Ottawa city councillor Jeff Leiper isn't too pleased with a promotional campaign put on by the Ottawa 2017 committee in Montreal on Tuesday.
The organization took over a gas station in the city and offered free fill-ups to the first 150 cars to pull in, as a way to encourage Montrealers to visit the capital during Canada's 150th birthday.
Officials with Ottawa 2017 say the promotion was very successful, with motorists lining up for the free fuel.
Leiper noted that, as this was happening, he and other members of the city's environment committee were discussing ways the city could help the battle against climate change by cutting fossil fuel emissions.
He called the promotion "appalling."
We just finished discussing our energy strategy to address climate change. This is appalling. https://t.co/B6ojj4kEO8
— Jeff Leiper (@JLeiper) February 21, 2017
Leiper told CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon a different kind of promotion should have been held.
“This is not the best approach to attract tourists to Ottawa,” Leiper said. “We’re trying to position ourselves as a green and clean city. Could we have given away coupons to take the much more sustainable Via Rail, for instance, who are one of our Ottawa 2017 partners?”
“I want that addition one or two million people to visit Ottawa in 2017, it’s going to great for our economy, but to pursue it through the use of a free giveaway of gasoline, contributing to our greenhouse gas problem, is not the best way to do it.”
Tuesday afternoon, councillor David Chernushenko also tweeted similar objections to the promotion.
Free/discounted train tickets, bus passes, bike rentals would have been better choices for #ottawa2017 promo https://t.co/XFIvwUBZBK
— David Chernushenko (@chernushenko) February 21, 2017
Guy LaFlamme, the executive director of Ottawa 2017 told Ottawa Now that Ottawa 2017 is an independent, arms-length organization and he was not aware there was a meeting of the environment committee Tuesday morning.
“This was a promotional stunt,” LaFlamme said. “We got, in return, five to ten times the value we invested in terms of earned media in Montreal and we got a lot of happy people who will talk positively about Ottawa.”
LaFlamme said the gas giveaway is just one of many promotions Ottawa 2017 has planned.
“We announced a few weeks ago a promotion with Via Rail, encouraging people to take the train to come visit,” he said. "And we'll continue doing promotions with Via Rail, with Porter Airlines, and we will push OC Transpo to encourage public transit."
But he says he can’t hide the fact that many visitors to the Capital are going to take their cars.
“Where we will have the greatest impact, in terms of positive environmental impact, we will encourage people to ‘staycation’, to stay in Ottawa, rather than traveling abroad for their summer holiday. That will have a significant impact,” LaFlamme said.
But would Ottawa 2017 give free gas away again? LaFlamme says yes.
“We would do it again because we got some good return on it. What we did this morning was just one of many promotions to make Ottawa appealing in 2017.”