By CBC News Ottawa, January 29, 2018
A boil-water advisory is in place for Montebello, Que., until further notice.
People in the western Quebec municipality, roughly halfway between Gatineau and Montreal, are asked to boil water for five minutes before consuming it.
The municipality said in an online post it has to switch back to its old chlorination system while it finishes its new water-filtration system.
By CBC News Ottawa, January 29, 2018
Just when Ottawa's new light rail system will be up and running remains an open question, but some blind and visually impaired transit users are already raising concerns the trains won't be properly equipped to meet their needs.
City officials will meet Monday evening with the local chapter of the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians to discuss those concerns.
Alliance president Peter Field said the group has already heard about some features of the new train cars that might be difficult for passengers to operate, including buttons to open doors.
By CBC News Ottawa, January 29, 2018
A Senate committee is warning the government that it's not ready for the rise of driverless vehicles and needs to be better prepared to protect Canadians' personal information from hackers and advertisers.
In a 78-page report released Monday, the committee laid out 16 recommendations touching on road safety, cybersecurity and expected job losses as automated and connected vehicles (cars that sync to the internet) become more popular.
The report is meant to guide the Liberal government, which is crafting regulations around self-driving cars.
By the Editor, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2018
(...)For, after 40 meetings and 120 hours of hardball negotiation, the National Capital Commission and RendezVous LeBreton (led by Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk and Trinity Development Group’s John Ruddy), have reached agreement in principle to transfer land to the private consortium so it can begin transforming those barren Flats. This is a real step forward in a discussion that has unfolded not just over the past two years, but over decades – ever since dwellings on the Flats were razed in the 1960s with a promise of better land use to come.
Development, we learned this week, will occur in two phases. The first will include key public-use elements such as the desperately desired NHL arena, a pedestrian walkway and a multi-use “abilities” sports centre for both recreation and rehabilitation. Among optimists – and for now, let’s be optimists – it’s thought construction could begin between 2019 and 2020.
Qantas planes at Sydney Airport on Feb. 26, 2015. (Rick Rycroft / AP)
By Emily Chung, CBC News Ottawa, January 26, 2018
Garbage like disposable diapers, plastic bags and snack wrappers is getting into the ocean and snagging on coral reefs, leading to deadly infections that literally eat the corals alive, a new study suggests.
A four-year survey of 125,000 corals in 150 reefs in the Asia-Pacific region found that corals in contact with plastic debris had an 89 per cent chance of having three nasty diseases:
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 26, 2018
In all the wonder of Gatineau Park, it always struck Gwynneth Evans and Tom Delsey as odd that there was so little information for visitors about what flowers grow beside the trails.
The two friends from Ottawa, both retired from Library and Archives Canada, have spent many years walking and cross-country skiing in the park.
Now, they are nearing the end of a personal project that echoes the private work of many Canadians in past generations: They have made an extensive database of what grows where, with photos, so that visitors will know what flora they are gazing at as they hike, ski or just meander through the park.
By Stephen Uhler, Ottawa Citizen, January 26, 2018
PEMBROKE — Three representatives of Indigenous communities voiced strong objections Thursday at the last session hearings by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission on a proposed 10-year extension to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories operating licence.
The Aboriginal representatives said they never wanted nuclear activities on their territories in the first place, nor were they ever consulted about it.
Patrick Wedaseh Madahbee, Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, told the CNSC panel the nation does not support the extension, saying there has been no meaningful consultation, and they cannot accept the risks associated with the storage and transportation of radioactive waste.
By the Citizen, January 25, 2018
This week’s cold snap means that the Rideau Canal will be back open to skaters — all 7.8 km of it — starting at noon Thursday.
While the wake-up temperature was -17 C that felt more like -28, Thursday’s forecast is for perfect skating weather with mainly sunny skies, a high of -9 C and a low of -12 C.
By CBC News, January 24, 2018
A Stittsville pizza shop owner said he was stunned to learn he can no longer donate his leftover pizzas to the Shepherds of Good Hope.
'This makes me ill thinking of how much food I now have to throw out directly into the garbage.' - Jason Lee, Little Caesars franchise ownerTwice a week for close to four years, staff from the downtown shelter have made the 30-minute drive to the Little Caesars on Stittsville Main Street to pick up the pizzas, franchise owner Jason Lee wrote in a Facebook post. The donations, amounting to about 100 pizzas per week, helped feed about 300 people, Lee claimed.
By CBC News Ottawa, January 24, 2018
Stockholm and other Swedish municipalities have adopted a "gender equal plowing strategy" that prioritizes sidewalks, bike paths and bus lanes ahead of streets frequented by cars when snow falls.
It's an attempt to spend more public dollars on women, who are more likely to travel by foot, bicycle or public transportation.
Also, to reduce the city's carbon footprint by putting emphasis on more environmentally-friendly transportation options.
By Pat McCartney, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, January 24, 2018
(...)Road-use fee would be wasted
Re: You already pay to use roads — just not in a way that would fix traffic congestion, Jan. 17.
Andrew Coyne states that since motorists pay to drive cars, they should be willing to pay to use the roads. Motorists are already paying heavily to use roads: For instance 38.5 per cent of the cost of a litre of gas is taxes.
Then there is the licence fee, and while this fee alone is not a large amount of money, if you multiply it by the number of cars in Ontario it becomes a significant chunk of money. This fee is increased on a regular basis.
