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Description
Ottawa City Council and Media Availability
Date: Wednesday, March 1, 2023
A
B
B
B
B
And
we
will
start
to
prepare
20
to
2024
budget,
so,
like
I
said,
we
have
a
lot
of
work
trying
to
find
savings
everywhere,
and
we
will
start
that
work
tomorrow,
follow-up
question:
some
residents
were
opposed
to
the
Police
Service
budget.
This
is
what
we
heard
throughout
the
day.
We
had
some
examples
that
things
that
were
done
elsewhere,
using.
B
B
B
B
D
D
I
acknowledge
that
there
are
people
in
the
community
who
don't
agree
with
with
the
police
budget,
and
we
heard
from
some
people
at
the
police
services
board
meeting
earlier
this
week
and
at
previous
police
board
meetings
and
I
respect
the
points
of
view
and
I
sympathize
with
the
experiences
of
people
who
want
a
different
approach
to
policing.
But
there
was
an
election.
D
Last
year
there
was
a
democratic
election
in
which
I
and
many
other
candidates
went
door
to
door
in
the
community
and
listened
to
the
needs
of
the
community,
listen
to
their
requests,
their
aspirations
and
what
I
heard
over
and
over
again,
the
majority
of
the
voices
that
I
heard
were
that
were
from
people
who
supported
investing
in
emergency
services.
Paramedics
and
policing.
D
I
did
hear
from
some
people
who
wanted
to
cut
policing,
but
but
I
heard
from
more
people
who
wanted
to
invest
in
policing
and
that
that
was
part
of
my
platform
and
and
the
election
results
speak
for
themselves
and
we
have
a
democratically
elected
Council
that
voted
on
the
budget
today,
and
so
we
have
to
respect
that.
We
have
to
respect
the
outcome
of
the
election.
D
D
Think
that
was
reflected
in
the
meeting
today
and
in
the
outcome
of
the
meeting
today
and
I'm
I'm
grateful
to
have
the
support
of
all
of
council
for
the
budget,
but
I
also
know
that's,
that's
one
budget
and
you
know
I'll
take
a
minute
or
two
to
celebrate,
but
but
now
the
hard
work
begins
on
the
next
phase
of
our
work
together
that
that
work
includes
the
Strategic
review
of
our
services.
It
includes
the
the
process
for
setting
the
priorities
for
this
term
of
counsel,
and
it
includes
the
2024
budget.
D
There
are
some
big
Financial
pressures
and
big
challenges
which
I've
spoken
about
before
that
will
be
part
of
the
2024
budget
process.
So
we're
going
to
have
to
do
a
lot
of
hard
work
together
to
resolve
all
of
that
and
and
deliver
a
budget
for
2024
and
that
and
the
work
on.
All
of
that
is
going
to
begin
right
away.
E
Okay,
hi
Mark.
This
is
this
is
a
question
for
you.
Mr
Mayor,
first
I
want
to
ask
about
the
transit
budget.
I
mean
I.
I
want
your
opinion
on
on
the
approval
of
the
budget,
despite
the
fact
that
it
has
this
39
million
dollar
hole
in
it
that
you're
hoping
to
be
filled
by
other
levels
of
government.
But
you
haven't
gotten
confirmation.
D
I
think
we
need
to
work
with
the
other
two
levels
of
government
on
sustainable
Transit
funding
going
forward.
I
think
you
heard
that
loud
and
clear
during
the
meeting
today
that
there
is
an
expectation
that
the
provincial
and
federal
governments
will
work
with
us
on
sustainable
funding
for
Transit
operations,
going
forward
I'm
in
regular
conversations
with
elected
officials
at
the
other
two
orders
of
government
and
and
I'm
hopeful
that
we
will
get
their
support.
D
It's
clear
that
you
know:
public
transit
ridership
in
Ottawa
and
across
the
country
has
not
returned
to
pre-pandemic
levels
and,
as
you
heard
today,
there
are
other
jurisdictions
that
are
asking
the
federal
government
and
the
provincial
government
for
support
in
much
larger
numbers
by
the
way
than
ottawa's
request.
So
I
think
it's
a
reasonable
request
and
I'm
and
I'm
hopeful
that
our
conversations
with
the
other
levels
of
government
will
be
productive.
E
D
D
Well,
I,
don't
want
to
talk
about
one
specific
example,
but
obviously
we
need
to
enforce
our
bylaws
and
and
again
I
was
chairing
this
meeting
today
and
and
focused
on
that.
So
I
don't
have
a
lot
of
information
about
this.
This
development
that
came
to
light
during
the
meeting.
Okay,
sorry,
thank
you.
Thanks,
Kate.
G
Sorry
I
didn't
know
if
you're
going
to
go
to
Joanne
no
questions
for
you
today,
Mr
Mayor,
my
questions
are
going
to
be
directed
to
Donna
gray.
So
today,
there's
been
a
lot
of
discussions
about
the
need
for
mental
health
services.
We
heard
that
from
several
city
councilors
today
today.
You
also
mentioned
that
you're
in
collaboration
with
the
Ottawa
Police
about
developing
some
of
these
Services.
H
Who
are,
you
know,
experiencing
significant
difficulties
and
so
where
the
team
has
gotten
to
in
that
Collective
work
is
really
looking
at.
What
could
that
look
like
as
a
first
pie?
As
you
probably
are
aware,
many
municipalities
are
piloting
different
models
and
this
municipality
really
wanted
to
Target
a
model
that
fit
them.
So
the
first
phase
out
that
they're,
looking
at
that
we
talked
about
today
about
rolling
out
in
2023,
is
having
that
alternate
number
or
triage
coming
from
9-1-1.
H
What
we
are
going
to
do
now
is
add,
because
one
of
the
gaps
that
they
said
was
when
they
get
out
and
they
are
triaging
that
they
want
the
follow-up.
So
this
year,
we'll
be
adding
up
peer
support
to
that
machine
that
gets
connected
to
that
team.
So
it
will
be
directly
from
9-1-1
to
this
non-uniform
formed
response
to
apparent
to
a
peer
support
as
well.
They
have
done
two
other
identification
of
two
other
Solutions.
H
One
is
a
direct
line
just
to
an
emergency
cert
like
an
emergency
distress
line
that
is
then
connected
to
a
multi-disciplinary
response
team
that
would
go
out
and
respond
to
that
call
and
divert
right
away
from
any
kind
of
emergency
response.
So
the
work
we're
doing
this
year
is
is
figuring
out.
How
do
we
triage
those
and
then
building
the
team
and
building
the
financial
plan
in
terms
of
how
we
would
fund
that.
H
So
we
would
have
that
kind
of
full
system
and
we're
planning
then
to
also
have
the
peer
support
program
in
place
in
the
fall
too,
because
what
we
would
be
doing
is
augmenting
existing
supports
and
services
and
wrapping
them
around
that
response,
so
we're
thinking
by
probably
fall
we'll
have
that
full
pilot
up
and
running
and
can
build
on
the
evaluation
that
we're
doing
right
now
with
Ottawa
University
is
doing
the
first
phase
of
the
evaluation
they'll
be
helping
us
do
the
full
evaluation
as
well
awesome.
Thank
you.
Thanks.