CTF Letter Urges Mayor Chiarelli to Focus on Budget and Official Plan

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today urged Mayor Bob Chiarelli "to lead and exercise the authority of the Mayor's chair to influence the future, as opposed to revisiting the past."

In a letter written by CTF federal director Walter Robinson and forwarded to Mayor Chiarelli's office, Mr. Robinson lays out his concerns with respect to Mr. Chiarelli's stated plans to review all 400 plus decisions/recommendations of the Transition Board.

"I find this posture that you have adopted with respect to the Transition Board to be confusing, counter-productive and potentially detrimental to your future ability to work with your City Manager and his senior management team," Robinson writes. He goes on to note "it is important to remember that the work of the Transition Board was the culmination of the efforts of dozens of project teams, hundreds of staff and volunteers and most importantly, for the last six months, this effort was primarily led by the City Manager and his team."

While Mr. Robinson expresses fundamental concern with respect to the Mayor's "adversarial" stance vis-à-vis the Transition Board, he does concur that the Mayor's stated goals of formulating a budget and new Official Plan are top of the agenda for the new Council.

In his letter, Mr. Robinson wrote "I wholeheartedly agree with you that these should be the priorities for Council. Furthermore, I look forward to offering constructive input from our organization's perspective into this process."

"Mayor Chiarelli and Council have an immense task ahead of them. Picking fights with everyone was the stuff of the restructuring debate itself. It's now time to hang up the gloves and work with all stakeholders to build our new City," concluded Robinson. "I trust that Mayor Chiarelli will reflect upon activities and battles of the past week and adopt a more constructive stance in the weeks to come. Taxpayers deserve nothing less from their new Mayor."