MOVING FORWARD Marianne Wilkinson Councillor, Kanata North Last Friday Council put the Light Rail project

to bed again. The Mayor, as expected and on clear information from the City Solicitor ruled the motion to resurrect I out of order. As it was obvious that a challenge to the Chair's ruling would not succeed the proponents have finally accepted that the project is indeed cancelled. After a lengthy briefing on legal aspects Council agreed that only the Mayor and City Manager would speak on issues about the contracts and that Council would work together on ongoing issues. I am hopeful that this will indeed happen. Once the Task Force on Transportation report is forwarded by the Mayor to the Transit Committee I'll be working hard to ensure that we create a transit plan that will serve all parts of Ottawa. Budget By the time this column is printed the City Budget will be approved. I think that we will be able to reach a 0% tax increase this year through both budget reductions and use of some one time funding. This will put a huge stress on next year's budget since the one time funding would no longer be available and all of the cuts are likely to me little or no surplus to work with. The challenge is to make some sustainable changes to City operations to provide services in the most cost effective way and to seek ongoing funding from other levels of government. Canadian cities are the economic engines of Canada today. Yet cities get very little of the tax income that the economy generates. This inbalance needs to be addressed in a serious ongoing fashion. The part of the gas tax that has been made available, primarily for transit, is only a start. Both the federal and provincial government need to provide funding for supportive housing for the homeless and funds to maintain aging infrastructure (bridges, roads, sewers, watermains, and buildings). The Mayor met with Mayors of other major cities from across Canada and reported that they are seeking dedicated federal government's funds on a pro-rated basis. Such funds would enable us to speed up projects such as replacement of aging sewers so that raw sewage wouldn't flow into the river during heavy rainstorms when the combined sanitary/storm sewers found in older parts of Ottawa can't cope with the quantity. It would enable us to put our transportation plan into action faster and to maintain existing roads and transitways. Without such funds delays in new infrastructure and potholes will become more common. Coming Events March 2nd is the World Day of Prayer. In Kanata the special service, created by the women of Paraguay and entitled "United Under God's Tent", will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 110 McCurdy Dr., at 7:00 p.m. Persons of all faiths are welcome to share in this event.

March 26th, Ward Council at the Mlacak Centre, 7:15 pm.

Working for the residents and businesses in Kanata North Contact me at City Hall by email at Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca or call 613580-2474.