Where did our common sense go?
How can we affirm that a subsidy to a luxury car dealership will improve the community of Vanier in any way, shape or form? Dealerships are not an appropriate use of land on an artery in Ottawa’s urban core, let alone subsidizing this type of business.
Montréal Road was designated as a “traditional main street” and any city investments should be targeted towards achieving that goal, not taking us further us from it (the Salvation Army project comes to mind). A Porsche dealership will bring nothing to the community of Vanier and certainly doesn’t bring us any closer to an attractive, active and vibrant main street that all Ottawans would be proud of.
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The line of the afternoon belonged to Mark Kaluski. “Why can’t Vanier have nice things too?”
The chair of the Quartier Vanier Business Improvement Area was supporting $2.9 million in property tax incentives to encourage the building of a new Porsche dealership at a key intersection, Montreal Road and St. Laurent Boulevard, essentially the area’s back porch.
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Before it was approved by a city hall committee Tuesday, the issue had been sidetracked, if not hijacked, by accusations the city was throwing public money at the uber rich, while the poor, steps away, were left in grinding desperation, living on fumes. And, now, $2.9 million going to money titans in castles on the Rhine?
Ottawa's finance committee has unanimously approved a tax break worth up to $2.9 million for a future Porsche dealership on the main business strip of a lower-income area, despite residents who argued it would be "social assistance for millionaires."