Build the ring road

One way across the city

Build the ring road.

By Alex Lawson

The 417 is the only real east-west route through Ottawa. One highway, doing the job for a city of a million people. One accident or one lane closure, and a twenty-minute drive home turns into an hour.

And because there’s no way around the city, everything goes through it. About 1,000 transport trucks a day roll through Manotick, on Bridge Street and Mitch Owens Road, because no other route connects the 416 and the 417. Those trucks don’t want to be there. They’ve got nowhere else to go.

The Montreal-to-Toronto traffic. The cottage traffic. Their trip has nothing to do with our city, and right now their route runs through the middle of it.

Trucks per day
~1,000
Through the Village of Manotick, at the busiest truck intersection in the city.
East-west routes
1
The 417 is the city’s only real east-west artery.
Years of talk
50+
A ring road has been discussed since the 1970s, before the 416 existed.
Growth coming
+400K
Ottawa is projected to grow by 400,000 people over 20 years.

Fifty years of talking, nothing built

A ring road around Ottawa has been talked about since the 1970s. It still doesn’t exist.

In July 2025, council went the other way: it stripped the ring road evaluation out of the city’s 20-year Transportation Master Plan. Mark Sutcliffe changed his vote to support the removal.

I’m not questioning whether he means well. I’m telling you the result. The one route study that would have kept this moving is off the books, while the trucks are still rolling through Manotick.

The province, meanwhile, is open for business on this. In April 2026, Ontario’s transportation minister said there’s a good case for a ring road and that the province would study its feasibility. The door is open. Somebody has to walk through it.

The commitment
01
Build a southern ring road around Ottawa.
Get the trucks out of our villages and the through-traffic off the one artery we all depend on. A bypass for the traffic whose trip has nothing to do with our city.
02
Get the province moving right away.
Not another study that sits on a shelf. Not another decade of “exploring options.” As mayor, I’ll work with Queen’s Park to get it moving immediately. The mayor’s job here is simple: stop stalling and go get it done.
03
Build it as a provincial 400-series highway.
Queen’s Park builds it and Queen’s Park maintains it, so it doesn’t land on your property tax bill.
Not another study that sits on a shelf. Not another decade of “exploring options.”
Alex Lawson
Builder, not politician

We’ve got a lot of work to do.

Ottawa deserves better.