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KATE JAIMET
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
OTTAWA — Ottawa should plan a major new ring-road and work with friendly developers to build massive suburban developments, Mayor Larry O’Brien said Sunday at a debate focused on environmental issues.
“In a city that’s half the size of PEI, quite frankly it’s important that we keep our personal vehicles. I’ll be recommending that we get into the planning stages for a ring road,” O’Brien said. “(We should) go into significantly larger planning exercises — 15,000, 16,000 acres of development with one major partner. … I think business can be our friend here and I think business can solve some of our problems.”
But his rival Jim Watson slammed the ideas, saying the city should focus on building public transit and stopping urban sprawl.
“You have Mr. O’Brien who’s all about roads, who wants to build a ring road through the Greenbelt and push the urban boundary farther and farther. That’s not what the people of this city want,” Watson said. “There is no reason to expand the urban boundary.”
And Clive Doucet went further, saying councillors should sever their financial ties with developers and build up a bank of city-owned conservation lands.
“I think there’s a fundamental conflict of interest between taking money from a developer on a campaign and having to vote on a motion at council where they (the developer) are going to lose money,” Doucet said.
“I would start a land banking system where we can have the capacity to actually protect our wetlands. The developer owns everything (at present). We don’t own anything.”
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