City of Ottawa

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For the defunct electoral district, please see Ottawa (City of).

Ottawa's City Hall, headquarters to the municipal government.

The City of Ottawa (French: Ville d'Ottawa) is the corporate entity of municipal government in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The corporation is responsible for provision of services to the public as well as enforcement of municipal by-laws. It is overseen by the City Manager, and responsible to the Mayor of Ottawa (Larry O'Brien) and City Council.

1 History
2 Departments
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] History

The City of Ottawa Act, 1999 (French: Loi de 1999 sur la ville d’Ottawa) is an act of the legislature of Ontario which created the City of Ottawa. The Act was first passed in 1999 to provide for the 2000 amalgamation of the former Region of Ottawa-Carleton, the former cities of Ottawa, Nepean, Kanata, Gloucester, Vanier and Cumberland, the former townships of West Carleton, Goulburn, Rideau, and Osgoode, and the former village of Rockcliffe Park into the new City of Ottawa.

Since then, Ottawa has taken on a significant debt, where many municipalities were debt free, and now residents, especially in rural areas, are calling for the break up of the city.

Other issues in the city involve the smoking bylaw, a proposed ban on pesticides, merging all addresses so mail would be sent to "Ottawa, Ontario" vs various forms such as "Nepean, Ontario", "Metcalfe, Ontario" and so forth, and ambulance services.

[edit] Departments

[edit] Emergency and Protective Services

Emergency and Protective Services (EPS) is responsible for firefighters, paramedics, and emergency preparedness in Ottawa. It also provides key links between the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service. The work of EPS is overseen by the City Council committee of the same name, currently chaired by Councillor Diane Deans.

[edit] Corporate Services

Corporate Services provides the necessary administrative backbone for the City of Ottawa's operations. The branch controls the City's Treasury, computer systems, record-keeping, property management, legal and employee services. It operates seven Client Service Centres throughout Ottawa through which residents can access municipal services such as property tax payment or birth registration. The corresponding committee on City Council is the Corporate Services & Economic Development Committee, chaired by the Mayor.

Corporate Service includes Information Technology Services. ITS includes the Geographic Information Systems unit. The GIS unit is responsible for the City's GIS, which is the cornerstone of administration and is known as "MAP".