By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, December 13, 2017
Ottawa’s potholes will get an extra $10 million worth of fixes next year, Ottawa taxpayers won’t have to pay an extra infrastructure levy to cover the cost, and Mayor Jim Watson got to show a group of eight rebellious city councillors on Wednesday what happens when they cross him.
All thanks to several million dollars the city’s finance department found in city hall’s couch cushions last week, just in time for the final vote on the city government’s 2018 budget.
The usually mannered debate over the city budget turned nasty late last week, when those eight councillors, led by Kitchissippi’s Jeff Leiper and Gloucester-Southgate’s Diane Deans, shared publicly a plan to hike taxes 2.5 per cent instead of two per cent. The $8 million that would raise would be dedicated to fixing Ottawa’s crumbling roads and sidewalks.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reevely-city-treasurer-finds-surprise-10m-potholes-get-fixed-watson-reminds-renegade-councillors-whos-in-charge