Raise the Hammer

Jason, you do deserve a thoughtful response and I will try to give you one. I have not read the staff reports on the projected growth for next year, so I will do that and come back with a fuller report. Just for the time being though, I repeat what I have been saying all along. One of our biggest challenges is to create jobs and assessment growth for our city. This will take a concerted effort on the part of all the stakeholders: Council, the Province, the Feds, and the investment community as well as our educational institutions.
Working in concert, I'm convinced we can turn things around.
I don't want to belabour the point about the value of the RHVP. It is a road which in the fullness of time will prove its economic worth. You may not think the turnaround on Ottawa is unrelated to the Center Mall expansion, but the merchants on Ottawa believe that to be so. You may not believe the expansion of the mall is related to the RHVP, but the investors pointed it out (as did the Lowes people) when they announced their investment.
True, our assessment growth may be at zero next year. The Mall additional assessment would not figure into that calculation becasue the work hasn't been done and assessment dollars have not yet been collected, I suspect. The additional revenue from the Ottawa St. turnaround is probably in the calculation. Imagine how we'd be faring if these additional monies were not available. Less than zero perhaps.
As for the North Glanbrook Industrial Park. It is now seriously being looked at. The servicing for this park won't cost our taxpayers a penny because the Province gave us over $20M to service it. Once the servicing is done and connections made to the RHVP, businesses will come.
Similarily, the Airport Employment District is important to future economic growth. As is the port and the brownfields redevelopment (LOwes was a brownfield).
Anyway these are random thoughts jusst after midnight. I will try to do a better job once I read a report or two from staff.
I may even write on this topic on my blog, but I'll reference it here.
Thanks for asking.