By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, January 24, 2018
Let’s cut to the chase on the latest attempt to “revitalize” the Sparks Street pedestrian mall.
It’s never going to work if the city remains stuck on the idea that all that’s required are more shops and, God help us, government-organized entertainment programming.
This is the same failed approach that has been talked about for decades. Let’s look at it logically.
By Steven Uhler, Ottawa Citizen, January 24, 2018
PEMBROKE — The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission opened the first of three days of public hearings Tuesday on whether to approve a 10-year operating licence renewal to Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, the consortium running Chalk River Labs.
If approved, the licence would stretch until 2028, a period of extreme change, starting with the decommissioning of the NRU reactor April 1.
The commission will wade through 51 verbal presentations and nearly an equal number of written submissions from both sides of the issue, before rendering a decision before the current licence runs out at the end of March.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, January 24, 2018
Rideau Transit Group needs more time to figure out when it can deliver the city’s $2.1-billion LRT system.
The construction consortium had until Wednesday to let the city know when the Confederation Line would be ready. In a mid-afternoon memo, city management told council that RTG wasn’t ready to name a date.
The finance and economic development committee will receive a progress update on Feb. 6. The city wants to give politicians some idea about when OC Transpo can start testing the system ahead of the first customers boarding the electrified rail line.
By Ted Raymond, CFRA News, January 23, 2018
TORONTO -- Ontario transit agency Metrolinx says it has been targeted by a cyberattack that originated in North Korea.
Spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins says no personal information was compromised and systems that operate its trains and buses were not affected.
She says, due to security concerns, she could not comment on when the cyberattack happened or what specifically was targeted.
By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, January 23, 2018
After spending more than two hours hearing from a dozen residents opposed to a proposed development on Rochester Field in Westboro, the City of Ottawa's planning committee voted six to four to allow the construction of two buildings there.
Critics of the proposal say the six-storey buildings that could eventually rise along the field's southern edge will block the only view of the Ottawa River from Richmond Road.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, January 23, 2018
City council’s planning committee on Tuesday accepted a controversial new deal Ottawa bureaucrats have struck with the National Capital Commission over future development in Rochester Field.
Several residents who live near the Westboro greenspace told the committee that the city shouldn’t allow development along the edge of Richmond Road, blocking the view across the field. They called for more consultation.
By Nicholas Dunne, Ottawa Citizen, January 23, 2018
An ammonia spill shut down the Robert Guertin Centre in Gatineau Tuesday and postponed a Gatineau Olympiques game scheduled for the following day.
The arena is home to the Olympiques, who were slotted to play the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
By CBC News Ottawa, January 21, 2018
The township of North Frontenac is turning to a volunteering concept known as "contributionism" to help build community projects and improve the local economy.
Contributionism was coined by South African author Michael Tellinger in his book Ubuntu Contributionism: A World Free of Money.
As the title suggests, rather than being paid for work on community projects, volunteers would instead receive goods and services.
By Jay Walsh, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, January 20, 2018
Make Sparks Street a bikeway
Re: How to animate Sparks Street? Jan. 14.
How about turning the mall into a cycling corridor? You could easily run bike lanes down the centre of the street and leave ample room for sidewalks on either side and for sidewalk cafés in the spring and summer. This would not take anything away from cyclists and it would be a lot safer.
By Trevor Haché, Ottawa Citizen, January 22, 2018
Low-income public transit riders got a gift when Transit Commission Chair Stephen Blais announced that the single-ride EquiPass would be available on Jan. 1, six months early. While elected officials have shown leadership to make public transit more affordable for people living in poverty, further improvements are needed.
In December, after significant community support was voiced for it, Ottawa committed to reducing the cost of a single ride on OC Transpo by 50 per cent. Those who qualify can now take a single ride for $1.75. Qualifying low-income OC Transpo riders can also get a free Presto card, instead of having to pay $6.
By Cassie Aylward, CFRA, January 20, 2018
An Ottawa city councillor took snow-clearing in a bike lane into his own hands Friday night, and says he wants to set an example for the City.
Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper personally shoveled the Armstrong Street and Wellington Street contra-flow bike lane and says it's not part of the city's winter maintained network.
"Every year they don't plow it and every year it fills in with snow that gets plowed into it," he tells CFRA's The Newsfeed. "The entrances to the lane get blocked by big piles of snow."
By CBC News Ottawa, January 20, 2018
The discovery of hazardous material at an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada building on the Central Experimental Farm has forced the building to close.