Alex Lawson

Lawson would repeal the vacant unit tax on day one and cut development charges by half to get more homes built.

• Would repeal the vacant unit tax at the first council meeting; argues three years of city data show it did not cut rents ($291/month average two-bedroom rise) while burdening seniors, estates and renovators
• Would cut development charges in half to spur construction, arguing builders respond to fees and that lost revenue is offset by growth
• Five first-year actions for family-sized rentals and stopping the slide into homelessness (platform plan 01)

Confidence:High

Lawson's Back to Basics Budget promises a 0% tax year in 2027 then 1/2/2, funded by named savings on consultants.

• Zero per cent property tax increase in 2027, then 1%, 2% and 2% — a 5% four-year total vs 10% under Sutcliffe's cap and ~16% under Leiper, by his math
• Claims $77M-$148M in potential annual savings from 'six leaks': hiring discipline (not refilling 1 in 4 office departures), cutting consultant spend (~$95M/yr on road/sewer/inspection engineering), overtime, year-end spending
• Pledges no bus routes cut, no reserves drained, no fee hikes, and no new spending without a named saving; a public savings ledger with every budget
• Says the average urban home (2026 tax $4,590) would save about $760 over four years vs Sutcliffe's plan

Confidence:High

Lawson would raise the minimum patrol-car level from 42 to 64 tied to population, with the extra policing cost billed to senior governments.

• Would raise Ottawa's minimum number of patrol cars from 42 (a standard set in 1995 for a city of 721,000) to 64, tied to population
• Would guarantee coverage for every zone of the city
• Would send the capital's policing bill to the senior governments that should pay it, without adding to the police levy

Confidence:High

Lawson would restore rush-hour BRT until the LRT meets its reliability standard, redesign routes around trip times.

• Twelve commitments on transit management; argues the system is 'short on management,' not money
• Would bring back rush-hour bus rapid transit until the LRT meets the operating reliability standard it was supposed to clear before launch
• Would make trip times the primary metric for designing routes, require realistic bus schedules, move school trips back to OSTA yellow buses, and replace double-decker buses with articulated 60-footers
• Promises public reporting against every metric

Confidence:High

Lawson would bar campaign insiders from lobbying for four years and publish every city contract in a live searchable plain-language list.

• Would impose a four-year bar on campaign insiders lobbying the officials they helped elect — 'no new cost, no new department'
• Would put every city contract in a live, searchable, plain-language list with no minimum dollar amount, updated as work is awarded

Confidence:High

Lawson wants a southern ring road built as a provincial 400-series highway, plus smarter signals and a per-metre, per-day lane-closure fee.

• Would pursue 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
• Would bring smarter traffic lights (free app in first 100 days, smart signals on worst corridors) and a lane-closure fee charged by the metre and by the day, like Toronto

Confidence:High

Lawson would build a 200-bed Greenbelt recovery campus with same-day detox-to-treatment, trades training.

• Would build HopeWorks, a 200-bed recovery campus on leased Greenbelt land (with the NCC) in two phases of 100 beds; residents stay up to ten months, train in food/agriculture, building maintenance or construction trades, and leave with a job, a place to live and a year of aftercare
• Detox on request with same-day transfer to treatment; would press Ontario to put real withdrawal-management beds behind the HART hubs' promises
• Would make long-acting monthly buprenorphine (Sublocade) the standard offer after detox, available in clinics, pharmacies and family practices citywide
• Treatment paid for by the province and free to residents; city covers fast-tracked approvals, transit access and results-based funding of addiction contracts — 'No new property tax'

Confidence:High