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Lansdowne, downtown arena, among long list of city priorities, survey of business leaders shows

June 3, 2024

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Members of Ottawa’s business community are in full support of the redevelopment of the downtown core, including the renovation of Lansdowne Park and the construction of a new hockey arena in the core. However, according to results of the 2024 Welch LLP Business Growth Survey, business leaders have a long list of other priorities for the city to focus on over the next year. This year’s survey, produced by the Ottawa Business Journal and the Ottawa Board of Trade, found that downtown revitalization, public transit and economic development are top of mind for local business owners, with plans for Lansdowne, the downtown core and a hockey arena making the top of the list. The survey, conducted in February and March of 2024 by Abacus Data, received hundreds of responses from local business owners. David Coletto, CEO and founder of Abacus, called the results a “report card of the city as a whole.” While only one in five Canadians think the country as a whole is “headed in the right direction,” the Ottawa business community is significantly more optimistic, he added. “About half feel positive about the direction that the city is headed,” Coletto said. “So what we did is we followed up and asked, ‘Why is that?’” Major concerns included housing, transit, safety and the cost of living. About half of respondents credited their optimism to city leadership — particularly Mayor Mark Sutclifffe — and plans for development. The top three priorities going forward that respondents cited were promoting economic development, improving public transit, and making downtown more vibrant. Cultural and recreational amenities and environmental or climate initiatives were at the bottom of the list. Reducing homelessness, keeping taxes as low as possible, reducing crime and improving public safety, as well as speeding up the construction of new housing, also received “sizable numbers of business leaders saying they’re in the top three,” Coletto said. However, the results do not provide a clear mandate for the city, Coletto said. “We can see that there's no one issue that overwhelmingly businesses point to, which I think reminds us of how diverse the business community is,” he explained. "There’s no one that everybody says we have to do, which signals that, dependent on where you are in the city, dependent on what kind of business you are, your priorities might be different.” Seventy-four per cent of respondents expressed support for the renovation of Lansdowne Park. Similarly, the idea of a new hockey arena or entertainment centre being built in the downtown area received support from 81 per cent of respondents, which Coletto called a “clear signal” that the arena will be a large part of downtown revitalization. When asked about the need to redevelop the downtown core, 77 per cent of respondents were in support. While the diversity of the business community and its priorities might create a challenge, Coletto said one thing is evident from the survey results. “What’s clear is the business community is asking and seeking and focusing on making our city more livable, making it easier to get around, which then ultimately I think makes it easier to do business. “You can see here that, despite how diverse our business community is in terms of where businesses are located or the type of business they operate, there’s overwhelming support … for the city, for business communities, for other levels of government to be very focused on improving the downtown core.” The full Welch LLP Business Growth Survey report can be downloaded here.