Hour 3 of Ottawa Now for Mon. June 1st, 2026

Would you pay more in property taxes for better infrastructure? In a letter to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe last week, former city councillor Alex Cullen said that Ottawa’s aging infrastructure is a problem that ‘cannot be responsibly put off any longer’. He notes the average age for Ottawa’s arenas and rinks is 45 years old, while aquatic facilities are an average age of 40 years. And when examining our city’s community centres and fieldhouses, the data points to an average age of 39 years old. Cullen joins Kristy Cameron in Hour 3 to outline his stance. Then, we open up the CFRA textboard and take your calls on today’s Question of the Day. Meantime, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for an emergency debate on the status of Canada’s economy, and where it could be headed as the Summer Break approaches. The country has slipped into what some economists would call a ‘technical recession’, as Statistics Canada has reported a noticeable GDP decline over two straight quarters. Poilievre says the Prime Minister’s policies are to blame, and says there is nothing technical about an increase in food bank usage. Is it time for Canada to have that difficult conversation? We dig deeper with our Political Heat Panel.