Q&A: ‘Historic challenge’: Sutcliffe on downtown revitalization, the future of the ByWard Market and more

David Sali

January 7, 2025

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says bringing more vibrancy to downtown Ottawa – especially the ByWard Market – is one of his top priorities for 2025. But the mayor is also looking for help from other levels of government as the city tackles the daunting challenge of reinventing a core that was hollowed out during the COVID-19 crisis and is slowly starting to recover. In an interview this week with OBJ reporter David Sali, Sutcliffe addressed downtown revitalization, the housing crisis and other key economic issues facing the nation’s capital. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. OBJ: What role do you expect the federal government to play in helping to revive Ottawa’s downtown? MS: There’s nothing more important than working with the federal government on a plan for downtown Ottawa. The federal government is the city’s largest employer; it’s the largest property owner in downtown Ottawa. We’re the capital of Canada, and the decisions that the federal government makes about all kinds of things have an impact on downtown Ottawa and our local economy. So it’s absolutely critical that we work together on a plan for downtown and the ByWard Market to ensure that both are vibrant in the coming months and years. There are a number of different issues that are affecting downtown and the ByWard Market, including the homelessness crisis, the opioid crisis, the mental health challenges that members of the community are facing, the decisions of the federal government about where its workforce is deployed, about some of its downtown office buildings. There are a lot of different factors, and this is really a historic challenge for the City of Ottawa. So we need to work closely with the federal government and they need to work closely with us on a plan that will address all of that. OBJ: There’s been a lot of talk about the challenges facing the ByWard Market. What’s your sense of how that area is doing right now? MS: I want to say something about the Market. I’ve seen coverage of some of the things that have been happening in the Market, and it’s almost like everybody is running every piece of new information from the Market through a filter or a lens that is portraying a negative story about the Market. For example, the closing of the Blue Cactus (Bar and Grill). This was a decision by a business owner to wrap up business and sell the property to another owner who’s very interested in investing in that site and opening a new restaurant. It was not related to any of the challenges the Market has faced in recent years. Some of the coverage sort of implied, ‘Here we go again,’ as though this was a part of some trend. Just before Christmas I met with a group of business owners, property owners, the ByWard Market (District) Authority, residents and other people very passionate about the ByWard Market. Their sense is that while we still face some challenges, we’re making progress and we’re seeing positive signs. More people are coming back to the Market, and more people are investing in the Market. There are other restaurants opening. The folks at McDonald’s are looking at re-establishing a location in the ByWard Market. So there are a lot of positive signs. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still challenges and we don’t still have a lot of work to do. But I think people need to take notice of the progress that’s being made. There’s a bit of a tendency sometimes when normal things are happening in business – like a business owner deciding to retire after 35 years and someone else choosing to replace that business with another exciting venture – that it gets spun into some type of negative story. I actually think much better things are happening in the ByWard Market than many people realize. We still have lots of work to do, but we’re going in the right direction. OBJ: Two major reports were released last year looking at what needs to be done to revitalize Ottawa’s downtown. Critics are complaining there’s been a lot of talk about the subject and not enough action. What’s your response to that? MS: I think in 2025, we need to do a lot of work to follow up on those plans that have been developed – get the right people around the table, get the right leadership in place. The city is ready to support the work of the Board of Trade (which released its Downtown Ottawa Action Agenda last May) to make sure that we’re acting on their recommendations. I see a lot of potential there, and we’re ready to support the leadership of the Board of Trade in taking that action. I think we’re going to see some progress on that in the coming weeks. OBJ: Meanwhile, many downtown merchants have told us they’re concerned about the effect escalating crime, substance abuse, homelessness and other issues are having on their businesses. Does the city have a plan to address their concerns? MS: I’ve spoken with many merchants in the downtown core, and I totally understand their concerns. We're ready to work with them and the BIAs in the downtown core. This is a multi-faceted problem; we’re seeing more people come to the downtown core, which is encouraging. We want to continue to see that happen. We’re dealing with issues like homelessness and substance use, the opioid crisis and mental health challenges. We’re making progress on some of the solutions. We’re hiring more police officers, paramedics. OBJ: Another big issue that’s not going away is the housing crisis. Developers say red tape and rising costs such as development fee hikes are making it tougher to build the volume of housing we need. What can the city do to help? MS: We’re (hoping) to build more homes and build them as fast as possible. We’re going to continue to work with the development community to find solutions. We want to streamline our processes; we want to work side-by-side with the development industry to do that. We want to incentivize new builds. We want to keep the cost of building as low as possible. Obviously, we still have to pay for that growth and pay for the infrastructure that goes along with it. I think there’s a role for the other levels of government to play in this. I’ve had conversations with the other levels of government about how we can offset development charges with more infrastructure funding from the other levels of government. That would be a big help. There are a lot of different ways to approach this, and I think we’re going to continue to try to innovate at the city and try new ideas and find ways to streamline the processes and incentivize development as much as possible. OBJ: What else is on your agenda in 2025 as far as helping to build the city’s economy? MS: Economic development continues to be one of my biggest priorities. I think we’ve made a lot of progress getting new flights to and from Ottawa. I hear a lot of very positive feedback from the business community about the Paris flight and the upcoming London flight that’ll be launching in a couple of months. We’re bringing more and more events to the city to drive tourism and economic development. The world juniors were a huge success; I heard very positive feedback from the International Ice Hockey Federation and Hockey Canada about the job that Ottawa did in hosting the world juniors this year. They both want to bring more events to Ottawa in the near future, which is exciting. We have the Ironman (Canada Triathlon) coming for the first time this summer. There’s a lot of other stuff in the pipeline. The stronger we’re doing economically, the more resources there are for us to tackle the other challenges we’re facing as a community. I’m going to continue to be very focused on making sure that Ottawa is a great place to do business.