The platform / published in full

Let’s get the basics right.

In 2022 we were promised a safer, more affordable, more reliable Ottawa. We got none of the three.

Every commitment below is published in full: what Alex will do, how it gets delivered, and the timeline he expects to be held to. Read the plans. Share them. Hold him to them.

New / The Back to Basics Budget

Zero per cent increase in 2027.

Then one, then two, then two. Over the term the mayor’s plan raises your rate 10 per cent, Leiper’s 16, Alex’s 5. Six leaks fixed, every dollar named, and the average home keeps about $760. No bus routes cut, no reserves drained, no fees raised to pay for it.

Read the Back to Basics Budget

Check the receipts

Crime

+18.9%

Since 2022. Ottawa Police annual reports.

2-bedroom rent

+17.9%

Now $1,916 a month, up from $1,625 when Sutcliffe took office. CMHC, Oct 2025.

Property taxes

+12%

Over four Sutcliffe budgets, 2023 to 2026.

Fees & charges

+32.6%

In four years. City of Ottawa adopted budgets.

The plans, as announced

Build homes people can afford.

Two rents, a $700 gap, and five things in the first year to build family-sized rentals and stop the slide into homelessness. May 2026

Fix the basics at OC Transpo.

Ottawa’s transit system is not short on money. It is short on management. Twelve commitments, six problems, public reporting against every metric. May 2026

The Influence Firewall.

A four-year bar on campaign insiders lobbying the officials they helped elect. No new cost, no new department. June 2026

Your money, in plain sight.

Every city contract in a live, searchable, plain-language list, no minimum dollar amount, updated as work is awarded. July 2026

Build the ring road.

A southern ring road as a provincial 400-series highway, so 1,000 trucks a day stop rolling through Manotick and the 417 isn’t the only way across. July 2026

The Alto pledge.

No NDA that keeps you in the dark about your own property. If your government is talking about your land, you deserve to know. July 2026

Return to office, honestly.

Straight talk on what a mayor can’t do about the federal mandate, and the three things he can: the city on record, federal worksites outside the greenbelt, express buses back. August 2026

Fix the basics in rural Ottawa.

One standard, two operating environments. Road safety, farm business zoning, ditches, road renewal, and your right to know about your own land. August 2026

Jobs and growth.

Ottawa lost 30,500 jobs in a year and nobody at City Hall owns the file. Get people into work, get more work into Ottawa. 21 commitments, all on the City’s own budget. August 2026

Free up parking.

Every on-street parking meter comes out, and no posted parking limit shorter than two hours anywhere in the city. The motion goes to council on day one. Main streets shouldn’t charge you to shop local. September 2026

Get Ottawa moving.

Smarter lights, starting with a free application in the first 100 days and smart signals on the worst corridors in the City’s own data. Road work with an end date, and a lane closure fee that charges by the metre and by the day like Toronto. Ottawa has grown. We can’t manage traffic like it’s 1975. September 2026

Burn it, don’t bury it.

Bring back the six-item limit. Build the waste-to-energy plant the City’s own study ranked first, on the $95 million Boundary Road land the City already owns, with a host agreement for Carlsbad Springs before a shovel goes in. September 2026

End the vacant unit tax.

328,000 households file a form every year to find 1.3 percent of homes empty, and the average two-bedroom rent went up $291 a month anyway. Repeal it at the first council meeting, keep the affordable housing money, and put the effort into the permits and charges that actually build homes. September 2026

One standard for every bed.

Ottawa spent $29.3 million on hotel rooms for homeless families last year, and those hotels aren’t covered by the city’s shelter standards. One standard for every bed the city pays for, unannounced inspections four times a year, a public scorecard for every site, and a way out for the people inside. September 2026

The small business tax cut.

Toronto moved to 20 per cent. Ottawa froze at 15. Go to 25 per cent in the first budget with no phase-in, scrap every City patio fee, and no more overnight tax hikes on any business. October 2026

Report Red Tape.

Ottawa got a C-minus from CFIB and scored zero for giving businesses a place to report red tape. A portal on ottawa.ca and 311, every report answered, a public tracker, and fewer permits to open. October 2026

Open during construction.

When the City tears up your street, the City should help you stay open. A business liaison on every major project, City-paid signs, one construction map, and roads that finish on time. Fix the road. Keep the shop. October 2026

Back to Basics Budget.

Zero per cent in 2027, then 1, 2 and 2. Six leaks fixed, every dollar named, and the average home keeps about $760 against the mayor’s plan. October 2026

Recovery First Ottawa.

Detox when someone asks for it, treatment the same day, up to ten months at a 200-bed Greenbelt recovery campus learning a trade, and a job and a home at the end. Treatment paid for by the province, free to residents. October 2026