By CBC News Ottawa, December 11, 2018
The Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) has dismissed two drivers accused of verbal and physical assault.
The agency said it would not get into details because of employee confidentiality, but in a statement to Radio-Canada it confirmed the employees are no longer working there.
Their union said the two drivers had been fired and declined to comment further, as they will represent the drivers in any legal challenge.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, December 10, 2018
Is a proposed 3.5 per cent transit tax increase a sign of things to come?
Expect councillors to ask that and other questions during a meeting Wednesday as council scrutinizes elements of the upcoming municipal budget.
Coun. Stephen Blais, who chaired the transit commission last term, said he wants to know how the proposed transit tax hike is in line with Transpo’s goal of covering 55 per cent of transit costs with fare revenue.
Under the city’s 2019 budget proposal, the transit tax increase would be higher than the 2.5 per cent fare increase scheduled to come into effect next summer.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, December 11, 2018
Mayor Jim Watson has chosen a cabinet of clear allies, while strong-arming those who could present the biggest challenge to his four-year agenda and political future.
The result may be a sharper wedge between inner-urban councillors and the rest of council.
The city’s committees, subcommittees and council appointments all took shape Tuesday at a meeting of the nomination committee. A survey distributed to councillors last week allowed them to state their preferences; and the mayor brought his proposed slate to the committee, which votes and sends the list to council for final approval.
The elephant in the room Tuesday quickly emerged as the lack of urban representation on arguably the most important council committee: the Watson-chaired finance and economic development committee. That’s the committee tasked with major policy oversight for things such as LRT planning, corporate finance and real estate.
Not a single downtown-area councillor will sit on the finance committee if the proposed membership passes at council meeting Wednesday. In fact, of the 11 proposed members of the finance committee to sit with Watson, nine members are either rural or suburban councillors.
By Megan Gillis, Ottawa Citizen, December 11, 2018
“This guy is us, he represents us and we don’t want this to happen to us.”
First responders were called to the scene on the parkway at Onigan Street, which leads to Bell and Lemieux islands, at 6:46 a.m. Dec. 7. Wu was pronounced dead at 7:08 a.m.
The RCMP said Tuesday that they’re continuing to investigate the fatal collision. The force asked motorists to take precautions including driving according to conditions and keeping a safe distance from other road users and warned that “sharing the road is everyone’s responsibility.”
By 1310 News, December 11, 2018
Just as the City of Ottawa's council has been shaken up through the elections, so now have its committees and boards.
New Bay ward councillor Theresa Kavanaugh will take on the newly created role of Council Liaison for Women and Gender Equity.
(...)Keith Egli of Knoxdale-Merivale will chair the Board of Health, Rideau-Goulbourn ward's Scott Moffatt is taking over Environment and Climate Protection, while Kanata North's Jenna Sudds is heading up Community and Protective Services.
By John Michael McGrath, TVO, December 7, 2018
Queen’s Park has shut down until February, but before MPPs headed home, the Progressive Conservative government introduced one final piece of legislation: Bill 66, the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act. Its 12 schedules amend many different existing pieces of legislation relating to everything from farm regulation to labour law. But it also contains a ticking time bomb — one that threatens the Greenbelt, a 7,200-square-kilometre parcel of land that during the election the Tories promised to protect.
Bill 66 would allow municipalities to create “open for business” zoning bylaws (the phrase, a PC party slogan, is thus entrenched in the legislation). These would allow municipalities to bypass numerous existing pieces of legislation. The intent is to attract major employers to the province and allow them to speed through municipal-planning approvals for such developments as factories and office parks — the changes are not intended to speed the development of housing.
By Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen, December 6, 2018
There’s a warm mulled-wine kind of feeling you get whenever you see a friend or family member’s eyes light up after opening a gift you’ve given, and it’s clear you chose the perfect sweater/book/bottle/widget.
But what if you could also make ANOTHER person — a neighbour — just as exultant with that same holiday gift without lifting another mittened finger? Now wouldn’t that be one swell season?
It’s easier than you think.
By buying locally produced gifts, you are effectively doubling the volume of cheer bubbling throughout the region, bringing mirth and merriment to both Uncle Harry AND the woman in Perth who made the Butter Tart Moonshine that he’ll soon be pleasantly sloshed on. And, why, with that much joy bundling down our snowy streets, there’ll be no call anymore to add Zoloft to your figgy pudding. Everybody wins (except maybe Pfizer).
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, December 7, 2018
The City of Ottawa wants to hike the transit levy on property tax bills by 3.5 per cent next year, more than what it had expected in a long-range funding plan for transit services.
A budget report published Friday ahead of a council meeting next Wednesday recommends the 3.5-per-cent transit levy increase because 2019 will be a “transition year,” considering the anticipated launch of the Confederation Line LRT.
It was only in March 2017 that council received a long-range financial plan for transit that said transit-specific taxes and fares would increase each year by 2.5 per cent.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, December 7, 2018
The City of Ottawa has extended the length of its garbage collection contracts as it tries to determine how the Ontario Progressive Conservative government’s recent environment plan will impact an updated municipal waste strategy.
A new waste strategy will inform the city’s requirements for garbage collection in the next contracts.
Marilyn Journeaux, the city’s director of solid waste services, said the collection contracts had provisions for two one-year extensions. The city has picked up an extension; the contracts won’t expire until May 31, 2020.
By CBC News Ottawa, December 7, 2018
RCMP have identified the cyclist killed in a crash on the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway as Junfeng Wu of Ottawa.
Wu, 40, died when he was struck by a Capital Taxi van at the the intersection at Onigam Street, which stretches from the parkway to nearby Lemieux Island on the Ottawa River, around 6:45 a.m. Friday.
There was extensive damage to the vehicle's front driver side.
(...)"From early indications from witnesses, the cyclist was travelling in the east quadrant of the intersection northbound across Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway," said Cpl. John Graziano with RCMP traffic services.
He said the taxi was travelling westbound on parkway. RCMP aren't indicating who was at fault in the collision, or if charges will be laid.
By James Morgan, The Review, December 5, 2018
An update on Québec’s first outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was the topic of a public information meeting held in Pointe-au-Chêne last Thursday evening.
A previous session was held in Grenville in October, soon after the disease was found in a herd of domestic red deer, believed to be on a farm in Boileau.
The Pointe-au-Chêne session was more controlled than the earlier meeting, which had often turned raucous with shouting from the audience at the officials who were speaking.
By Louise Sproule, The Review, December 7, 2018
The Quebec Superior Court has refused Canada Carbon’s request to split the court’s judicial review into two components – one to deal with the proposed graphic mine project and the second, to deal with the proposed marble quarry.
On December 5, Judge Benoit Moore ruled against the request.
Canada Carbon says its attorneys are currently analyzing the judgment and that the company is giving serious consideration to the possibility of filing an application for leave to appeal this decision to the Court of Appeal.