Jim Watson (Canadian politician)

Watson first entered public office in 1991 when he was elected to pre-amalgamation Ottawa's City Council as councillor for Capital Ward. He was subsequently re-elected to Council in 1994. In 1992 Watson championed a roll-back of salaries and operating costs at the city level. His first direct action against excessive city spending was his unilateral decision to donate his yearly 2% salary increase, totalling $700, to charity.[9] In addition, as part of the re-election process Watson donated his severance pay of $5200 to four local charities after moving from Regional to City Council in 1994. During his second term as councillor, Watson reduced his own salary by 13% from $51,000 to $45,000 while voting to reduce the mayor's office budget and salary. In 1996, he supported Dalton McGuinty's bid to lead the Ontario Liberal party.[10]

In 1997, Watson sought election as Mayor of Ottawa, winning 83 per cent of the popular vote to become Ottawa's youngest-ever mayor. During his term as mayor, Watson's emphasis centred on ensuring that the City adopt sustainable fiscal management policies which would enable overall operating costs to go down while reducing budget deficits and the city's debt burden. In conjunction, Watson managed to freeze property tax rates for two consecutive years. He also championed a plan with two other councillors, Peter Hume and John O'Neil, to save the historic Aberdeen Pavilion from being torn down.

Watson worked alongside the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to create a "Fraud Free Calendar" in order to help protect consumers, particularly seniors, from high pressure sales tactics, which often lead to impulse purchases.[12] In the spring of 2004, the Federal and Provincial governments signed a joint service delivery accord, creating a "one stop shop" in many communities for provincial and federal services. This accord later included municipalities, in order to provide many government services in one location, for example Ottawa City Hall.[13] Upon inheriting a massive backlog in birth certificate applications, Watson took action to streamline the delivery process for online applicants. After a cabinet shuffle, Dalton McGuinty and Gerry Phillips implemented a money-back guarantee to individuals who do not receive a birth certificate within 15 days of the online application, which Watson had initiated.

Watson initiated a study designed to help Ontarians quit smoking. STOP – Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients – offered free nicotine replacement therapy to 14,000 smokers across the province.[14] On May 31, 2006, the Smoke-Free Ontario Act came into effect, banning all smoking in public areas in the province, including in restaurants, bars, casinos, etc. Watson was recognized for its implementation.[15] In June of that year, Watson unveiled a $10-million Healthy Eating and Active Living Plan. The plan took aim at childhood obesity, which included a pilot project in Northern schools, offering fruits and vegetables to the students and a program that looked to develop and improve safe biking and walking to and from schools.[16] In 2006, the Ontario government launched a project which provided financial assistance to Ontario athletes looking to perform at the national and international levels. Quest For Gold is now part of the Ontario Athlete Assistance Program (OAAP), funded by the Government of Ontario, through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & Sport. The Program provided direct financial assistance to Ontario athletes through an "Ontario Card" designation. The intent of the OAAP is to provide funding to individual athletes based on their demonstrated commitment to high performance sport, allowing them to pursue athletic excellence at the highest levels of national and international competition.[17]

After the 2007 election, Watson became Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. During his tenure as Queen's Park's official liaison with Ontario's municipalities, Watson was able to implement substantive policies to alleviate fiscal pressure on cities. In February 2008, Watson brought forward the Rental Opportunity for Ontario Families (ROOF) program that helps low-income families with funds to pay rent over a five-year period.[18] In October of that year, a policy designed to support the uploading of property tax supported programs from the budgets of Ontario's municipalities to that of the Provincial budget was implemented. Under this policy, the province took back $1.5 Billion worth of programs funded by Ontario's municipalities, reversing previous downloading of provincial responsibilities which occurred during Mike Harris’ tenure as Premier. The provincial government assumed responsibility for Ontario Works social assistance services, paramedic services, public health, transit, drug benefit programs, the Ontario Disability Support Program, court services, and property tax assessment.[19] In addition, Watson signed the Federal-Provincial Housing Agreement in 2008, the largest housing agreement of its kind to date.[20]

On November 16, 2015, Watson lead an economic mission to China and Thailand with hopes of promoting Ottawa as a leading innovation hub in Canada, to draw investment for Ottawa businesses, and to encourage tourism to the nation's capital. Watson and fifteen local business leader began the mission in Beijing,[40] Ottawa's only sister city, where he signed an "Exchange and Co-operation Agreement" with Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong, establishing key common goals in business, trade, and municipal administration. The agreement states the mutual support of local enterprises to invest in each other's cities, as well as enhanced co-operation in the high-tech industry.[41] A year later, on April 17, 2016, Watson led a delegation of 35 leaders in the business and tech industries to generate investment opportunities in technology, education, film production and tourism.[42] In addition to seizing the significant economic growth opportunities in India, the trade mission also afforded the City of Ottawa and Invest Ottawa the opportunity to leverage the experience of many successful, local Indo-Canadian business leaders. The mission's resulting list of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), strategic partnerships and mutually beneficial agreements between Ottawa companies and their Indian counterparts has an estimated total value of more than $80 million.[43]

Since 2014, Watson has led many significant projects in the city. Set to become one of the largest infrastructure projects in the city's history, the city secured more than $1.15 billion from the federal government to help the expansion of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) network of the completed Confederation Line, which will move the public transportation further east, south, and west.[44] Watson pushed to have the Mayors of Ottawa and Gatineau to join the Board of the National Capital Commission (NCC) in 2016. That year, Watson and Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin were invited to join as ex-officio, non-voting members.[45]

The city has invested a record $80M since 2014 for cycling and pedestrian structures. City council unanimously approved downtown Ottawa's second segregated bike lane in 2015 and built the 2.5-kilometre north-south cycling spine between Parliament Hill and Lansdowne Park on O’Connor Street.[46] In addition, the NCC worked alongside Watson, as well as Nathalie Des Rosiers and Elizabeth Moore Aubin, to open another segregated cycling lane on Mackenzie Avenue, creating a safer environment for cyclists in the Ottawa region.[47] Watson played a key role in the opening of the Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards, the new home for Invest Ottawa and an entrepreneurial hub for the Ottawa region. It is expected to engage over 1200 businesses within the city, assisting them to grow and develop their products, as well as create over 280 jobs within the capital region.[48] Watson and the City of Ottawa have been working in conjunction to reduce the impact of sewage overflows and storm water on the Ottawa River. The Ottawa River Action Plan (ORAP) is made up of 17 individual projects which aim to enhance the health of the Ottawa River and to protect Ottawa's water environment.[49] Watson supported the arts community towards redeveloping the Arts Court and expanding the Ottawa Art Gallery. The project is part of a vision for the revitalization of the downtown core in Ottawa. The project includes environmentally-controlled exhibition and curatorial spaces, event and education facilities, a café and a gift shop.[50]

As Canada celebrated its 150th year since Confederation, the City of Ottawa created a group in charge of putting together a full year of activities and events. The Ottawa 2017 Bureau, under Guy Laflamme, was responsible for organizing signature events throughout the year, attracting millions of visitors to Ottawa to experience them. Over the course of year, the city played host to a number of successful events including the 2017 Red Bull Crashed Ice downhill skating competition, the Juno Awards of 2017; La Machine (production company), a four-day show that attracted over 750,000 people, Ottawa Welcomes the World, a series of celebrations at Lansdowne Park to promote tourism in other countries and strengthen ties with those nations, the 105th Grey Cup at TD Place, and the 2017 NHL 100 Classic, an outdoor game between the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadians that recreated the first ever NHL game almost 100 years later.[51]

Since his re-election, many councillors have expressed concern over Watson's apparent stronghold over several other councillors.[53] The urban-suburban split between councillors[54] sees Watson siding with more-suburban councillors, whom he appoints to Chair every committee.[55][56]

(x): indicates elected.

(*): indicates incumbent.