By Linda Murphy, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, August 29, 2018
(...)Trash fight not Ottawa’s alone
Re: City under pressure to sell public on using green bins, Aug. 27
Every time I see an article on this topic I see ‘red’ not ‘green’!
The Orgaworld contract has been poorly negotiated from the start, but there doesn’t seem to be much coordination across city departments on the topic of green waste either.
By Thomas Brawn, Ron Hunt and Morgan Duchesney, Ottawa Citizen letters to the Editor, September 1, 2018
(...)We need more than critics
I am no fan of oil. We should have stopped burning it decades ago. Given the problems it creates for the poorest of the poor in this world it is immoral to continue on this reckless path. But no one is listening to the minority of common sense thinkers I am part of.
(...)Trashy approaches to a real problem
Re: Garbage not a big issue with voters, mayor says
I couldn’t disagree more. Along with the horrible condition of our roads, the mismanagement of our waste removal system drives me to distraction!
(...)Ford latest to silence climate scientists
Like Stephen Harper and Donald Trump, Doug Ford has chosen to silence government scientists who might shed light on climate change. Were these researchers to deny the human role in catastrophic weather events; Ford would spare no effort to broadcast their findings.
By Taylor Bleweth, Ottawa Citizen, September 1, 2018
A local builder and a neighbourhood community association both agree that a historic, wooded property at 21 Withrow Ave. in Nepean would make a great park — but the question of whether it’s possible is where they don’t see eye-to-eye.
At a rally Friday, Theberge Homes president Joey Theberge and City View Community Association president Joan Clark discussed, very cordially, the future of the property in which they’re both deeply invested. The conversation revealed they actually shared a lot of common ground, but they were operating under different assumptions about the park’s future based on conversations with local politicians.
By Jenn Pritchard, 1310 News, August 30, 2018
On Wednesday, council passed plans to have gateway speed signs put up in neighbourhoods across the city.
Councillors will have a chance to review and choose one specific neighbourhood where the speed limit would be lowered to 40 km/hr, every year.
For Barrhaven councillor Jan Harder, that isn't enough.
"I have over 60,000 people, I will not be on this earth by the time I'd be finished putting the speed limit consistently at 40."
By Mike Vlasveld, 1310 News, August 30, 2018
The detour for pedestrians and cyclists on Holland Avenue will officially be changed on Tuesday, September 4.
The revised detour will provide a painted 1.5 m wide cycling lane on each side of Holland Avenue, from Kenilworth Street to Tyndall Street.
Through most of the corridor, this will include a painted 0.5 m buffer between the cycling lane, the travel lane and parked cars.
Flex posts will be installed in the buffer zone to provide visual cues for both drivers and cyclists.
By Eric Brassard, StittsvilleCentral, August 29, 2018
Two students from Paul-Desmarais Catholic High School are behind an extraordinary project this year. What a great way to start the school year!
The idea starts with the 10th grade marketing exam, which was like an environmental Dragon’s Den. The students were assigned to do a project highlighting the needs of the school to educate other students about the environment.
Jessica Nguyen and Sasha Mathieu came out of the pack with an amazing project! The idea was that the school could provide students with bicycles to go around the school, on the Trans-Canada Trail or, if they want, go out for lunch. Students may borrow a bike as a reward for good behavior.
By CBC News Ottawa, August 29, 2018
Premier Doug Ford says the Ontario government will remove the cost of the now-repealed cap-and-trade system from natural gas bills.
Ford says the change means families will save $80 a year and small businesses will save $285 annually.
He says the government has issued a directive to the Ontario Energy Board that will see the price of natural gas reduced by 3.3 cents per cubic metre starting on Oct. 1.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, August 28, 2018
Doug Ford’s Tories are learning that turning half-made-up bluster into real government policy often goes badly.
An Ontario judge has found that the Progressive Conservatives made Tesla a special target in their attack on green subsidies and treated the electric carmaker unfairly when they killed a rebate program for buyers after taking office.
The government arbitrarily made decisions that had no justification under any existing law, and “singled out Tesla for reprobation and harm without (providing) Tesla any opportunity to be heard or any fair process whatsoever,” Judge Frederick Myers of Ontario Superior Court found. Government ministers have a lot of executive authority, but they need to use it for legitimate purposes.
The judge quashed a transition program that gave buyers of other electric cars, but not Teslas, until Sept. 10 to finish their transactions and get rebates of as much as $14,000 for their environmentally friendlier vehicles. The government can absolutely end the rebate program, he emphasized. But it constructed the temporary extension to beat up one company, and it can’t do that.
By Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen, August 30, 2018
In a matter of minutes Wednesday afternoon, a vicious storm ripped through the Campbell family farm near Smiths Falls, downing power lines, ripping posts from fences and destroying two 40-year-old barns on the rural property.
“Picked one up and took it across 15 acres, and I think just twisted up the other one — they’re both totally demolished,” Rob Campbell said. Luckily, no one was on the property at the time, save the cows in the barn that was lifted up, and the horses in the field where its wreckage dropped. They were spooked, but unharmed, he said.
(...)After surveying the wreckage and viewing footage from the Campbell’s security cameras that shows the storm moving through, Ramage said he believes it was a weather phenomenon called a “microburst” that hit the farm just after 1 p.m.
By Carl Meyer, National Observer, August 29, 2019
Picture driving fast down a main street in your town.
You see a green light in the distance, so you step on the gas, expecting to keep going. But as soon as you do that, it turns yellow. You realize you’re not going to make it before the red light, so you brake hard.
You’ve just wasted gas, and created more carbon pollution than you otherwise might have — not to mention put more wear and tear on your brakes — because you didn’t have a sixth sense about when the light was going to change.But what if you could know in advance?
That’s the idea behind a project by the City of Ottawa, to reduce carbon pollution from its own fleet of vehicles by getting traffic lights to send signal data to drivers in advance. Knowing this information helps avoid hard braking and can reduce fuel consumption.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 30, 2018
Ottawa property owners with trees killed by the emerald ash borer may be eligible for up to $500 per tree in subsidized removal and replacement costs.
The South Nation Conservation Authority and the City of Ottawa have partnered to make the offer on a first-come, first-served basis. It covers 50 per cent of the cost of removal and replanting, up to the $500 limit. There’s a limit of $5,000 (10 trees) per landowner.
A certified arborist or registered forester must do the work, and the tree must be a victim of the ash borer in order to qualify for removal.
By Drew May, 1310 News, August 29, 2018
Heather Jeffery is taking Ottawa’s scrap construction material, odds and ends, and unwanted furniture and transforming them into something new.
At her Alta Vista workshop, Jeffery, the owner of Re4m, upcycles what would otherwise go to landfills to create anything from furniture to museum exhibits and unique decorations. Re4m has built signs for stores in the city, tables for Happy Goat Coffee and a fake red Jeep for an exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature
Upcycling, Jeffery said, is taking things that would be throw-out or unused and reviving them.
“Maybe sanding it down, stripping the finish, refinishing it or manipulating it in some way to construct something new,” she said.