Ottawa's Night Council is an Opportunity to Do Better

Mathieu Grondin is about to announce his Nightlife Advisory Council. That Council requires three ingredients for success.

Photo credit: CBC

Never in the history of Ottawa City Hall has a mid-level civil servant attracted so much attention as Mathieu Grondin, Ottawa’s Nightlife Commissioner.

You know him as the Night Mayor.

Grondin has been on the job since June. Here is how CBC reported the (actual) Mayor describing this new role:

Sutcliffe emphasized that the nightlife commissioner will not be an MC or a marketing expert. Instead, Grondin's responsibilities will include building a team of nightlife ambassadors, reporting on the nightlife economy, encouraging mid-size venues and developing a security plan.

Night Council coming soon

Mathieu is about to announce his Nightlife Ambassador Council.

That Council is a form of public consultation, designed to engage implicated partners and ordinary citizens who care about building a more interesting and dynamic city after dark.

The City of Ottawa used to have a wide range of advisory councils, but those have mostly been shelved or are in limbo. It’s fair to say that the state of public engagement in Ottawa is as low as it has ever been.

The Night Council represents an opportunity to do better.

Will the City set up this Council for success? Will it be a positive experience like the process leading up to the rural summit?

Or is this just another consultation process without any real substance or ambition? Will this be the typical engagement process that residents have come to expect, focused more on controlling the narrative than soliciting meaningful input?

Mathieu comes from Montréal. That city has a more robust and meaningful consultation process, including through participatory budgeting.

I have no doubt that Mathieu understands the value of public input.

For Mathieu to create a meaningful and impactful Night Council, I would suggest that he focus on three elements required for success.

1. Move beyond the Action Plan

The main job for Grodin — and the Night Council — is to implement the Ottawa Nightlife Economy Action Plan.

Grondin inherited this plan. He’ll be working on the 33 actions that flow from the 10 recommendations in the report.

Here’s the screenshot of the first of four pages of the plan. It’s mostly about process; less about content.

Excerpt from Ottawa’s Nightlife Economy Action Plan

For the Night Council to have an impact, it will need to move beyond the plan. That plan is largely bureaucratic measures that need to be addressed before we get into the interesting stuff.

The Council will need to shift beyond process issues and propose specific initiatives and events that get all of us excited. Tangible ideas of what how our city could look different after dark.

2. Move beyond the usual suspects

I have a concern that the Night Council will be filled with the usual suspects who get appointed by implicitly agreeing to not speak out of turn or ruffle any feathers.

Six of the Night Council appointees will be from Tourism Ottawa and other industry partners.

Another six to twelve appointees will be chosen from the pool of residents who applied to join the voluntary board.

Will Grodin appoint people who who simply parrot the official party line? Or will he seek out those who push the envelope?

One independent voice, friend of the Stack Derrick Simpson, has applied to join the Nightlife Ambassador Council. He has laid out his ideas in the post below. There are sensible ideas here. This is the sort of thinking we want on the Night Council.

Ideas for Ottawa's Nightlife Council

Will the City accept such an independent thinker on the Night Council?

3. Push for some real resources

As far I can see, the Night Mayor has no budget. The funds allocated for the nightlife economy cover his salary and benefits, and not much else.

He is going to have to push the (actual) Council for some real resources. But before he can ask for real money, he will need to come forward with proposals worth investing in.

Mathieu has no control over many of the conditions that make for a successful nightlife. Like buses that can get you home after midnight. Or bylaw not ticketing those looking at the night sky.

As David Reevely rightly points out on Twitter, if you have an issue with our city after dark, rather than go after the Night Mayor ask the (actual) Mayor.

Good luck!

I’m glad we brought in a Night Mayor from out of town. We’re not going to fix Ottawa’s nightlife by tapping into the tired thinking that we’ve tried here before.

I want Grondin and his Council to succeed. He comes from a city that does nightlife very well, and he’s clearly spent much of his adult life working on these issues.

We’re lucky to have him.

But I fear the City of Ottawa is setting up Mathieu and his Night Council for failure.

Engagement matters, and your municipal government does not have a good record on recent public consultations like this.

Will Mathieu break free from the usual “control the narrative” approach, and appoint Nightlife Ambassadors actually willing to rock the boat?

New thinking and a willingness to challenge the status quo is what Ottawa needs if we want to make this a more exciting and dynamic place after dark.