Last week's budget vote brought some funding relief to the city's three economic development agencies. But even some city councillors who voted on the issue aren't sure they did the right thing.
On the first day of last week's marathon budget talks, the city's three economic development agencies averaged 20-per-cent cuts to their core funding.
With little or no debate, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) and the Ottawa Life Sciences Council were given partial reinstatement of funding cuts that would have seen a 53-per-cent reduction and a 47-per-cent reduction, respectively.
OCRI's funding has been reduced by 17 per cent to $1.5 million, while the life sciences council's funding was reduced by 23 per cent to $220,000.
"We are very thankful for city council's unanimous support. (The possibility) of putting money back in the future was very encouraging to us," said Jeffrey Dale, president of Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation.
More contentious, however, was a hotel fee to replace funding for the city's tourism authority and festivals.
The tourism authority received $1 million and festivals were given $719,000 to get through the year. Both payments are to come from the city's capital budget.
Innes Ward Councillor Rainer Bloess voted with the rest of council but felt councillors were "flying by the seat of their pants".
"It's an interim solution, but I think the cuts go too deep. The cuts will certainly affect how (the economic agencies) operate and make it more difficult for them to leverage funds and be effective. They'll still be effective, but they could be so much more effective."
Bloess put forth a motion to cut each agency's envelope by 15 per cent, which was quickly dismissed by his colleagues.
Orleans Ward Councillor Herb Kreling said he thinks it is the best solution, given budget constraints.
"I gauged the mood at the table to not support other than what was in front of them and (the motion) needed to be revenue-neutral.
"Anything that would have put pressure on the tax rate or where councillors would have to seek some cuts in other areas, that was evident there wasn't support."
The motion voting in the use of a hotel levy to pay for the tourism authority and festivals surprised Bloess.
"It came out of left field for me in the sense that (councillors) are looking at the potential hotel room levy as being a cash cow that's going to fund everything.
"What they didn't mention is that hotel properties and tourism properties pay $112 million in taxes to the city. It's not as if they are not paying their share."
Kreling hopes to sort out the issue of a room tax so council can have more flexibility when looking at funding to OCRI and life sciences next year.
