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Ottawa councillor giving Red Hill talk
October 13, 2006
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Second Annual
Lecture
Forging Into the Future:
Changing the Political Landscape
Clive Doucet
Councillor, City of Ottawa
A poet and politician, Councillor Doucet will speak on changing the political landscape in the quest for a sustainable future. The evening will include brief responses from a panel and the presentation of the winners of the first annual Spirit
of Red Hill Writing Awards.
Wednesday, October 18th
7:30 p.m. (Doors open at 7:00 p.m.)
First Unitarian Church
170 Dundurn Street South
Organized by the Friends of the Red Hill Valley |
A municipal politician who is leading the battle for public transit will speak in Hamilton next Wednesday evening in the second annual Spirit of Red Hill Valley lecture. Clive Doucet, a three-term Ottawa city councillor, is also a poet and a passionate advocate for better cities who has led the successful effort for a light rail transit system in the nation's capital.
In July, Ottawa council approved a 23-station addition to its light rail system that will add nearly 30 kilometres of track and connect the city's two universities and downtown core. Most of the funding is coming from federal infrastructure dollars. Similar funds provided to Hamilton have been earmarked for road construction.
“Big roads have become environmental and financial suicide,” Doucet argues, “It doesn't make sense to be adding a hundred new kilometres every year in Ottawa when we can't afford the road system we've got now.”
“For fifty years, we've sponsored the most expensive and unsustainable form of urban growth and penalized the least harmful,” Doucet wrote in a 2005 article. “Knowledge isn't the problem, the system is. And as long as a link exists between money and political power, nothing will change for cities.”
More recently, Doucet cast the only vote against this year's Ottawa budget, challenging the priority given to road expansion over energy conservation, hybrid buses, and community and social infrastructure.
“Council values roads and is ready to spend into the red in order to get them, yet community and air quality costs can be endlessly deferred,” says Doucet. “One day soon, we're going to have to start creating budgets that create lower lifecycle costs and prioritize the city's quality of life. That means having the courage to change the priorities.”
Earlier this year, Doucet suggested charging cars to use Ottawa streets. In the United Kingdom, motorists are now paying $16 to enter the central city. Doucet's proposal was for 50 cents a day.
“Folks pay for the parks out of their property tax, but they must also pay a user fee for kids to play ball. Restaurant owners pay a business tax but also must pay special fees to operate their kitchens. Why can't drivers pay a small fee for using the roads?”
The free October 18th lecture will take place at the Unitarian Church, 170 Dundurn Street South, starting at 7:30 pm. Doucet's talk will be responded to by a panel that includes retired conservation authority general manager Ben Vanderbrug, Globe and Mail urban columnist John Barber, Hamilton Spectator city hall reporter Nicole McIntrye, and environmentalist Lynda Lukasik. More information is available at redhill@hwcn.org.
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