The CTV News Ottawa mayoral debate is Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 10 a.m. Watch on CTVNewsOttawa.ca, listen on Newstalk 580 CFRA and watch on the Newstalk 580 CFRA YouTube Channel. Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson is promising to freeze property taxes in 2027 if elected mayor of Ottawa, with tax increases of one per cent in 2028 and at or below two per cent in the following two years. Lawson released his “Back to Basics Budget” on Thursday, outlining his property tax pledge for the four-year term and where he would find the savings to fund city services. “Ottawa doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a leaky bucket problem,” Lawson said in a statement released by his campaign. “The city signs more than $2 billion a year in contracts and budgets overtime at two thirds of what it actually spends. Fix the bucket, and you hold the line without cutting the services people count on.” Council passed the City of Ottawa budgets in 2023 and 2024 with a 2.5 per cent property tax hike, followed by tax hikes of 3.9 per cent in 2025 and 3.75 per cent in 2026. The 3.75 per cent tax hike this year added $166 to the average property tax bill, with increases in OC Transpo fares, water and wastewater rates and recreation fees. “Your property tax rate will not go up in the first Lawson budget,” said the policy paper from Lawson’s campaign. The campaign says Lawson’s plan identifies between $77 million and $148 million a year in budget savings and growth revenue to fund the city’s programs and operations. The plan includes: Lawson is also proposing reducing councillor office budgets to what they were before the 2025 increase and conducting value-for money audits of city departments. “No bus routes are cut, no reserves drained, no fees raised to pay for the zero. Every dollar above the line goes to getting the basics right,” Lawson’s campaign said in a statement. Lawson has already promised to end the vacant unit tax and raise the small business tax discount from 15 to 25 per cent, which his campaign says would cost about $8.4 million a year. He’s also vowed to turn off all on-street parking meters across the City of Ottawa. According to Lawson’s campaign, his promise of a zero per cent, one per cent, two per cent and two per cent property tax hike over four years would save the average Ottawa homeowner $759 over the next term compared to Mark Sutcliffe’s campaign promise. Other candidates Sutcliffe, the incumbent mayor, announced two weeks ago he would cap the property tax increase between 2 and 2.5 per cent during the first two years of the next term if re-elected. Sutcliffe is also promising to find another $250 million in savings in the City of Ottawa’s budget. Jeff Leiper has not announced a property tax goal during the campaign but has said he would implement a one per cent infrastructure levy on property tax bills. Neil Saravanamuttoo said he would not commit to a property tax hike during the campaign but has proposed a zero-based budgeting approach that would require departments to justify their spending each budget cycle. Election day is Monday, Oct. 26. An advance voting day will be held on Friday, Oct. 16. Fourteen candidates are running to be mayor of Ottawa. In alphabetical order, they are: Queen Divine Priya Amber Bakshi, Zed Chebib, Bernard Couchman, Suraj Harish, Alex Lawson, Jeff Leiper, Geoff Nicholas, Josh Rachlis, Neil Saravanamuttoo, Ali Shayvard, Jacob Solomon, Mark Sutcliffe (incumbent), Amjad Ali Syed, and Peter Westaway.
