The latest Lansdowne plan repeats the mistakes of the past

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As residents of Ottawa, we expect the town hall to spend our money carefully. We also expect the town hall to learn from its mistakes. However, repeating the mistakes of the past is exactly what our local government has to do.

With Lansdowne 2.0, it risks the repetition of three important financial mistakes.

The first mistake is to take the rosy financial projections of a suspect to the nominal value.

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A decade ago, the city of Ottawa joined a public-private partnership with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) to renovate Lansdowne. This included the promise that taxpayers would achieve almost $ 100 million. These profits never materialized.

The city recently published the annual report 2024 Lansdowne, which recorded a further loss of $ 9.2 million in the last financial year.

Lansdowne 2.0's proposal promises the taxpayers more than 350 million US dollars in profit. Most of those come from Lansdowne, who produce 1 billion US dollars in leasing gains. For most of us, it is very difficult to see Lansdowne as a billion dollar-in-house trading point. The city's own advisor, which was classified for the care of the Lansdowne Financials, described these projections as “optimistic”. That sounds like consultants who are very unlikely that it will ever come true.

The second mistake is to assume that we can legally enforce the public interest after we have sold public land to private owners.

The city believes that it can sell part of the exhibition street, the main street through Lansdowne, to a real estate developer and the reaconium when the construction is complete. The city assures us that it can buy this country back in the future by bringing a federal government into the sales contract.

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The people in Kanata know better than any other how little protection bundle offer. In 1981 the city authority agreed that a property was developed, but with a federal government in the agreement that 40 percent forever would be kept as an “open space”. A court decision recently overarched in Ontario has decided that the Covenant “inoperatively” paves the way for its current owner for the development of the entire location.

The Kanata judgment should end any illusion that the city guarantees ownership or control over the exhibition path after the country's sale. If the developer got into serious financial difficulties during the project, assets could be sold to the highest bidder. Would we be ready to risk part of Lansdowne Park that is acquired by a private equity company? Or a Russian oligarch? Or a Chinese state company?

The third mistake is to start with an artificially low budget and then the project to design this number.

A story of two roofs

The city seems to be so firm that Lansdowne is available under its advertised price of $ 419 million that it cuts the functions back into the bones. The “green roof” of the new event center has now become one roof that has been painted green. The other roof das is so important for many redblack fans was exclusively excluded from the design.

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The project is still moved out of the project in Lansdowne 2.0 functionality to meet the upper limit of $ 419 million, which could later be added as a new specification that requires additional funds. Taxpayers are entirely on the hook for all Lansdowne costs. Don't be surprised that all possible upgrades came out of the wood as soon as the project has the green light from the city council.

This is the promise of the former mayor Jim Watson 2010 “on time and in the budget” for light rail again. The city did not reach and ultimately delivered the taxpayer a slimmed -down and significantly impaired transit system. To block a budget number too early and put it at unrealistically low level, ultimately cost us much more than if it had been properly budgeted from the start.

Some city councilors did their best to concern concerns about Lansdowne. But most of the council has turned the defects an eye on the defects. It falls on ordinary residents to vote for these concerns. Everyday citizens have become the last line of defense to protect the city's finances from a advice that is ready to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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I have argued elsewhere that the renovation of Lansdowne will be the equivalent of a single increase in point tax for all of us, at least for the next few decades. Let your city council know whether you think the residents of Ottawa earn it better. It is people like you who are considering that this city will save before repeating the costly mistakes of the past.

Neil Saravanamuttoo is a director of Cityshapes, author of the 613 on Substack and former chief economist of the Global Infrastructure Hub of the G20. His analysis of the Lansdowne Financials and a petition in which a referendum is requested about whether the city replaces with this project can be found under Terreottawa.ca.

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