By Andrea MacCormack, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, April 26, 2019
(...)How we can fight trash along our roadsides
Re: Letter, Ottawa becoming garbage dump, April 20.
I agree with this letter-writer that Ottawa’s roadsides look like a dump this spring, but I’m afraid it doesn’t stop there.
(...)Maybe if Ontario had a deposit program on aluminum cans and plastic bottles in place, like some other provinces, people would see more value in their trash, at least, and be less likely toss it.
By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen, April 26, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is nothing like a few days in America’s capital to make you appreciate the meaning of the words “public space.” And as with every time I visit this fine city, I find myself asking, Why can’t we do this in Ottawa?
Washington, at least the historical and touristy part of it, is full of public spaces. It’s full of cars, transit buses, taxis, bikes, tour buses, dock-less scooters and even Segways. But somehow, the folks who planned this space in the District of Columbia managed to make it a priority for people on foot to appreciate the architecture, history, monuments and museums like few other cities I’ve visited have ever managed.
If you start at the Capitol building and look all the way to the Lincoln Memorial, you will see a vast expanse of green open spaces lined on both sides by one museum after another. You will see some vehicular traffic in there, too, along with hop-on-hop-off tourist chariots and food trucks. But if you decide to walk from one end of the Mall to the other, and you definitely should, you will find it remarkably easy to feel both completely at home and perfectly safe, provided you don’t decide to jaywalk in the few spots where you have to cross a street open to cars.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, April 26, 2019
City council risked Ottawa looking like a backwater town — one whose riverside communities and neighbouring municipalities are fighting bloated waterways — if it voted against a motion this week acknowledging that something wonky is happening with the environment.
So, a large majority of councillors on Wednesday sided with Coun. Shawn Menard and his proposal for the City of Ottawa to declare a climate emergency.
That was the easy part.
Now, with city hall in an “emergency” environmental mode, and a council about to decide on its term priorities, it will be pressured to make sure staff and politicians are keeping climate change at the core of each decision across the corporate portfolio.
By the Canadian Press, Ottawa Citizen, April 26, 2019
OTTAWA — Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he believes climate change is among the reasons eastern Ontario homeowners are trying to save their homes from flooding for the second time in three years.
Ford was in the rural west end of Ottawa Friday morning, touring flooded areas along the Ottawa River, where officials are warning a new rain storm will make water levels rise rapidly over the next few days, likely exceeding the levels seen during a 2017 flood.
Ford said that when you see the affected people face-to-face, it “just rips your heart out.”
By Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Sun, April 24, 2019
Local sections of the Ottawa River are expected to peak a second time this spring — several weeks after the current wave of flood water passes through the region, officials warn.
The disastrous May 2017 flood came during the second spring peak, driven by heavy rainfall and snow melt in the northern reaches of the Ottawa River’s drainage basin.
“Yes, we expect a second peak,” Michael Sarich, senior water resources engineer with the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board, said in an interview Tuesday. “But unfortunately we can’t predict what that will look like. We know we have a lot of snow in the northern regions and it’s just beginning to melt.
By CBC News Ottawa, April 24, 2019
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is visiting a flood evacuation centre in Gatineau, Que., Wednesday afternoon.
More than 300 people have registered with the western Quebec city as victims of a flood that's reached major flood levels in some waterfront neighbourhoods and is expected to reach that status in more areas today.
Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, spoke with flood victims and volunteers at the evacuation centre.
They thanked the volunteers for their work.
"Once again we're here noticing and noting how the floods across the country are a challenge, here in Quebec and elsewhere," Trudeau said.
With climate change we're going to see more and more of these extreme weather events more regularly.- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, April 24, 2019
Ottawa city council has declared climate change an emergency, joining other Canadian municipalities in making the declaration.
Council members who voted for the declaration, including the mayor, say it's no empty gesture. Wednesday's vote dedicates $250,000 from the city's annual Hydro Ottawa dividend to speed up studies aimed at moving the city to renewable energy and meeting greenhouse gas emission targets.
It's the young people who are inheriting the problems that we're all responsible for creating.- Coun . Jenna Sudds
By CBC News Ottawa, April 24, 2019
The National Capital Commission is warning that many of its trails are under water, meaning nearly all trails in Gatineau Park are off-limits.
Only the Sugarbush Trail near the visitor's centre in Gatineau Park is open because of the closed Parkways, wet and muddy conditions and flooding.
By James Bagnall, Ottawa Citizen, April 24, 2019
Two years ago, homeowners in the capital region could comfort themselves that record floods were a freak anomaly. Rainfall in the Ottawa River basin that April — all 159 millimetres of it —was the highest it had been in 125 years according to the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board.
That, combined with a significant snow melt, produced enough river water to flood thousands of homes in Quebec and more than 500 residences in Ottawa.
Now, here we are again, with flood waters approaching and, in some areas exceeding, the levels of 2017. And this, a scant seven months after a series of tornadoes ripped through the capital region.
By Jenn Pritchard, 1310 News, April 24, 2019
Ottawa's council is facing a big decision on Wednesday, that could impact future generations.
They'll be voting on whether or not to declare a climate emergency in the city of Ottawa.
The motion was passed at the city's Environmental Protection, Water and Waste Management meeting on April 16 with a vote of six to two in favour.
It includes eight recommendations but those could be broken up when council discusses the motion on Wednesday.
By 1310 News, April 24, 2019
The City of Ottawa has officially declared a climate emergency.
It isn't the same as declaring a state of emergency in the city, but the declaration is expected to hold council more accountable when it comes to making decisions which could affect the environment.
Most councillors around the table, including the mayor, supported the motion at Wednesday's council meeting.
Bay ward's Theresa Kavanaugh said this generation has made a mess of the environment, so this will allow city council to make it a better place for future generations.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, April 24, 2019
Canada’s capital city, which has been fighting rising river waters in its outlying communities, declared a climate emergency on Wednesday.
Ottawa’s city council voted overwhelmingly to make the declaration as a way to show how serious the municipality is about protecting people from the impacts of climate change.
It was a big win — and a somewhat surprising one — for Coun. Shawn Menard, who first brought the proposal for a climate-emergency declaration to the environment committee last week. On a council that doesn’t care much for making symbolic gestures, Menard managed to push through a motion that won over most of council’s leadership.
Councillors who voted in favour of the climate emergency seem to like that the declaration also comes with actions.
However, it’s likely that many council members followed the lead of the environment committee chair, Coun. Scott Moffatt, who worked with Menard on crafting a winnable motion.