At least two city managers from different departments and countless staff members have told me in person -- never in an email -- that there is little to no oversight of even their own parks, waste, and road staff, let alone the hundreds of their contractors.
The landscaping standards in Ottawa are 20+ years old, have not been updated with what we now know about climate change, tree health, invasive control, etc. City workers & contractors are not trained and they regularly damage trees and other vegetation, with many trees dying earlier than they should as a result. We then spend thousands to plant more trees, many of which are not maintained well, if at all. On hot summer days when there has been no rain for days, you can watch in any park as city workers literally mow dust because "it's on the schedule."
The NCC contractors are not as bad as the city, but they too have a lot to answer for when it comes to sustainably managing all of their natural areas in Ottawa. Two years ago, I watched a NCC staff member on a rider mower cut the roots and/or bark of about a dozen trees along Island Park Drive. I reported it; the NCC then sent arborists to assess them, more workers to edge out a one-metre circle around the tree, and then lay down protective wood chips around each tree. For the three seconds per tree that it took the guy on the mower to damage, taxpayers spent possibly thousands to fix.
We are not getting good value for our money and our city is not looking. They keep saying they want our ideas, then ignore them anyway. Unless and until our city is ready to take a chance on (gasp!) doing something slightly different and stop looking for single bullet solutions, we will get absolutely nowhere.
As the director of two stewardship groups, I've been in communications with the City & the NCC to train landscape maintenance workers for 5 years with zero success.
I will say one thing for the NCC contractors vs city staff is that they know how to maintain the NCC benches. Typically yearly they are painted/shellacked. I have on numerous occasions seen them actually sanding the benches before applying a sealant. In contrast the city workers have left Britannia park wooden benches untouched for 15ish years. Hello rotting wood. First paint job was last year and it was shite.
Glad to hear that! I once watched two NCC contractors spend 4 hours to paint 6 benches at Hampton -- no sanding. I asked why they always have to paint things brown. :-)
Maybe the city needs to hire our own staff instead of contracting so much work out? How much are we paying for uneducated workers under contractors (by uneducated meaning they do not have the education about the job they are doing, just following instructions from the supervisor on the sites) compared with training and hiring our own staff dedicated to landscaping or road repair, etc). Looks like we have followed a false economy.
Yes & no. There are contractors that make sense to hire. But it still is on the City to make sure that workers -- contractors or staff -- are trained correctly. Most maintenance is not a question of education, it's a question of breaking very old and very bad habits.
Give you another example: Every year, the city takes away several garbage bins from parks. They've told me that there is less trash in winter. There is not. We've asked them, ahead of winter, to reposition the bins for easier pick up by the trucks, but don't and just take them. So we then send another email the day after they're taken to ask that they be brought back. They are. Another wasted trip by city staff. Simple solutions, but they are not listening.
100%. Speaking of garbage bins, bins that are for dog poop are picked up by a contractor, city staff do the normal bins and yes those disappear at a set time every year.
Don't get me, and my blood pressure, going! I share your deep annoyance with these issues, but my main reaction is, "This is nothing compared to what I've seen!"
The actual roadway on Bank Street, Old Ottawa South, is completely chewed up and pothole-ridden, and has been in this state for months! Last summer (2024), I accidentally rode my bike over one of those horrendous potholes, blew my tire and almost damaged my bike (to say nothing of my shot nerves, the impact was so intense!)
And further east, on Donald Street, where I ride my bike daily, is just as bad, especially on the far-right, i.e., the domain of cyclists. I'm constantly weaving my way through huge ruts.
So, your complaint about a relatively "bumpy" fresh bike lane is well taken, but there are even bigger fish to fry in this city.
It really angers me that "we" (i.e., the stewards of our municipal tax dollars) are allowing this to happen unchecked!
And they wonder why we ride on the sidewalks sometimes, eh? I don't even own a car, but pay the same amount in road taxes as everyone else for doing the least damage.
I am begging for all the bus lanes to be paved first before major re-paving of whole roads. The damage now to buses, and to physical harm to drivers who travel these very rough routes for long hours (sick leaves as a result?) is costing us too much. Yes - get the federal government to recognize municipalities need a source of funding besides property taxes, but meanwhile we MUST RAISE TAXES IN OTTAWA - maybe Nepean MP Carney can tell us how?
I am more than willing to pay taxes but I do not want to pay higher taxes to support lazy, incompetent, arrogant and too numerous city staff. Fix the farce that is city hall before asking for more $'s to ever fatten the beast. Perfect example of this. Pre amalgamation Jim...don't you love the LRT... Watson was mayor. During the budget process city staff were whining about how stripped to the bone they were and couldn't possible absorb any cuts. Someone dug up the fact city hall staff had a $6000.00 coffee fund curtesy of the taxpayer. If they can be that pretty imagine when there is far larger budgets in play.
What might be happening is that anyone in charge of the contract does not have the experience to confidently challenge the contractor on the quality of the work. This happens when there is attrition and the city is outsourcing for a long time the new people don’t have the experience. Secondly, maybe there are not enough staff to follow-up on the contract work and it is not inspected at all and the contractors know this. Probably both are happening.
I saw this exact thing when I worked for at the time Department of Public Works DPW which we cheekily called "Damn Poor Workers" Project managers judged how well they had done by the cost of the contract. Large contract = good. Seriously. Contractors loved change orders. When bidding on a contract the contractors would notice something that the project manager had not accounted for and was necessary for the project to function. They would bid low to get the contract and then they would do the work required that was not noticed by the manager. These extras were called change orders. They were billed at time and material are were always more expensive than if completely after a well planned RFP. They winner of the contract got the change orders because it was easier than putting out another RFP and would point out their ignorance.
Why do new bike lanes feel like an amusement ride? Look at your photo, see how narrow the bike lane is. It was packed by a small roller with most likely insufficient passes to reach the appropriate Proctor index of compaction. Find a bike lane that is on anything full lane width (11ish') and it will be far smoother because a full size vibrating/dynamic roller packed it. The city has an excess of staff but there is very little inspection of infrastructure that matters. Of note in the useless department that those large vacuum trucks you see in the spring sucking leaves etc out have a city chaperone the whole day. In a city better managed that inspector would follow up to ensure the work was done but not spend the entire day with one contractor.
Ottawa as a city is a ramshackle, 3rd world hell hole. You were gracious enough not to mention the gigantic sinkhole which defaced Rideau Street for years. There was similar sinkhole in the Japanese city of Fukuoka - their city government fixed it in two days.
Part of the issue of Ottawa is the existence of widespread organized crime and corruption. The tow truck company scandal in Toronto kicked off a major law enforcement investigation. In Ottawa, a lawsuit showing a similar cartel operating with collusion from some officials went through the courts with virtually no coverage or follow up.
And don't get me started on the drug dealing cops. Ask any honest police officer, when they are off-duty and know they are not being recorded, and you will get an earful!
As for the issues you mention - this is how you know there is systemic corruption: the quality of cement and asphalt. In Montreal, where the Cotroni and Rizzuto Mafia Families ran the city for decades - the building materials were deliberately 'sanded'. The building companies would mix in sand to the cement and asphalt.
It meant that it cost less to produce and it fell apart sooner. This meant there were more profits for the shady contractors who could get repeat contracts. The poster child of these Montreal Mob-built sinkholes was their Olympic Stadium, but really it was most of the Montreal/Quebec highways, bridges and sidewalks. Since the Quebec government got serious about taking on OC and the 'Ndrangheta killed off most of the politically-connected Rizzutos the situation has gotten slightly better.
I write the above because when I lived in Ottawa, there was an audit of the weighing stations for asphalt and cement. I am going off memory but I think out of the 16 City-run weighing stations that tested the quality of the building materials - 9 of them failed their standards. Some of these failures were pretty epic - the actual scales had been sabotaged - but its Ottawa so no one was charged and the situation was improved by a series of contrite memos and e-mails.
Please keep up the good work - you are sorely needed!
I grew up in Hamilton where the mafia thrived in my neighbourhood. I few of my childhood buddies were led down that path, a couple are no longer with us.
You are dead on in what you are saying. The corruption is real and prevalent. Many people go about their business and pretend it's not and we all suffer for it.
Two thoughts, note that most of the other comments on this post assume only deep, sustained stupidity or laziness on the part of all city workers/management.
This attitude of cognitive dissonance is deliberately manufactured and promoted by the Canadian establishment. It protects their cozy little profit centers.
I remember having a meeting with the Head of the Italian Organized Crime Task Force in Rome. It was fairly dramatic, late-night chat with a photo of the aftermath of the Falcone bombing dominating his office. His first words when I entered the room: "What is it with you Canadians? You can never accept that you have organized crime like the rest of the world. We have sent request after request to your government to extradite known criminals from Canada back to Italy and you always refuse."
Second note - one of the intelligent and thoughtful people above wrote about his experiences in the Federal Government Public Works Department. It was run for years by Cabinet Minister Alfonso Gagliano who the FBI claimed was a high-ranking member of the Bonanno Crime Family. Nothing happened to him and no he was never extradited to the United States.
You could not make this stuff up but Canadians, in general, will refuse to believe the existence of organized crime or well-established corruption in our country. Thus you get sidewalks/roads/infrastructure that collapse and strangely unaccountable City Governments.
For your answer, look at how the Mayor's developer buddies went after Horizon!
Secondly, those contractors deliberately underbid and then go back for more money. Oops, did I mention checking how much those contractors finance some city councillors' election campaigns?
Outsourcing is not the answer and never was for all circumstances. It's a way out for politicians when the heat is on to account for their reckless overspending. It's not possible for the City to monitor all of the work that needs to be done up to standards and contractors of all sizes know this and take advantage of the situation, which begs the question as to why do it if taxpayers are not getting the best for their money? It's our money.
I've had countless discussions over the years with people who have dealt directly with City Hall politicians, developers, and city staff at all levels. Make no mistake: There is corruption at City Hall.
The real reason? The City cannot/will not pay the current costs for anything. Why, because the senior governments (Ontario, Federal) look after ther own financial optics vs cities, which house 85% of Canada's population. Couple this with those with $$$ claiming they "earned their money" and reject needing to contribute their share to support the society they benefit from.
At least two city managers from different departments and countless staff members have told me in person -- never in an email -- that there is little to no oversight of even their own parks, waste, and road staff, let alone the hundreds of their contractors.
The landscaping standards in Ottawa are 20+ years old, have not been updated with what we now know about climate change, tree health, invasive control, etc. City workers & contractors are not trained and they regularly damage trees and other vegetation, with many trees dying earlier than they should as a result. We then spend thousands to plant more trees, many of which are not maintained well, if at all. On hot summer days when there has been no rain for days, you can watch in any park as city workers literally mow dust because "it's on the schedule."
The NCC contractors are not as bad as the city, but they too have a lot to answer for when it comes to sustainably managing all of their natural areas in Ottawa. Two years ago, I watched a NCC staff member on a rider mower cut the roots and/or bark of about a dozen trees along Island Park Drive. I reported it; the NCC then sent arborists to assess them, more workers to edge out a one-metre circle around the tree, and then lay down protective wood chips around each tree. For the three seconds per tree that it took the guy on the mower to damage, taxpayers spent possibly thousands to fix.
We are not getting good value for our money and our city is not looking. They keep saying they want our ideas, then ignore them anyway. Unless and until our city is ready to take a chance on (gasp!) doing something slightly different and stop looking for single bullet solutions, we will get absolutely nowhere.
As the director of two stewardship groups, I've been in communications with the City & the NCC to train landscape maintenance workers for 5 years with zero success.
I will say one thing for the NCC contractors vs city staff is that they know how to maintain the NCC benches. Typically yearly they are painted/shellacked. I have on numerous occasions seen them actually sanding the benches before applying a sealant. In contrast the city workers have left Britannia park wooden benches untouched for 15ish years. Hello rotting wood. First paint job was last year and it was shite.
Glad to hear that! I once watched two NCC contractors spend 4 hours to paint 6 benches at Hampton -- no sanding. I asked why they always have to paint things brown. :-)
Maybe the city needs to hire our own staff instead of contracting so much work out? How much are we paying for uneducated workers under contractors (by uneducated meaning they do not have the education about the job they are doing, just following instructions from the supervisor on the sites) compared with training and hiring our own staff dedicated to landscaping or road repair, etc). Looks like we have followed a false economy.
Yes & no. There are contractors that make sense to hire. But it still is on the City to make sure that workers -- contractors or staff -- are trained correctly. Most maintenance is not a question of education, it's a question of breaking very old and very bad habits.
Give you another example: Every year, the city takes away several garbage bins from parks. They've told me that there is less trash in winter. There is not. We've asked them, ahead of winter, to reposition the bins for easier pick up by the trucks, but don't and just take them. So we then send another email the day after they're taken to ask that they be brought back. They are. Another wasted trip by city staff. Simple solutions, but they are not listening.
100%. Speaking of garbage bins, bins that are for dog poop are picked up by a contractor, city staff do the normal bins and yes those disappear at a set time every year.
Don't get me, and my blood pressure, going! I share your deep annoyance with these issues, but my main reaction is, "This is nothing compared to what I've seen!"
The actual roadway on Bank Street, Old Ottawa South, is completely chewed up and pothole-ridden, and has been in this state for months! Last summer (2024), I accidentally rode my bike over one of those horrendous potholes, blew my tire and almost damaged my bike (to say nothing of my shot nerves, the impact was so intense!)
And further east, on Donald Street, where I ride my bike daily, is just as bad, especially on the far-right, i.e., the domain of cyclists. I'm constantly weaving my way through huge ruts.
So, your complaint about a relatively "bumpy" fresh bike lane is well taken, but there are even bigger fish to fry in this city.
It really angers me that "we" (i.e., the stewards of our municipal tax dollars) are allowing this to happen unchecked!
And they wonder why we ride on the sidewalks sometimes, eh? I don't even own a car, but pay the same amount in road taxes as everyone else for doing the least damage.
I am begging for all the bus lanes to be paved first before major re-paving of whole roads. The damage now to buses, and to physical harm to drivers who travel these very rough routes for long hours (sick leaves as a result?) is costing us too much. Yes - get the federal government to recognize municipalities need a source of funding besides property taxes, but meanwhile we MUST RAISE TAXES IN OTTAWA - maybe Nepean MP Carney can tell us how?
I am more than willing to pay taxes but I do not want to pay higher taxes to support lazy, incompetent, arrogant and too numerous city staff. Fix the farce that is city hall before asking for more $'s to ever fatten the beast. Perfect example of this. Pre amalgamation Jim...don't you love the LRT... Watson was mayor. During the budget process city staff were whining about how stripped to the bone they were and couldn't possible absorb any cuts. Someone dug up the fact city hall staff had a $6000.00 coffee fund curtesy of the taxpayer. If they can be that pretty imagine when there is far larger budgets in play.
What might be happening is that anyone in charge of the contract does not have the experience to confidently challenge the contractor on the quality of the work. This happens when there is attrition and the city is outsourcing for a long time the new people don’t have the experience. Secondly, maybe there are not enough staff to follow-up on the contract work and it is not inspected at all and the contractors know this. Probably both are happening.
I saw this exact thing when I worked for at the time Department of Public Works DPW which we cheekily called "Damn Poor Workers" Project managers judged how well they had done by the cost of the contract. Large contract = good. Seriously. Contractors loved change orders. When bidding on a contract the contractors would notice something that the project manager had not accounted for and was necessary for the project to function. They would bid low to get the contract and then they would do the work required that was not noticed by the manager. These extras were called change orders. They were billed at time and material are were always more expensive than if completely after a well planned RFP. They winner of the contract got the change orders because it was easier than putting out another RFP and would point out their ignorance.
Why do new bike lanes feel like an amusement ride? Look at your photo, see how narrow the bike lane is. It was packed by a small roller with most likely insufficient passes to reach the appropriate Proctor index of compaction. Find a bike lane that is on anything full lane width (11ish') and it will be far smoother because a full size vibrating/dynamic roller packed it. The city has an excess of staff but there is very little inspection of infrastructure that matters. Of note in the useless department that those large vacuum trucks you see in the spring sucking leaves etc out have a city chaperone the whole day. In a city better managed that inspector would follow up to ensure the work was done but not spend the entire day with one contractor.
Excellent post, Neil.
Ottawa as a city is a ramshackle, 3rd world hell hole. You were gracious enough not to mention the gigantic sinkhole which defaced Rideau Street for years. There was similar sinkhole in the Japanese city of Fukuoka - their city government fixed it in two days.
Part of the issue of Ottawa is the existence of widespread organized crime and corruption. The tow truck company scandal in Toronto kicked off a major law enforcement investigation. In Ottawa, a lawsuit showing a similar cartel operating with collusion from some officials went through the courts with virtually no coverage or follow up.
And don't get me started on the drug dealing cops. Ask any honest police officer, when they are off-duty and know they are not being recorded, and you will get an earful!
As for the issues you mention - this is how you know there is systemic corruption: the quality of cement and asphalt. In Montreal, where the Cotroni and Rizzuto Mafia Families ran the city for decades - the building materials were deliberately 'sanded'. The building companies would mix in sand to the cement and asphalt.
It meant that it cost less to produce and it fell apart sooner. This meant there were more profits for the shady contractors who could get repeat contracts. The poster child of these Montreal Mob-built sinkholes was their Olympic Stadium, but really it was most of the Montreal/Quebec highways, bridges and sidewalks. Since the Quebec government got serious about taking on OC and the 'Ndrangheta killed off most of the politically-connected Rizzutos the situation has gotten slightly better.
I write the above because when I lived in Ottawa, there was an audit of the weighing stations for asphalt and cement. I am going off memory but I think out of the 16 City-run weighing stations that tested the quality of the building materials - 9 of them failed their standards. Some of these failures were pretty epic - the actual scales had been sabotaged - but its Ottawa so no one was charged and the situation was improved by a series of contrite memos and e-mails.
Please keep up the good work - you are sorely needed!
Declan Hill
I grew up in Hamilton where the mafia thrived in my neighbourhood. I few of my childhood buddies were led down that path, a couple are no longer with us.
You are dead on in what you are saying. The corruption is real and prevalent. Many people go about their business and pretend it's not and we all suffer for it.
Thank you for your kind comment @ACanadadefender.
Two thoughts, note that most of the other comments on this post assume only deep, sustained stupidity or laziness on the part of all city workers/management.
This attitude of cognitive dissonance is deliberately manufactured and promoted by the Canadian establishment. It protects their cozy little profit centers.
I remember having a meeting with the Head of the Italian Organized Crime Task Force in Rome. It was fairly dramatic, late-night chat with a photo of the aftermath of the Falcone bombing dominating his office. His first words when I entered the room: "What is it with you Canadians? You can never accept that you have organized crime like the rest of the world. We have sent request after request to your government to extradite known criminals from Canada back to Italy and you always refuse."
Second note - one of the intelligent and thoughtful people above wrote about his experiences in the Federal Government Public Works Department. It was run for years by Cabinet Minister Alfonso Gagliano who the FBI claimed was a high-ranking member of the Bonanno Crime Family. Nothing happened to him and no he was never extradited to the United States.
You could not make this stuff up but Canadians, in general, will refuse to believe the existence of organized crime or well-established corruption in our country. Thus you get sidewalks/roads/infrastructure that collapse and strangely unaccountable City Governments.
For your answer, look at how the Mayor's developer buddies went after Horizon!
Secondly, those contractors deliberately underbid and then go back for more money. Oops, did I mention checking how much those contractors finance some city councillors' election campaigns?
Outsourcing is not the answer and never was for all circumstances. It's a way out for politicians when the heat is on to account for their reckless overspending. It's not possible for the City to monitor all of the work that needs to be done up to standards and contractors of all sizes know this and take advantage of the situation, which begs the question as to why do it if taxpayers are not getting the best for their money? It's our money.
I've had countless discussions over the years with people who have dealt directly with City Hall politicians, developers, and city staff at all levels. Make no mistake: There is corruption at City Hall.
The real reason? The City cannot/will not pay the current costs for anything. Why, because the senior governments (Ontario, Federal) look after ther own financial optics vs cities, which house 85% of Canada's population. Couple this with those with $$$ claiming they "earned their money" and reject needing to contribute their share to support the society they benefit from.