Dear Council Colleagues,
My office has been working with our business community stakeholders, along with Councillors Dudas, El-Chantiry and Harder as co-chairs of the Economic Partners Task Force, on a package of measures to support our businesses most impacted by the occupation.
To that effect, we will be bringing forward a number of motions at Council on Wednesday to provide relief and assistance, as well as help attract customers back to downtown businesses and restaurants. These include:
- A targeted property tax deferral program for eligible retail businesses and restaurants in the affected areas (Harder/King)
- Funding to help the most impacted business districts program and market their destinations (El-Chantiry/Fleury)
- Support for the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition to offer local musical performances in the impacted neighbourhoods (Dudas/Leiper)
- An expansion of the no-fare transit service measure that will include all routes that bring customers to and from the affected areas, including Line 1 (Hubley/McKenney)
- No-charge parking for a month on-street and at City garages in the impacted areas (Tierney/Gower)
I want to thank all Councillors for their support of these measures to help our small businesses thrive after this crisis. I also want to thank our staff in Economic Development and Finance for their work and due diligence making sure this assistance gets to those who need it most.
Sincerely,
Jim Watson
Ottawa Mayor
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