Tewin land project a bad deal for Ottawa, likely to worsen

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The Tewin development consumed much of the discussion at city hall last Thursday, as a joint planning and environment committee accepted the city’s $2-billion Infrastructure Master Plan, which will govern how Ottawa manages drinking water, sewers and stormwater runoff in the coming decades.

And no wonder there was so much discussion. Tewin has never made economic sense for the taxpayer. Close to $590 million will be spent servicing the water needs of the development, a contentious 445-hectare satellite community to be built near Carlsbad Springs that was proposed by a partnership between the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Investments. It was approved and adopted into the city’s official plan by the last council in 2021.

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Of that amount, just over half, or about $313 million, will come from Tewin, with another $97 million or so covered by development charges. The city could be on the hook for about $160 million, a big ask of taxpayers given that city staff, when it was initially looking at where urban expansion should take place, determined that the Tewin land was too far away from the urban area and didn’t score high enough to even warrant a thorough assessment. Before approving the city’s plan, the province also questioned the Tewin project, noting it didn’t appear to align with some of the city’s goals, including creating 15-minute communities and developing close to rapid transit.

Even the ameliorating notion that expanding the city’s boundaries and approving Tewin was an act of Indigenous reconciliation is questioned by other Algonquin Nations, who say that it wasn’t reconciliation and that they weren’t consulted.

Regardless, it’s shaping up to be too expensive a project, reconciliation or no, and the city should explore ways of expanding instead to some of the West Carleton/March lands that scored much higher on staff assessments and are closer to existing infrastructure.

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Meanwhile, the nighttime clear-cutting of 70 hectares of trees by Tewin a year ago, which Taggart first defended as necessary to clean up after the derecho, then subsequently added it was allowed in order to enable farming on the property, was an unsavoury event, even though the city agreed it had the right to do it.

Another questionable aspect was revealed Thursday: Tewin is funding the salaries and benefits of three senior city staff members whose responsibilities are solely to work on the Tewin project.

According to a September 2022 memorandum of understanding between the city and Tewin, a community designer, transportation planner and infrastructure planner — all employees of the city — are paid for by Tewin. Additionally, the memorandum notes that with regard to the latter two positions, “If the City is unable to hire a new dedicated Senior FTE … the Tewin Landowners will fund an outside consultant to fulfil these responsibilities.”

Additionally, if parts of the work plans of the latter two positions require outside consultants, Tewin will fund those, too, and their contracts will be subject to Tewin’s approval.

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This project smells like a fish market on a hot day.

Questioned Thursday by Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine, city staff said that such hiring was not common practice and they were unaware of any similar arrangements at the city. Further pressed by Devine, staff said that city management would be unable to reassign any of the three to different files if it wanted, making it easy to wonder if they really fit the definition of city employees.

I asked the city’s media office for an explanation, but none came by my deadline.

It’s possible there’s nothing untoward here. Perhaps Tewin just writes the cheques and the three employees go about their business unaware that it’s a developer, not taxpayers, footing their salaries. The optics, however, are terrible, and the perceived impropriety of having a developer pay the salaries of city employees working on their projects is a black mark against both Tewin and the city.

Meanwhile, Capital Coun. Shawn Menard proposed a motion to have staff determine what the Master Plan costs would be if Tewin were removed from the equation. The motion narrowly failed, but the 9-8 outcome suggests that not everyone is comfortable with the burden Tewin will add to taxpayers’ bills. (Conversely,  you could argue it also shows a reluctance to re-open this can of worms.) Bear in mind, the cost figure is even before roads and transit to service the development are calculated and factored in.

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The joint committee’s approval of the master plan isn’t a financial commitment on the part of the city, and, according to the legal counsel, there’s no financial risk if the city changes it. According to Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, there remain off-ramps from the deal if councillors choose to take them.

They ought to at least consider doing so, as these and other costs come to light. For while I understand the reluctance to relitigate decisions made by previous councils, a point made Thursday by Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower, it’s equally the responsibility of elected officials to re-evaluate the city’s path as details and costs become clearer. Too many questions remain about Tewin to simply forge ahead.

bdeachman@postmedia.com

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