Dear members of Ottawa City Council,

We are residents of the Stonebridge Community. The Stonebridge Community Association (SCA) is still continuing its efforts to finalize a contract with Mattamy Homes and the City of Ottawa, which will increase property taxes for the purpose of possibly purchasing the Stonebridge Golf Course at some point in the future.

While we understand the general concern that existed among community members about further development in the Stonebridge area, today the landscape has changed due to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. People are losing their jobs, falling ill, and in some cases dying—including people in Stonebridge. The financial damage that the economic shut down will cause over the next 3-5 years will be severe.

Amid the crisis of the viral pandemic, where economic fallout will and has affected all residents in Ottawa, the purchase of this golf course would be frivolous. This is not the time to proceed with an increase in property taxes to pay for the purchase of a golf course, while many are burning through their life’s savings to get through this pandemic.

As City of Ottawa Councillors, you have an obligation to protect taxpayers from unnecessary hardships and expenditures. The costs of the COVID-19 pandemic will be in the billions of dollars and scarce resources must be treated with care and respect. To proceed with increasing property taxes for the sole purpose of purchasing a golf course would be shrugging your shoulders to the economic realities that all of us will have to suffer through.