Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Work along Rideau Canal to close pathways

By CBC News Ottawa, January 19 2018

Portions of the pathway along the Rideau Canal in downtown Ottawa will be closed throughout January and February for "investigative work," Parks Canada announced Thursday.

The department will inspect the canal's concrete walls as well as subsurface soil conditions, and the information gathered will be used for future repair work in the area, Parks Canada said.

Two sections of the path will be assessed at different times, so they won't be closed simultaneously.

Scientists find link between group of pollutants and health problems in Inuit

By Jimmy Thomson, CBC News Ottawa, January 19, 2018

A new study from the University of Ottawa has found a link between persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and high cholesterol levels among Inuit. The study follows earlier work that found a similar link between the group of chemicals and some kinds of diabetes.

That group of pollutants includes well-known chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticide DDT.

Many have been restricted under the international Stockholm Convention, but, true to the "persistent" part of their name, remain in the environment.

Stay off ice around Rideau Watershed, conservation authority warns

By CBC News Ottawa, January 19, 2018

The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority is raising the alarm about unsafe conditions on rivers and lakes throughout the Rideau Watershed with another thaw predicted this weekend.

Temperatures are expected to climb over the weekend with the possibility of rain in the forecast early next week.

Water levels on some lakes that cannot accommodate melting snow and rain are expected to rise, the conservation authority said in a press release.

Dawson: It's not a Sparks Street problem, it's a downtown problem

By Tyler Dawson, Ottawa Citizen, January 19, 2018

Mayor Jim Watson, bless his soul. “There are no bad ideas,” he said last week about revitalizing Sparks Street.

There absolutely are terrible ideas and we’ll doubtless hear about them as Ottawa tries again to save Sparks. Here’s one: Trying to save Sparks without considering all of downtown.

(...)The problem with Sparks Street is it suffers from the same problem as all of downtown: There just aren’t that many people around and the business district just isn’t that interesting.

If Sparks is to be saved, it’ll require a wholesale change to how Ottawa thinks of downtown, as an area separate from Elgin Street or Chinatown or the ByWard Market.

New trail takes skaters through Metcalfe apple orchard S

By CTV News Ottawa, January 18, 2018

Skaters in Ottawa can now glide through a Metcalfe apple orchard.

The RiverOak Estates Skating Trail officially opens on Saturday, January 20th, but the enchanting experience has unofficially welcomed skaters since December 30th.

"I just love it," said owner Trevor Jamieson. "I've been on the property since I was five or six and I never really thought I'd be skating through the woods like this. It just makes me smile."

Groups opposed to new nuclear licence march in Ottawa

By Julie Ireton, CBC News Ottawa, January 18, 2018

Ole Hendrickson, a former government research scientist, worries that if Canadian Nuclear Laboratories gets the 10-year licence the private consortium wants to keep running the Chalk River nuclear labs in eastern Ontario, approval of a proposed nuclear waste site won't be far behind.

Hendrickson will be among the concerned citizens, Indigenous leaders, environmentalists and former nuclear scientists marching through downtown Ottawa on Thursday, as they deliver their objection to the licence proposal to municipal and federal politicians.

'Insanity' to allow nuclear waste disposal near Ottawa River, Indigenous groups say

By CBC News Ottawa, January 18, 2018

Indigenous groups say a plan to dispose of nuclear waste near the Ottawa River in eastern Ontario is "insanity" and want the federal government to intervene.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a private company, wants a 10-year licence to keep running the Chalk River nuclear labs in eastern Ontario.

• Protest to oppose Chalk River nuclear licence renewal
• Waste disposal site in Chalk River raises concerns

In 2014, the federal government gave Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) control over nuclear operations at Chalk River. The government continues to own the nuclear assets.

Report: Montreal closes outdoor skating rink, partially blames climate change

By Michelle Lalonde (the Gazette), Ottawa Citizen, January 18, 2018

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante confirmed Thursday that recent excavation work on Beaver Lake in Mount Royal Park has rendered the basin too deep to be used safely as a skating rink, so the tradition of skating on it is probably a thing of the past.

While the smaller, refrigerated rink beside Beaver Lake remains open to skaters, Beaver Lake itself, which has been a popular skating destination for Montrealers and tourists since the 1930s, has not reopened for skating this winter and will most probably remain closed for good.

Coyne: You already pay to use roads — just not in a way that would fix traffic congestion

By Andrew Coyne, Ottawa Citizen, January 17, 2018

Well what do you know. The good news in Tuesday’s initial report of Metro Vancouver’s Mobility Pricing Independent Commission, struck last year to come up with ways to relieve the region’s crippling traffic congestion, is not just that it has put mobility pricing — road pricing, tolls, or as the commission calls it, decongestion charging — squarely on the province’s political agenda: it’s that the idea was not dismissed out of hand by political leaders.

(...)Yet point out that a similar consequence has in fact followed from our failure to price roads — the delays and congestion that are everywhere in our major cities — and the instant objection is “affordability.” Never mind that the only people for whom the cost of road pricing would be an issue are those who can afford to buy a car.

Rideau Canal Skateway to open entirely Thursday

By Nicholas Dunne, Ottawa Sun, January 17, 2018

The entire 7.8-kilometre Rideau Canal Skateway will open at 8 a.m. Thursday, according to the National Capital Commission.

After reopening the skateway from Somerset Street to Hartwells Locks Tuesday, the remaining stretch of the canal, which goes up to Rideau Street, will be available for skating.

Wildlife rescuers say Ontario ministry is bullying them, not helping

By Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News Ottawa, January 17, 2018

Some wildlife rescuers in Ontario say they're being bullied and harassed by Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry enforcement officers who know little about wildlife and are too heavy-handed with the rules.

The operators of rescue centres say they are speaking out to shine a light on what they describe as poor treatment by conservation officers. They also say they speak for others who are reluctant to come forward for fear of losing their licence to operate.

LRT deal leaves Westboro 'jewel' open to development

By CBC News Ottawa, January 17, 2018

An Ottawa city councillor is calling for a halt to a deal with the National Capital Commission that would leave what he calls "the best part" of Rochester Field in Westboro open to development.

Under the proposal, which is tied to an agreement with the city to extend light rail farther west, 80 per cent of the NCC-owned property would be retained as open space for public use.

But the proposal, to be heard at next week's planning committee, would rezone the remaining portion of the pistol-shaped field to allow for six-storey mixed-use buildings along Richmond Road, a change that is not sitting well with either neighbourhood groups or the ward's councillor, Jeff Leiper, who accuses planners of rushing the process.