City of Ottawa pauses grants to developers who de-contaminate sites

Ottawa city council has pressed pause on a 15-year-old program that gives grants to developers who clean up and rebuild on sites that arecontaminated or have derelict buildings, such as former factories or gas stations.

Since the program began in 2007, the City of Ottawa has handed out well over $100 million to applicants who have asked the city to help cover costswhen they remediate brownfields, as they're called.

• Committee approves $60M to clean up Zibi development site
• Taxpayers gave developers $70M in last decade through brownfields policy

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe campaigned in the fall election on a promise to eliminateboth the brownfields program, and other future community improvement plans.

Ottawa nowhas several community improvement plans. The idea is thecity foregoes several years of increased taxes if a property isupgraded and redeveloped in specific areas the city wants to revitalize.

For instance, one plan provides tax breaks for new development inmuchof Orlans while another targets the area around the Ottawa International Airport. The Montreal Road community improvement plan came under fire in 2021 for providing a largetax break for a proposedPorsche dealership.

• Committee supports $2.9M tax break for Porsche dealership

On Wednesday, city council decided to presspause on new applications forbrownfieldgrants. It will also cancel a procurement in the private sector related toa new affordable housing community improvement plan it's drafting.

Instead, it will wait to see what comes of a staff review of all the programs, which is due in late spring.

After the meeting, Sutcliffe told reporters that Ottawa has to be sure it's not subsidizing development unnecessarily, especially given the financial pressures the city faces.

"I think the objective of the review that's going to be conducted is to understand to what extent these programs are actually incentivizing new development that would not occur otherwise."

City losing fees elsewhere

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menardshared those same concerns, and put forward themotion that wasseconded by the mayor. Menard has long felt the program needed to be reviewed.

"There's more of a reason now though, because of the reduction topublic funds that we're seeing from the province for development charges," he said.

The City of Ottawa estimates it could lose out on $26 million a yearby having to waive fees under the More Homes Built Faster Act passed by the Ontario government last month.

At council on Wednesday, Stittsville Coun. Glen Gowerpointed out that city staff have consistently advised the tax breaks are a good investment, and asked thatconsultants with an outside perspective weigh in on the review.

Orlans South-NavanCoun. Catherine Kitts, meanwhile, was glad that the nascent community improvement plan in Orlans would still be able to accept applications for the time being.East-end councillorsare keen on what it might do to boost economic development there.

Meanwhile, Coun. Stphanie Plantewas concerned about the brownfield grant application for a development by Main and Main in her Rideau-Vanier ward that is in the queue. She convinced council in a tight 13to 11 vote to allowexisting brownfield applications on Montreal Roadto proceed.