Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says City of Ottawa advertising campaigns to promote activities happening in the city and to share tips on traffic and OC Transpo service does not mean the city is “demanding public servants should stay downtown” and support local businesses. “It’s not the responsibility of federal public service to make downtown businesses financially viable,” Sutcliffe told reporters on Friday. “We’re communicating with them to let them know all of the measures that are being taken to make it easier to get to and from work.” The $29 million, 48-point plan to keep commuters moving this fall includes a “Come and Stay” campaign for increased promotion of activities and events taking place downtown, according to city documents. Staff would not provide any details on the “Come and Stay” campaign this week after Sutcliffe said on social media there would be “no effort to direct people to stay downtown longer than they want.” The report for the July 16 council meeting said the city’s communications strategy this summer and fall would include “targeted efforts to promote downtown activity, events and businesses” to ease congestion on roads and public transit at the end of the workday. “With the objective of encouraging workers and visitors who travel to the downtown core to extend their time in the area in order to spread the egress from downtown over a longer period,” staff said in the report. Sutcliffe says he thinks there’s an understanding that there will be more people in downtown Ottawa this fall as public servants spend more time in the office and post-secondary students return. “Naturally, if you’re somebody running a BIA downtown you’re going to say hey, if there are more people downtown, we’re going to find reasons for them to stay and have dinner and go to a show, or visit the National Arts Centre, visit a gallery,” Sutcliffe said. “I think that’s inevitable and perfectly understandable on the part of the BIAs and we, naturally, are supporting the BIAS and encouraging them in their work. But that doesn’t mean we’re demanding public servants should stay downtown; we’re doing nothing of the sort.” The city’s transportation plan includes $110,000 for promotion and paid advertising to share mitigation measures and travel tips, and $50,000 for a transit communication campaign geared towards federal employees. Ottawa to “support downtown vitality” On Tuesday, Sutcliffe insisted there is “no plan to encourage employers to keep employees downtown longer, nor to do any marketing or communications along those lines.” “I have asked city staff to ensure that any and all communications will be to inform residents of the 48 different measures the city is taking to make traffic flow more smoothly,” Sutcliffe said in a letter to city employees. “There will be no effort to direct people to stay downtown longer than they want to, and any suggestion of that is misleading.“ The city report makes no mention of the City of Ottawa encouraging employers to keep employees downtown but did mention “increasing promotion of activities and events taking place downtown.” The objectives of the communications campaign included: OC Transpo and the city are expecting an additional 65,000 trips a week into the downtown area this fall, with federal public servants required to be in the office for a minimum of four days a week.
