OTTAWA — To hear Mayor Jim Watson tell it, 2017 is going to be one fantastic year in the capital. More events, bigger festivals, an additional 1.75 million visitors, a Canada Day celebration that spans an entire week.

There’s just one small hitch: Watson would like other people to pay for it.

Or mostly. The mayor said the city will spend about $1 million on the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary of confederation, but it sounds like that sum will include things such as road closures and additional bus service. What kind of party will $1 million buy us? Not a very exciting one.

Now, Watson’s initial ideas for the 2017 celebrations do sound like fun, starting with a New Year’s Eve party on Parliament Hill. Who would pay for that? Well, the federal government, most likely.

To be fair, in his speech to the Economic Club of Canada on Monday entitled “1,000 Days to 2017”, Watson said that the 2017 celebrations should not be left “to one group to co-ordinate all on its own — we work together to throw a huge celebration.”

Indeed, much of the mayor’s lunchtime speech could be seen as a plea to his federal counterparts to get a move on in their plans for 2017. After all, the city’s own task force has been meeting for months. The city even has its own “Ottawa 2017” logo, a multi-coloured maple leaf comprised of 13 triangles. Taking a page from Quebec City’s successful 400th anniversary celebrations, Watson would like to see the attractive emblem on display across the city, even on restaurant menus. Great idea! It would seem in businesses’ best interests to promote the sesquicentennial in Ottawa as much as possible.

Watson is showing leadership in planning for the special year and has been ahead of the curve in reaching out to others to start thinking about how they can make 2017 a special year in Ottawa. One example: The mayor appealed to the professionals in the audience to lobby to have their annual conferences or major meetings in Ottawa in 2017. He even offered to help them put together a bid. That’s a concrete idea for bringing more people to the capital.

But other suggestions are left to others to finance.

Watson suggested “supersizing” our existing festivals, such as adding an additional day to both Bluesfest and Jazzfest that features Canadian artists. That’s a nice idea, but who will pay for that? Will customers who have shelled out hundreds for festival passes? Corporate sponsorship always sounds like the cure-all for these sorts of problems, but there’s only so much company goodwill to go around.

Watson hopes that in 2017, Ottawa can land events that move from city-to-city each year, like the Grey Cup — “The RedBlacks are still undefeated,” the mayor joked of the CFL team that launches this summer — and the Juno Awards. Sounds doable. But Watson would also like to see a free public concert series throughout the city in conjunction with the Junos. Again, who will pick up the tab?

Just because there’s no immediate answer as to how events will be paid for, doesn’t mean Watson shouldn’t suggest them. But he also needs to show some leadership on actual action as opposed to simply making suggestions and giving planning advice. Watson should commit to sponsoring one major event in the city. He doesn’t even have to say what it is right now, but it should be uniquely Ottawa and it should be free. This is a major celebration for the capital — the only one of its kind in a lifetime for many of us — and $1 million for road closures and such doesn’t cut it. Let’s double that amount, or even triple it. Heck, let’s find $5 million in our $3-billion budget for one single, special year to put on one great party hosted by the residents of Ottawa, for the people of Canada.