CPEP is proud to join the Ottawa Coalition For A People’s Budget. Our vision for Ottawa shows how the City can make a transformative investment in social services and address all areas of our current crisis — public health, economic, social, and environmental — at a scale these issues require.
“The global pandemic has pushed conversations about universal basic income, universal childcare, policing and our social infrastructure to the fore. Over the last eight months, “normal” has been flipped upside down and it is clear that, for many people, “normal” has never worked well. Recognizing the crisis in communities across Ottawa, a collective of equity-seeking groups has taken a bold step to reimagine Ottawa where an ethics of care for people and our environment is at the fore. This alternative budget presents an ambitious, aspirational, and just vision for the City of Ottawa that takes on our current crisis and all its facets — financial, environmental, and social. The impacts of the pandemic have revealed and exacerbated the deep socio-economic fault lines that exist in our city. It is now even more apparent that the only way forward is one where the lived experiences of the most oppressed and marginalized communities in Ottawa are at the centre of our policies and our spending.”
Since it was created in 2013, CPEP has advocated for an end to prisons and a re-investment of that money into communities that need it. We have worked tirelessly with members of the community to achieve these goals and today we are happy to see a broad coalition of community members coming together to present a city budget that will educate the public as to how we can begin to do that. We are pleased to see a proposed 63% defunding of the Ottawa Police Service, higher taxes on real-estate developers, and an increase in funding for those most marginalized. We look forward to participating in all the future discussions and actions that this budget will surely create. Until then we will keep organizing and fighting until every prisoner is free, and the police are off of our streets. No one is free until we are all free!
Below are some social media graphics that you can download. You can also contact the coalition for a press-kit here: ottawa.alt.budget@gmail.com
