Mark Sutcliffe, Jeff Leiper and Neil Saravanamuttoo all agreed on the need to act during a debate organized by CAFES Ottawa, held Thursday, September 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Centretown United Church on Bank Street. Parts of the capital were inundated with rain on July 1, flooding thousands of homes and leaving them without power at the start of a major cleanup, a disaster that has become a recurring flashpoint in the campaign.
Where the candidates differ on cost
The agreement on the problem didn't extend to how to pay for the fix. Incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is promising a 2.5 per cent property tax increase ceiling, telling the debate that infrastructure prioritization will happen neighbourhood by neighbourhood: "Whatever infrastructure we need to prioritize, we will make it happen."
Jeff Leiper, who has spent the past 12 years as the city councillor for Kitchissippi Ward, is proposing a different approach: a one per cent infrastructure levy if he's elected mayor. Leiper has also pledged to keep property taxes "affordable and predictable," though he hasn't specified a firm target the way Sutcliffe has.
Accountability over the storm response
The debate wasn't only about future spending. Neil Saravanamuttoo called the storms "the new normal" and directly criticized the incumbent's readiness, telling Sutcliffe his lack of preparation was "quite frankly, a failure on your part."
Leiper also put blame on Sutcliffe for how the city communicated during the crisis, saying, "I think a lot of the blame for the lack of communications and the chaos in the days falls at your feet, Mark."
The stakes of that criticism were underscored by residents who lived through the flooding. Aryan Bajpai, a flood survivor, said he hopes accountability doesn't wait for a new council to take office: "I'm really hoping that this is not something just for the next council, that for our current council, we hold everyone accountable and we make sure that the neighbourhoods that were flooded are not forgotten."
What led here
Stormwater infrastructure has become one of the defining issues of Ottawa's 2026 mayoral campaign, alongside homelessness and transportation. It follows ottown's earlier report on how CBC's weekly election panel has tracked the race, and comes just days after ottown's earlier report on a separate candidate facing charges over alleged threats against Premier Doug Ford and Sutcliffe himself.
With the October 26 election approaching, the storm debate leaves Ottawa voters with two clearly different fiscal paths to weigh: Sutcliffe's tax ceiling versus Leiper's dedicated infrastructure levy, both promising the same outcome, a city better able to withstand the next major storm.
Sources: Yahoo News Canada, CFRA / Ottawa Now (via Unpublished Newswire), CAFES Ottawa (debate organizer)
