Ottawa taxpayers are concerned with spending half a billion dollars to demolish and rebuild the Lansdowne Park stadium.

Our city has far more important needs that require immediate attention. Housing, reliable transit, fixing our crumbling roads – to name just a few.

Yet Mayor Sutcliffe is proposing to upgrade a sports facility which the City says can be maintained for another 40 years. Sutcliffe proposes to tear down and replace it with a new stadium that doesn’t even have a roof. And a new arena that has 3,000 fewer seats than the current one.

Is this the best use of our limited tax dollars? Lansdowne will require the City to pay $20 million annually in debt costs over 30 years, with uncertain future revenues. Or perhaps no revenues to the City, if the partnership ends up performing like the current partnership.

The only certainty is that taxpayers would be on the hook for the equivalent of about a 1% property tax increase for the foreseeable future.

Residents should have a say in how our money is spent. The half billion dollars in spending could fund $20 million worth of projects in each ward across Ottawa.

This petition calls on the City of Ottawa to hold a binding referendum before approving a Lansdowne stadium demolition and rebuild. We demand transparency and public participation in decisions that impact our lives and our city’s future so profoundly.

Other Canadian cities have held referenda on major investments in sports facilities, including Calgary bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Montreal West building a new sports complex in 2023, Victoria expanding a swimming facility in 2024, and Langford, B.C. expanding its soccer stadium in 2024.

The people of Ottawa deserve the same.

Sign this petition if you believe Ottawa taxpayers should decide whether we spend $493 million on a sports stadium reconstruction.