By Saif Kaisar, 1310 News, June 29, 2018
Ottawa Fire Services has issued a burn ban for the city, effective today.
Even those who have open air fire permits will be prohibited from burning brush piles or using fire barrels this Canada Day weekend.
However, recreational campfires and fireworks are permitted.
By Carly Stagg, CBC News, June 28, 2018
Canadians in major urban areas are largely in favour of separated bike lanes, a new poll suggests — but that doesn't mean they want those lanes built where they live.
How you feel about bike lanes — whether there are too many or not enough, if they should be separated, and who's to blame in cyclist/driver conflict — all heavily depend on where you live, how you commute and how old you are, suggests the new public opinion poll by the Angus Reid Institute released Thursday.
"Cities in this country are undergoing as profound a change in terms of how different modes of transportation share the road as we've seen in 100 years — probably since between the time people who were driving horses with buggies were sharing the road with nascent drivers in these newfangled things called cars," said Shachi Kurl, the executive director of the Angus Reid Institute.
Here’s something we all know: there are many types of farms. While that, in itself, is interesting, what’s even more fascinating is the “why?”.
Why farm this instead of that? Why “living things”? Why “growing things”? Why both?
Is it first and foremost a business; for profit?
Is it a hobby?
For Patrick Lalonde and Eleni Corbeil, the answer is the original one: they farm to live off the land as much as possible.
Lalonde represents the third generation of family members to own the farm, located on a beautiful piece of land near the shores of the Ottawa River, in L’Orignal.
By Francis Tessier Burns, The Review, June 27, 2018
Why does Prescott-Russell need a transit system?
“One of the big challenges is that people feel isolated,” says Pierre Leroux, the chair of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell’s economic development committee.
The UCPR was recently awarded $2 million from the province to develop two transportation programs within the region. The majority of those funds, $1.5 million, will go towards developing an inter-municipal transit system while the rest will go towards a transportation program dedicated to vulnerable individuals.
By Isaac Olson, CBC News, June 27, 2018
Quebec's upgraded distracted driving laws go into effect Saturday, impacting not just motorists but cyclists and mobility scooter users as well.
Motorists will face substantially heftier fines if they are caught with a portable electronic device — be it a cell phone, tablet or music player — in their hands. Subsequent offences within a two-year period will lead to an immediate licence suspension.
Meanwhile, cyclists will risk fines of $80 to $100 if they are caught handling their electronic device or wearing headphones. Mobility scooter users face fines of $30 to $60 for the same offences.
By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, June 27, 2018
It was a newsy four hours at City Hall Wednesday, as council scrolled through a laundry list of items in its second-last meeting before the summer break.
(...)Here are some of the other issues council dealt with Wednesday:
(...)Tomlinson — the company that is the subject of a damning city auditor's report — said in a letter to city manager Steve Kanellakos that it will pay to clean up the site contamination, including contamination of the groundwater, at the Springhill Landfill in the former Osgoode township.
(...)Council voted unanimously in favour of spending $600,000 on an environmental assessment for an LRT extension to Barrhaven, which would largely replace the bus-rapid transit system there and connect to the future Baseline station planned in the second phase of the city's LRT plan.
By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, June 27, 2018
Hydro Ottawa delivered $21.9 million in dividends last year to the City of Ottawa, the utility's sole owner.
Hydro Ottawa's latest annual report was presented at city council Wednesday, where it announced the city's dividend. Most of the money will go toward the city's general revenue, but council decided to earmark $1 million to fix potholes and $633,000 for eight energy-efficiency projects, including a pilot to install Canada's first fast-charging station for electric cars.
Jim Durrell, a former mayor of Ottawa and current chair of Hydro Ottawa, said dividends paid to the city do not come from the rates paid by customers.
Instead, the money is from other revenue-generating projects, such as money raised by the Chaudière Falls power plant.
By the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, June 26, 2018
The City of Gatineau is pushing aggressively for its own light-rail transit system. Good: Until that goal is achieved, Gatineau’s bus-only transit will be out of synch with Ottawa’s new LRT.
Gatineau wants to build a 26-kilometre rail line at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion. It hopes to use the Alexandra and Prince of Wales bridges to cross the Ottawa River and connect with our LRT. This would be a huge step forward for the thousands of Ontarians and Quebecers who commute interprovincially. But it’s far from a done deal.
The first challenge is money. In the past, Gatineau has been overlooked by separatist governments, because, well, it was too federalist. It was neglected by federalist governments because, well, it was already federalist. But now, Gatineau has the timing right to press its case, with a Quebec election this fall and a federal election in 2019. Politicians are in promise mode.
By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 2018
It is difficult to persuade consumers to buy a product they don’t want, but that doesn’t stop government and its agencies from trying to jumpstart the electric car industry. The Ontario government has been throwing subsidies at electric cars since 2010, with its latest program offering up to $14,000 in rebates. It also spent $20 million installing public charging stations. Despite that, electric cars make up about one per cent of sales.
The provincial subsidy is almost certain to end under the new Progressive Conservative government, but that hasn’t dented the enthusiasm of the folks at Hydro Ottawa. They are about to roll out a new program that will subsidize electric car chargers for 100 lucky Ottawans.
These chargers cost $1,295, but thanks to a federal government grant, Hydro can offer them at 40 per cent off. The local power company will look after rebate applications and connect participants with licensed installers, but home owners will still have to pay an installation fee of about $1,000.
By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 2018
A traffic blitz aimed at ensuring drivers were leaving enough space between themselves and cyclists changed into a blitz on distracted drivers Wednesday afternoon.
Police were using a bicycle with equipment that can detect whether a passing car is leaving one metre between itself and a cyclist and rode the bike in and around downtown Ottawa streets.
However, the covert bicycle cop noticed drivers texting or looking at their cellphones while in transit, which quickly led to a flurry of distracted driving charges being laid instead.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 2018
The city’s largest union is defending the in-house garbage collection contracts after a recent audit revealed another deficit in the trash pickup budgets.
CUPE Local 503 president Brian Madden wrote to council this week underscoring the benefits of having the downtown collection zone as an in-house operation.
“Keeping (the downtown zone) in-house has allowed the city to exercise greater immediate control over waste collection services in this difficult to service area,” Madden wrote in a letter.
By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 2018
The Bluesfest killdeer have scored a backstage pass.
Biologists finished moving the “bluesnest” early Wednesday morning, dragging it metre by painstaking metre to a new location out of harm’s way at the rear of the festival’s main stage. The move, which began Tuesday night and resumed at dawn Wednesday, was “textbook perfect,” according to Monika Melichar, executive director of the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary in Minden, Ont.
“Moving the nest was great. It’s been attempted for other species, but no one’s ever attempted it for killdeer before,” Melichar said.