A G7 capital that can't decide if it's a sleepy government town or a bustling city - Ottawa. It tries to be neither, and still finds ways to mess up your commute. And at the helm of this chaos? Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, a man whose idea of "city planning" seems ripped from a 1993 SimCity save file right before the earthquake hits.
Let's start with OC Transpo - Ottawa's beloved public transit system, known for its punctuality in the same way that Canadian Tire is known for haute couture. Mayor Sutcliffe, in all his visionary wisdom, has decided now is the perfect time to slash its budget. Because what better way to encourage people to return to the office than to make getting there feel like a Hunger Games side quest?
Buses are being cut, routes trimmed, and wait times stretched so long you might as well bring a sleeping bag. But hey, at least we've got the LRT! Oh wait - no we don't. The LRT is about as reliable as a soggy Beavertail staying together during our 35°C July. And with the city pinching pennies on transit, you can look forward to more of your workday spent on the side of the road wondering if a replacement bus is a real thing or just a local cryptid.
Now, if you're thinking, "Okay, I'll just bike to work instead," prepare to enter the Twilight Zone. Ottawa loves to pretend it's a cycling city. We get ribbon cuttings, news reports, and photo ops with a councillor on a cruiser bike once a year like clockwork. But the reality? A mishmash of disconnected paint-on-the-road "bike lanes" that end abruptly like your hopes and dreams during a February freeze.
You want protected bike lanes downtown? LOL. Good luck threading your way between dump trucks, ride-share drivers with GPS-induced vertigo, and potholes that could swallow a Vespa. The city prioritises bike lanes the same way it prioritises snow clearing in Orleans—barely, and only after a public outcry.
But wait, there's more: urban sprawl. The mayor talks a big game about affordability and "growing our communities," but what he's really doing is greenlighting suburban expansion like it's Black Friday at Barrhaven Costco. More developments, more car-dependency, and more soul-sucking commutes from the middle of nowhere to your midtown cubicle so your manager can "feel the synergy in person."
This endless sprawl doesn't just make commuting worse—it makes everything worse. It kills transit viability, renders cycling infrastructure moot, and makes walkable neighbourhoods a luxury for people who can afford to live where the buses still run more than once an hour.
And all of this is happening while federal workers—aka a solid chunk of this city's tax base—are being dragged back into hybrid office schedules. RTO mandates are hitting like a double-double to the face, and instead of making commuting bearable, Sutcliffe's budget cuts and planning policies are actively making it worse. It's like watching someone throw water on a grease fire and being shocked it didn't help.
So what's the big idea here, Mark? Build a city where no one wants to take transit, where biking is a contact sport, and where the only people who benefit from sprawl are developers and SUV dealerships? If so, bravo - you're nailing it.
But for the rest of us trying to survive this concrete clown car of a commute, all we can do is sigh, sip our lukewarm Bridgehead coffee, and wonder if the next budget line item will be "Just Giving Up Entirely."