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“Downtown Ottawa has fundamentally changed and, frankly, there is no going back to our pre-pandemic norms. Hybrid work is here to stay. Our job is to adapt to this new reality.”
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July 29, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 3 minutes read • 13 comments Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre, speaks at an announcement Friday about the creation of a new downtown Ottawa revitalization task force. Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia
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Ottawa Center MP Yasir Naqvi on Friday unveiled a new task force focused on downtown revitalization.
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The Downtown Ottawa Revitalization Task Force will include social and affordable housing advocates, non-profit and for-profit housing developers, Indigenous leaders, sustainability advocates, and local BIA and tourism representatives.
Speaking at the corner of Laurier Avenue and Bank Street amid office buildings that seemed empty of workers, Naqvi said the pandemic had changed the core of downtown.
“Office workers who work from home to prevent the unnecessary spread of disease are no longer walking our downtown streets,” he said. “Local shops and businesses that once relied on the foot traffic associated with tens of thousands of people who used to walk these streets … are struggling to find customers. Hotels that were once filled with business travelers who had to being in Ottawa for meetings have now fallen by the wayside as virtual meetings and conferences have become more normal.
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“Downtown Ottawa has fundamentally changed and, frankly, there is no going back to our pre-pandemic norms. Hybrid work is here to stay. Our job is to adapt to this new reality.”
The task force will begin meeting in August, Naqvi said, and over the next three months would continue to meet to discuss and brainstorm ways to “create new innovative and creative solutions for the short- and long-term revitalization of downtown Ottawa.”
“We know, for example, that our community needs more housing, more affordable and social housing,” Naqvi said. “There’s a real opportunity here to look at some of the unused office space and convert it for housing.”
Graeme Hussey, chairman of not-for-profit housing developer Cahdco, will act as co-chair of the task force alongside Claridge Homes vice-chairman Neil Malhotra.
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Hussey said Friday that it was possible to convert the unused office space into housing, which he noted is much needed in Ottawa and especially downtown. “The biggest challenge in a real estate development is about the ownership of the land, not about the science of engineering,” he said. “I think the challenge would be more like taking something owned by the federal government and turning it into something that could be a market or a hotel or a condominium or a non-profit housing project.”
Graeme Hussey, center, chairman of not-for-profit housing developer Cahdco, will serve as co-chair of the task force along with Claridge Homes vice-chairman Neil Malhotra. Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia
The task force’s goals include finding ways to bring people and tourists back downtown, to “bring life back to the area,” Naqvi said. They will present their recommendations to the different levels of government.
“There will be a new council and a new mayor,” Naqvi said. “There is a great opportunity to be able to defend these ideas with our new city council.”
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There is an urgency to take advantage of the disruption caused by the pandemic, he added, to drive change downtown.
“My concern as the member of parliament for Ottawa Center is that without finding ways to bring people downtown, we may fall into a state of disrepair very similar to what we saw in Detroit in the 1990s,” Naqvi said.
Other members of the task force include Centretown Community Association President Mary Huang, Azure Urban Developments founder John Thomas, Ottawa Board of Trade President and CEO Sueling Ching, Vice President of Tourism of Ottawa, Catharine Callary, Director of Strategies at EVOQ, Christopher Rivet, Executive Director of Bank Street BIA. Christine Leadman and Sparks Street BIA Executive Director Kevin McHale.
Somerset Ward Coun. Catherine McKenney and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury will sit as an observer on the board, along with a representative from the Ottawa mayor’s office. Fleury is not seeking re-election on the ballot this fall and McKenny is running for the mayor’s office. Incumbent Jim Watson is not running for re-election as mayor.
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