Ottawa incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says he will boost funding for rural roads, provide dedicated funding for rural infrastructure priorities and advance building a ring road if re-elected next fall. Sutcliffe unveiled his 14-point rural platform as part of his mayoral re-election campaign on Monday, where he touched on achievements made during his last term. “For too long, Ottawa’s rural communities were left sidelined on the key decisions that impacted them. Rural villages and communities had policies, like the ditch tax, imposed on them by a City Hall that was not attuned to their needs or interests,” Sutcliffe’s platform says. “The tax dollars of rural residents were invested in infrastructure elsewhere in the city that they themselves never benefited from. They had their share of decision-making authority diluted through amalgamation. They lacked the ability to meaningfully shape the decisions that matter to them.” Sutcliffe is looking to increase funding for rural roads by $50 million on top of existing funding levels with the creation of a “rural road fund.” “Eighty percent of the City of Ottawa’s geography is rural, and the rural road network comprises 40 per cent of all roads in the city,” the platform says. Sutcliffe is also pledging to ensure infrastructure funding for rural Ottawa is separated from city-wide money to be voted on at the agricultural and rural affairs committee. He says this will “increase local decision-making” and would guarantee dedicated money goes to rural infrastructure projects, rather than competing with urban and suburban priorities. “It guarantees rural roads and other transportation infrastructure projects receive dedicated money instead of competing against urban and suburban projects, giving rural residents their fair share of investments,” the platform says. Sutcliffe also makes a commitment to hire 100 paramedics to improve rural response times by 25 per cent. The 2025 Ottawa Paramedic Service annual report found it did not meet its response time targets for life-threatening calls across the city, primarily attributed to a “growing population, aging demographic, and health care system challenges.” If elected for a second term this fall, Sutcliffe says he will work to advance progress on the long-talked about idea to build a ring road around Ottawa, a project that advocates say could be a solution to reducing truck traffic in the downtown core and rural communities. “This idea has been talked about for 30 years, but progress has been too slow. I started advancing this discussion with the province this term and will take the next steps to move this important project forward,” Sutcliffe’s platform says. “By building a ring road, we can create the conditions to remove trucks from Manotick and surrounding communities as well as lower congestion on the 417 and truck traffic in the downtown core.” Critics have said the idea is too costly and raises environmental concerns. In 2025, city council approved the 20-year Transportation Master Plan that identifies Ottawa’s transit, road and active transportation investments. The ring road was not made a part of that project after council removed a reference to the project in its final plan. He says he will work with the Ottawa Police Service to “permanently increase dedicated rural policing resources to address rural needs.” Other commitments made in his plan for rural Ottawa include: Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson unveiled his rural platform last week. Lawson is pledging to require rural assessments for decisions made at city council and to improve rural infrastructure maintenance as part of his 19 commitments made in his platform. While acknowledging that the decision to build a ring road would be up to the provincial government, Lawson says on his website that he supports the idea and would advance it as mayor. Mayoral candidate Neil Saravanamuttoo has promised to establish community road safety councils and regional planning panels which he says would give local communities across Ottawa greater say. Jeff Leiper has not released his rural platform. Voters will head to the polls on Oct. 26.
