City to hold public consultation on convoy’s effects

Business owners and members of the public affected by last winter’s illegal occupation of downtown Ottawa will have a chance to tell the city about their experiences.

The city’s Office of the Auditor General is holding two virtual public consultations next week to help it understand how businesses and individuals were affected by the occupation, which shut down the city core for more than three weeks, disrupting life and sowing chaos throughout the capital.

The auditor’s study is in addition to the ongoing federal Public Order Emergency Commission and the citizen-led Ottawa People’s Commission on the Convoy Occupation which began its own hearings last week. The aim of the auditor’s study is to help “our office gain a better understanding of how residents were impacted during the protest and how, if any, city services and programs could have been improved.”