Ottawa's 'Night Mayor' to get a 'Night Council'; applications now open

The City of Ottawa says it is recruiting a "nightlife council" to aid the city's recently appointed nightlife commissioner.

In June, the city appointed Mathieu Grondin to the nightlife commissioner role, as part of the Ottawa Nightlife Economy Action Plan that's focusing on leisure, live entertainment and cultural activities during the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. period.

• Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

In a memo to city council on Monday, Economic Development Services interim director Sheilagh Doherty said the Ottawa Nightlife Council is the next step in the Nightlife Economy Action Plan.

"As a department-led working group, the Nightlife Council will provide feedback on the commercial and cultural vibrancy of Ottawa’s nightlife economy and the advancement of nightlife management best practices, policies, safety programs, and promotion," the memo says.

Doherty says the nightlife council will consist of between 12 and 18 members. Nightlife council members are volunteers and receive no remuneration. The nightlife commissioner's salary is $112,000 a year.

"Six seats will be allocated to economic development and cultural industries organizations engaged in the nightlife economy. The remaining Nightlife Council at-large members (minimum 6 seats to a maximum 12 seats) will be appointed by the Nightlife Commissioner for a two-year term. At-large members must be engaged in/interact with the nightlife economy as a resident, business owner, or worker," Doherty said.

People interested in becoming a nightlife councillor-at-large can now apply. The City says at-large members may be "nightlife business owners, workers, or consumers of nightlife experiences." Applications are open until Oct. 11.

"If you do not participate in Ottawa’s nightlife economy, please do not apply to the Nightlife Council," the City's website says.

Not just about young people, not just about downtown: Grondin

Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron on Tuesday, Grondin said a nightlife council is not a new idea.

"There's over 40 cities in the world who have night councils. We're not reinventing the wheel here," he said.

He added that Ottawa needs to stop referring to itself as a boring government town.

"There's over 110,000 students in this city. It's a student town. It's a student city. This is an incredible asset to develop nightlife. If the government workers, they want to come three days in the office and then go back home and turn on the Netflix, that's their thing, but there's more and more residents downtown and they want a vibrant life there and nightlife contributes to the quality of life of residents."

Grondin said nightlife is not just about students or young people and it's also not just about the downtown core.

"I think we've got to broaden our definition of nightlife here. I think everybody participates at one point or another in nightlife," he said.

"If you want to stay in the suburbs, if you want to stay in the countryside, because it's so wide, Ottawa, you should also have a little nightlife hub there. A couple of restaurants that are open a little bit late. Maybe there's a pub where a couple of artists can perform, so you don't really need to come downtown all the time if you want to experience nightlife. That's something that I'm going to be looking into, as part of my mandate."

An example he gave was animating empty spaces, like unused parking lots or fields, with things like live music, food trucks, and play equipment for kids.

"That's what nightlife is all about, socializing, too, and it's community-building through that," he said. "In our society today … the more we are digitalized, the less and less we are socialized in many ways, so nightlife can be a positive factor in contributing to the socialization of our communities."

Nightlife council at-large members will be expected to attend a minimum of four in-person meetings per year.

The nightlife council will:

• identify shared objectives for the development of commercial and cultural vibrancy at night;
• identify systemic barriers to commercial and cultural growth;
• propose actions and initiatives for consideration by the NLCO (nightlife commissioner office); and
• support the implementation of actions and initiatives undertaken by the NLCO and contribute to ongoing evaluation and impact measurement.

Grondin, who came to Ottawa from Montreal, said he would spend the summer meeting with stakeholders in Ottawa's nightlife economy, with plans to appoint the nightlife council by the end of the year. 

Business owners weigh in

Scott May, owner of Bar Robo in Queen Street Fare, has already applied to join the nightlife council.

"It's a great opportunity to make our voice known and to help guide the night mayor, helping him on what's going on in the city," May said. "Any opportunity we can have to help drive the process and inform his decisions about some of the things that can be done and some of the opportunities exist, it's very wise to involve those that have a vested interest in the nighttime economy to help advise."

May believes the role of night life council, being unpaid and voluntary will also help promote more ideas, not "beholden to taxpayers and voters".

"Because of the entrepreneurial nature of the people that are involved in the nighttime community, I think that we have a mentality of getting stuff done and are less worried about the bureaucracy and the red tape that comes with having a municipally paid position, for example," said May. "We're all about seeing a problem and an opportunity and responding to it. And I think that's going to really benefit the nighttime economy."

Rachel Weldon, the founder and director of Debaser, which produces the Pique Festival celebrating underground and experimental music, is on the fence about applying, but sees the benefit of the council.

"Perhaps people are afraid of the idea of a nightlife as maybe unsafe or not for them, unwelcoming and inaccessible, but in other cities, you see a nightlife welcoming to all, all sorts of parts of the population," Weldon said. "I'm definitely interested in being an advocate for the nightlife in Ottawa, but I also would love for this council to represent the diversity of the scene, because a lot of our leaders of the nightlife, I think, in Ottawa, are people of color, are queer people, are really young people, so I'd, I'd like to see that this council represents them."

Weldon said the Ottawa Nightlife Economy Action Plan needs to be community-driven and thinks the nightlife council will help with that.

"I think that it should be led by the community and not led by the city. It should be a bottom-up approach and I'd also like to see the city take an approach that is less risk averse, less avoiding big ideas and more harm-reductive, more thinking of ways that they can try new things."

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Tyler Fleming