The OSCAR - OUR 38 th YEAR City Hall’s Shift In Attitude Promises Positive Change For Old Ottawa South Ward Council, which consists of the community association presidents in Capital Ward. That there were no big surprises is therefore no surprise. This council and this mayor are not prone to making sudden and sweeping announcements about major cuts, freezes or new spending. But that does not mean this budget and future ones should shy away from change, because a vibrant city needs to be open to creativity and new ways of thinking. In fact, what pleases me most about this budget — more even than the positive reception it has received — is that it signals a subtle but important shift in direction. Call it a new attitude. For the first time in my memory, the City budget makes a strong statement about the importance of maintaining, repairing and rebuilding what we already have. For a change, we are allocating very little money to expanding our large road network, and focusing instead on renewing our existing infrastructure, including local streets, sidewalks, bridges, parks and skating rinks. We have designated several million dollars for cycling infrastructure — still a miniscule amount compared to what we spend on car infrastructure, but an important increase and a new record for cycling. And there’s more money for OC Transpo to help fix some of the problems with “network optimization”. Sirens of the Firehall.... Cont’d from previous page Renée Yoxon Old Ottawa South can also look forward to substantial interim repairs to the Billings Bridge while I redouble my efforts to find safer solutions for cyclists and pedestrians who use it and the Bank Street Bridge. One suggested solution for the Billings Bridge is to widen the sidewalk area, which is cantilevered outside the roadbed, to accommodate segregated bike lanes. However, such a significant and expensive redesign is outside the scope of the current repairs, and will have to wait for a major rehabilitation project. In addition, both bridges have a heritage designation, which makes it difficult to obtain authorization for even modest modifications to their structure or appearance. While the bridges on Bank continue to pose a challenge, many Old Ottawa South residents will benefit from repairs and new bike lanes on the McIlraith (Smyth) Bridge, as well as a full rehabilitation of Main Street from the Canal to Riverside Drive. The City will also begin design work on the Rideau River Western Pathway, which will connect the existing multi-use pathway from Bank to Belmont St. in Windsor Park to the new University of Ottawa campus on Lees Ave. Families, cyclists and strolling pedestrians will welcome this crucial link between existing multi-use pathways in Old Ottawa South. The budget also begins to address the redevelopment and planning headaches that plague older com- her first album entitled Let’s Call it a Day, a minimal and intimate, jazz-inspired guitar/voice duo with veteran guitarist René Gely (whom neighbours may remember from our Spanish Revival event!). Since the release of her first record, Renée has been garnering notice at the national level with several of her tracks receiving airplay on such radio shows as CBC Radio 2′s TONIC with Katie Malloch, Planète Jazz’s Let Lève- Tards with Annie B, and Dinner Jazz on Jazz.FM91. Our Sirens series will be rounded out beautifully by a performance by the Sarah Burnell Band on April 21, 2012. Sarah hails from Ottawa, but her fiddle roots may be found in the music of the Scottish Highlands, Cape Breton, Ireland, and Québec. Her energetic fiddle style possesses a youthful exuberance, grounded in her strong classical training. Sarah is also an accomplished young singer, and her new CD features several beautiful Celtic ballads. The Sarah Burnell Band first Page 7 munities like Old Ottawa South. The City promises to reduce red tape and barriers for sustainable projects that prioritize energy and water efficiency, minimize construction waste, and reduce their overall environmental footprint. At the same time, it vows to rein in developers who want to continue overbuilding in our communities. These are just a few of the positive aspects of a fiscal plan that I am proud to have helped develop and introduce. You can call the 2012 Budget greener, more sustainable, resilient, smart or fiscally responsible. The label we choose is of little consequence. But I approve of this subtle change in direction, and will continue to nudge it further at every opportunity. Thank you for sharing your ideas and feedback with me over the past year — I hope the next one is at least as interesting and productive. Councillor David Chernushenko 613-580-2487 | David.Chernushenko@ Ottawa.ca | www.capitalward.ca came together in 2006, to record the award-winning cd Sarah’ndipity. Since then, their unique arrangements of traditional Celtic music have won them accolades across Canada. Sarah’ndipity won Sarah Burnell the 2006 Canadian Folk Music Award as “Young Performer of the Year”. In 2008, her second cd, Return Ticket, also received critical acclaim at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Sarah’s exceptional soprano voice is perfect for those lilting Celtic songs! Sarah teaches fiddle and directs the vocal ensemble at the Siamsa School of Irish Music. She is a recent graduate of McGill University, and teaches Music at Terry Fox Elementary School, in Montreal. Tickets will be on sale at the Firehall and on our website, and at the door. For further information, or to volunteer to support the even, contact Lisa Drouillard at 613-730- 7813 or at leucodendron@gmail. com.
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December OSCAR - Old Ottawa South

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