An Open Letter to the City of Ottawa Management on the Strike

Twit This!

Mr. Mercier, Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Brooks,

I represent the over 1,000 households in the Greater Ashton area. Even though we are a rural area, the strike affects our members on a daily basis because of the increased traffic, the reliance of some our students for bussing, as well as those of us who drive to park and rides to take city busses.

Even though we are all feeling extremely inconvenienced, we would ask that you stand firm in your stand and in your offer to the union.  The union does not represent the citizens of this city  - you do.  And as citizens we do not want to be held hostage to the unions, nor do we want any compromises you make affecting all of the other collective agreements that need to be negotiated this year with other union groups in Ottawa.

It is about time that this city stood firm and took control back of the only thing it can control  in its budget - the salaries of its employees.  After seeing years of our property taxes increasing, with a decrease in services, we feel that enough is enough.

Now, it would be too easy for me to simply complain about the strike without offering some suggestions, so I will now offer a few suggestions that OC Transpo management and city council can consider to ease things during this strike.

1. Open the T ransitway to taxis, to get them off of the main city roads to speed up there service.
2. Lower the taxi tarrifs in half for the remainder of this strike to make it more affordable for those in need.
3. Open the Queensway transit priority lanes to allow for carpooling (3+) and strictly enforce this.
4. Offer an incentive program to downtown businesses to encourage teleworking.
5. Consider letting a private company run routes 95,96,97 and 87 during this strike.
6. Offer taxi vouchers to those on assistance to get to work/doctors.

We don't care how long it takes the city to get the right deal.  We know the city is saving approx $2mil a week during this strike, and hope this money can be put into offsetting the costs that the most needy of this city are helped.  The cost of backing down is too costly to give up.

For once the vast majority of the public is behind the whole council.  KEEP IT UP AND MAKE US PROUD!
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Jason Dever

President, Greater Ashton Community Association