Prime Minister meets with Mayor Sutcliffe at Ottawa City Hall
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at Ottawa City Hall on Thursday, to discuss municipal-federal issues including the future of the downtown core.
Trudeau made the short trip down Elgin Street from the Prime Minister's Office to Ottawa City Hall for the 9:15 a.m. meeting.
"This is the first time ever that the sitting prime minister of Canada has come to Ottawa City Hall for a meeting with the mayor," Sutcliffe said.
"It's an honour to welcome you here."
The prime minister told reporters, "it's a real pleasure to be here. Obviously, the work we've already done over the past times together; lots of great initiatives on housing, on transit and on other things we're continuing to do."
"Good relations with cities has always been fundamental for this government."
- Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
Sutcliffe said the two leaders discussed "working together to address Ottawa's unique and immediate challenges," including public transit and the revitalization of the downtown.
"I raised with the prime minister Ottawa's unique challenges. The fact is that, as they discussed the other day, if they are going to move out of 50 per cent of their buildings in the downtown core and if federal employees are going to work some hours from home and some hours in the office, that's having a huge impact on the downtown core and on our public transit system," Sutcliffe told CTV News Ottawa Thursday afternoon.
"I think there's an opportunity for the federal government and the City of Ottawa, for his team and my team, to work together to address those challenges and to reimagine the future of downtown Ottawa.
Sutcliffe said the prime minister "agreed with me."
"I think he understands the unique challenges Ottawa is facing and he is willing to work with us on them."
Sutcliffe said he raised transit funding with the prime minister, noting OC Transpo's biggest challenge is "our number one customer" isn't going to work every day.
"Ottawa's challenges are much greater than any other city in the country, there's no question about that and a big reason for that is our number one customer at OC Transpo was federal public servants taking the bus or the train," Sutcliffe said.
"Our number one customer segment has been disrupted. That's a decision for the federal government, but if that's going to be the way things are going forward we need the support of the federal government to make sure we have a sustainable public transit system in this city."
The meeting comes two days after the federal government tabled its 2024 budget, which included $50 million in funding for the Ottawa Police Service to bolster its presence within the Parliamentary Precinct.
While the budget also included $1.1 billion to extend the Interim Housing Assistant Program for asylum claimants, Sutcliffe said he had hoped to see funding for the City of Ottawa.
"We were hoping to see something in the budget for a welcome centre for Ottawa. This is an urgent crisis in our city," Sutcliffe told CTV News Ottawa Tuesday evening.
"We are really struggling right now. We're seeing the shelters in our city beyond capacity and a huge percentage of the people in the shelters are new arrivals to the city."
A report for next week's community services committee meeting shows the city is requesting $32.6 million in federal funding for a newcomer reception centre and scattered transitional housing units. Last year, the city created an enhanced housing allowance to provide 120 new housing allowances, with a price tag of $2.1 million.
Sutcliffe has also been calling on the federal government to provide more funding for transit and support a new vision for downtown Ottawa as the federal government shifts to a hybrid work model and reduces its office footprint.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.
Police order B.C. woman who praised Hamas not to protest for 5 months, says her group
A pro-Palestinian activist group says its international co-ordinator, who was arrested in a Vancouver hate-crime investigation, was released with an order not to attend any protests for the next five months.
Conservative MP says Chinese hacking attack targeted his personal email
A Conservative MP is challenging claims by House of Commons administration that a China-backed hacking attempt did not impact any members of Parliament, because the attack was on his personal email.
Loblaw leaders call criticism 'misguided,' say they aren't to blame for high food prices
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston and the company's new CEO are pushing back against critics who blame the grocery giant for soaring food prices, as a month-long boycott of the retailer gets underway.