It took three levels of government to create Ottawa's transit-budget mess.

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s attempt to shake some extra money out of the federal and provincial governments is both timely and appropriate. Ottawa is facing a transit-driven budget deficit next year, and the city needs to know what, if anything, the two senior governments will do to solve a problem they helped create.

Ottawa’s light rail system is becoming a fiscal train wreck. The city’s biggest budget issue is an average deficit of nearly $140 million in transit operations in each of the next three years. Solving that problem without any federal or provincial assistance would mean a 37 per cent increase in the city’s transit levy. That would be the equivalent of a seven per cent tax increase, just for transit alone, the mayor says.

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Those are the kind numbers that catch the attention of........

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