Offering a direct and steady hyperlink between a customer’s level of arrival and the place they wish to go in a metropolis is integral to a thriving native economic system.
Article content material
On Jan. 6, OC Transpo will formally open Strains 2 and 4 to the general public, marking a long-awaited opening of the north/south rail extension.
Whereas this can be a trigger for celebration on many fronts — resumed service for post-secondary college students; new stations linking the southern areas of our metropolis; unlocking future improvement potential; and renewed connections to areas like South Keys and alongside Financial institution Avenue — the true purpose for our metropolis to tug out the fireworks is the much-needed, and lengthy overdue, hyperlink to the town’s airport.
Commercial 2
Article content material
We frequently speak about striving to make Ottawa a world-class metropolis; we’re the nation’s capital, boasting dozens of cultural, creative and historic websites. However journey the world, go to our capital metropolis counterparts, and you’ll usually discover one very particular, but important, service: a simple and direct public transportation connection from their airport to their metropolis centre. Amsterdam, Paris and London, to call a couple of, all have prepare stations inside or adjoining to their airports. Even Toronto realized the need and constructed the UP Specific.
Offering a direct and steady hyperlink between the place a customer arrives, and the place they’re going, is integral to supporting a thriving tourism trade. Past simply the core, it additionally permits for a extra seamless connection to the remainder of the town.
As a metropolis councillor in Orléans, I’m continuously confronted with the dilemma of how an outer city/suburban group can entice new enterprise, promote job development and tease out tourism {dollars} that movement into our native economic system? The prepare, and that steady transition from airport to core to Orléans, opens up numerous new potentialities.
Commercial 3
Article content material
These tourism {dollars} are nothing to scoff at. In accordance with Ottawa Tourism, an estimated 9.8 million guests travelled to Ottawa in 2023, spending an estimated $2.6 billion on objects reminiscent of lodging, actions and leisure. That very same yr, vacationer and customer actions in Ottawa supported roughly 24,570 jobs, with employees incomes $1 billion in direct wages and salaries. Increasing the place these {dollars} are distributed in our metropolis will create new alternatives.
An Orléans instance is the Shenkman Arts Centre. This city-operated facility affords distinctive cultural and creative programming year-round, and its productions can simply rival the standard of these discovered downtown. Entice vacationers to its huge array of programming, entice them to remain at an east-end lodges and eat at native eating places, and “Ottawa” turns into extra than simply the ByWard Market and the nationwide museums downtown.
This Orléans instance may be replicated for different sights that at the moment are linked by the upcoming LRT extensions south, west and east, and your complete metropolis can reap the monetary advantages of injecting tourism {dollars} into native neighbourhoods.
Commercial 4
Article content material
Let’s not overlook about firms. For a lot too a few years, Kanata, because the tech capital of Canada, has needed to deal with enterprise travellers arriving on the airport and left to their very own units to make it throughout certainly one of Canada’s geographically largest cities. When attempting to draw new capital and enterprise, this isn’t the primary impression you wish to make.
Swift connections from the airport to places throughout the town, enabling enterprise travellers to board transit as an choice and discover their strategy to a gathering with ease, are a comfort that many large cities have lengthy loved. This now additionally turns into a serious promoting level for Ottawa. In terms of establishing a base in a metropolis, worldwide firms additionally search for issues like transportation connections to lure workers with quality-of-life choices that embody quick access to facilities.
Throughout OC Transpo’s pre-opening tour in December of Line 2 and 4 for metropolis council, the prepare pulled into the airport station to little fanfare. Whereas there was no trumpet or confetti harkening its arrival, it was clear that the airport LRT station offers a possibility to turn out to be a gateway to east, west and south communities throughout our metropolis, spurring funding, financial potentialities, and tourism {dollars} into neighbourhoods.
Laura Dudas is the town councillor for Ward 2 Orléans West-Innes.
Really helpful from Editorial
Article content material
