New air-quality monitoring project aims to help Ottawa residents Breathe Easy
By Hope Berk, Capital Current, July 28, 2020
A new community-level project will allow residents to measure air quality in
Ottawa by simply taking a walk, riding a bike or pushing a baby stroller.
The
Breathe Easy campaign
— a partnership between Ecology Ottawa and the Ottawa chapter of
Sierra Club Canada
— will provide monitors to volunteers (or air-trackers as they’re calling
them) to identify areas of good and poor air quality in the city.
The monitors will measure levels of pollutants such as ozone gas, nitrogen
dioxide and “particulate” matter – small particles floating in the air made up
of harmful substances such as carbon and sulfur.
(...)“Air quality is possibly the most fundamental thing that we need to have
to survive. From the very first breath we take as little babies to our very
last breath on Earth, it’s something we cannot live for more than maybe two
minutes without,” said Cole. “And yet I don’t think any of us think about it.
We just get up and do our thing and think everything’s fine.”
(...)
The Ottawa campaign was inspired by the
INHALE project in Toronto and
Hamilton, which also monitored urban air quality by putting tools directly in
citizens’ hands.
“It can be a really powerful tool because it visualizes the invisible and it
starts the conversation. And depending on who’s holding the monitor, it opens
the door to, I think, really powerful conversations in the community,” said
Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton.
...On Wednesday, city councillors will address whether the city should move ahead with its bid. The property is owned by Taggart Miller Environmental Services Inc. and is being put up for sale in a confidential bidding process.
wo weeks ago, the city disclosed through a report to its finance and corporate services committee that it made a "non-binding" bid to Taggart Miller.
Now the city is seeking councillors' blessing to get deeper into the bidding process.
The bid's opponents, including some residents who live near the site, as well as a number of city councillors, have raisedenvironmental and traffic concerns. They've also expressed reservations about the compressed timeline leading to Wednesday's council vote.
By Randy Boswell, Ottawa Citizen, November 24, 2023
The City of Ottawa’s auditor general has slammed municipal officials for mishandling a major housing development in Barrhaven that involved extensive alterations of the Jock River floodplain to accommodate a sprawling new subdivision with nearly 1,000 new homes.
Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon has released a scathing, 14-page report detailing her team’s investigation into the project after allegations of mismanagement were made through the city’s fraud and waste hotline. The report has been tabled for discussion at the city’s audit committee meeting on Monday.
...The plan involved cutting away more than 100,000 cubic metres of soil along the north shore of the Jock and depositing more than 400,000 cubic metres of soil on adjacent land immediately to the north so houses could be safely built there, beyond any flood risk.
By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen, November 25, 2023
In a head-spinning move that has angered some community groups, Ottawa is asking the province to reverse its decision to override the city’s official plan on building heights.
A motion, approved by council this week in a 19-2 vote, instructs city officials to ask Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra to reinstate rules allowing higher buildings heights along minor road corridors. It’s something the city’s planning committee rejected two years ago, when it approved Ottawa’s new official plan.
At the time, city staff had recommended higher buildings, but council bowed to pressure and limited buildings along minor corridor roads to four storeys.