Q&A: Sutcliffe hopes PM’s announcement brings ‘more clarity’ to city’s relationship with feds

David Sali

January 6, 2025

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Entering his third full year as mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe has a lot on his plate. The broadcaster-turned-politician, who has long had close ties to the city’s business community, spoke with OBJ reporter David Sali on Monday about some of the biggest issues facing local merchants in 2025 and how developments on Parliament Hill could affect efforts to breathe new life into the city’s struggling downtown core and the ByWard Market. This is the first of a two-part Q&A. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. OBJ: Ottawa’s long-awaited new Trillium north-south rail line officially launched this morning. What’s your sense of how the process has unfolded? MS: We still consider this to be a soft-launch phase. It’s five days a week for the next couple of weeks, and if all goes well, we’ll move to six days and then to seven. It’s never ideal to launch a service like this in January. There could be weather events; there could be other issues. It is a process, and with any new service, there are going to be bugs and kinks in the system, and they’ll work through those to get the service to the level that it needs to be on an ongoing basis. I think we should anticipate that there may be some challenges, but that’s normal for any launch of a new service. So far, I feel that this process has been much better managed than the launch (of the east-west Confederation Line) the last time around. OBJ: One of the most talked-about features of the new line is the spur that provides service to the airport. It’s not the direct route to downtown that many businesspeople and other residents wanted; how beneficial do you think it will be? MS: I want to encourage people to use the train for their next trip to the airport or back to Ottawa. I’m hopeful that a lot of people will use it; I was able to try the service out myself before the launch and it was great. It’s not going to be for everyone – depending on your circumstances, how long you’re travelling for, what kind of luggage you’re carrying and where you’re coming from. Different people have different needs. But I’m hoping that it will be used by people, and we’re going to work very closely with the airport to market the service and promote it and try to get as many people using it as possible. The other thing to remember is a lot of people work at the airport. They now have a public-transit option to get there as well. OBJ: In the other big news of the day, the prime minister is poised to resign and Parliament is now prorogued until late March. Are you concerned it will affect ongoing talks between the city and the federal government about issues such as payments in lieu of taxes, the future of Wellington Street and other topics? MS: I’ve been concerned going back to the late fall, early winter about the uncertainty on Parliament Hill and how that might impact some of the files we’re working on with the federal government, including my continuing call for fairness from the federal government on a number of different issues. My concern continues. I think that the fact that the prime minister has made a decision, the fact that Parliament has been prorogued for a couple of months, does bring a level of stability to the short term in the sense that we know that there’s not going to be a non-confidence motion at the end of the January, there isn’t still the looming question of what the prime minster’s decision will be. It brings a little bit more clarity, so I’m hopeful that means that in the period between now and when Parliament resumes in late March that we can work with the federal government on the priorities that I know are important to the people of Ottawa and the local members of Parliament with whom I’ve been working on those issues. I’m hoping this gives us a couple of months of stability that will clear the way for us to make some progress on some of those files. OBJ: The federal government wants to create an integrated parliamentary campus downtown with Wellington Street as a focal point. Has there been any recent progress on talks to sell the street to the feds? MS: There haven’t been any negotiations about Wellington Street in the last few months. Wellington Street is always a topic of discussion between the City of Ottawa and the federal government because of the security considerations for that road and because of the parliamentary precinct and the federal government’s plans for that area. It’s an ongoing topic of conversation. Maybe I’ll just leave it at that. OBJ: Have you thought about how a potential change in government might affect your relationship with the feds? MS: I’m ready to work with whoever the next prime minister is. I think I’ve demonstrated throughout my career as a community leader, as a broadcaster and journalist and since I became mayor that I can work with anyone. For the last two years, I’ve been working with a Conservative government at Queen’s Park and a Liberal government on Parliament Hill and have a very productive relationship with both. I’m non-partisan; I’ve never been part of any political party before I ran for office myself, and I’m still not. One of the biggest things I’ve learned since I became mayor is the extent to which cities rely on the support of the other two levels of government. That’s frankly one of the flaws in the system is that cities are really under a lot of (financial) pressure right now and don’t have the resources to tackle the challenges we’re facing, so we have to constantly go to the other levels of government and ask for help. I intend to continue working with the provincial government and any new federal government to make sure that Ottawa’s needs are met and that we’re getting our fair share and that we are equipped to tackle the challenges that we’re facing – many of which were not of our own creation. Tomorrow, the mayor discusses ongoing efforts to revive the ByWard Market and the myriad of challenges facing downtown businesses.