Mayoral candidate Neil Saravanamuttoo’s plan to deal with congestion on Ottawa’s roads includes creating a People’s Office for Better Construction to coordinate construction work and asking the federal government to run park-and-shuttle services from underused federal lots. Saravanamuttoo unveiled his congestion relief plan on Friday, 45 days before voters’ head to the polls in the Oct. 26 municipal election. “Over the past four years, Ottawa’s traffic has gone from bad to worse,” Saravanamuttoo said in a media release. “Commuting is now the most painful part of many residents’ days.” He says his plan is centred around launching a People’s Office for Better Construction and addressing “the pressures” of the return-to-office mandates on Ottawa’s roads and transit system. Saravanamuttoo says the People’s Office for Better Construction at City Hall would coordinate work and “minimize its impacts on residents.” The office would work with the city, the National Capital Commission, utilities, developers and contractors to “avoid needless overlap and closures,” according to Saravanamuttoo. He says there will also be limits on lane closures, including escalating fees for contractors who run past approved timelines. Return to office Saravanamuttoo’s congestion plan also addresses the federal government’s return-to-office mandate, which now requires public servants to be in the office a minimum of four days a week. “Saravanamuttoo is strongly opposed to the federal return-to-office mandate. Ottawa’s roads and transit simply cannot absorb the extra commuters,” his campaign said. Saravanamuttoo says one of his first acts as mayor will be to ask the federal government to assess how the return-to-office mandate held up through September and October. “If it has not, he will press Ottawa’s case: bring the mandate into line with the roads and transit that exist and contribute to solutions that make RTO more feasible, starting with parking,” his campaign said. The candidate will propose the federal government operate park-and-shuttle services at underused federal lots near the downtown core, including using OC Transpo buses if possible. Saravanamuttoo, Jeff Leiper and Alex Lawson have all said they disapprove of the federal government’s return to office mandate. Leiper said last month that, if elected mayor, he would scrap the City of Ottawa’s blanket return-to-office mandate and call on the federal government to reverse its four-day mandate. Lawson has said he would ask the federal government to reverse the four-day in-office rule for public servants.
