Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

West-end councillors weigh in on the year ahead

By Melissa Murray, Ottawa Community News, January 3, 2018

From Christmas miracles in the city’s 2018 budget to traffic, intensification, light-rail transit plans moving forward and a nationwide party, 2017 was full of milestones, ups and downs for west-end councillors.

(...)In Kitchissippi, 2018 will bring the second phase of the Loretta Street rebuild, and Leiper will continue to set money aside for the redevelopment of Laroche Park field house. The year will bring some cycling and traffic improvements to Byron Avenue and pedestrian improvements to the Richmond Road and Churchill Avenue intersection.

(...)But when it came time to pass the budget, she (Catherine McKenna) said it was a disappointment that there wasn’t room for an increase in funding for emerging community service groups, or for more winter maintenance money for the city’s pedestrian plan.

Orléans ski trail pilot project gets $15K boost from city

By CBC News Ottawa, January 3, 2018

Ski enthusiasts dreaming of a cross-country ski trail in Orléans got a $15,000 boost from the city to help make their project a reality.

The group known as Ski Heritage East said the city recently announced it would be funding part of the project, though it falls short of the $40,000 needed to hire a groomer to maintain the trial for the entire season.

• Orléans skiers plot east end's answer to SJAM winter trail

The 8-kilometre trail runs near the Ottawa River from Green's Creek to Trim Road and would be open for for classic skiing, snowshoeing, fat-tire cycling and walking.

Recycling programs in Ontario heading for slow overhaul

By CBC News Ottawa, January 4, 2018

Municipalities in Ontario might be on the hook for recycling the holiday detritus in curbside bins this year, but that will change under new provincial rules to shift responsibility to industry.

Ontario's environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe just wishes the transition would happen faster than the seven years it's currently expected to take.

• Ontario blue box costs and contents to become packagers' concern

"'Polluter pay' is one of the founding principles of environmental law, and Ontario is actually the only place in Canada where the actual producers of packaging have paid so little," said Saxe, speaking on CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.

Gatineau considers following Montreal's plastic bag ban

By CBC News Ottawa, January 4, 2018

The City of Gatineau is floating the idea of adopting Montreal's ban on plastic bags in a bid to be more environmentally friendly.

On New Year's Day, the City of Montreal became the first major Canadian city to ban retailers from using single-use plastic bags. Retailers have until June 5 to rid their stores of their current stock of plastic bags under the new law.

• What you need to know about Montreal's plastic bag ban

Officials in Gatineau are still ironing out details about how it could replicate the new rule, including which kind of bags would be banned and when.

Cold facts update: Great Lakes ice cover is growing fast

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 4, 2018

Winter is upon us and the cold is here to last, with double-digit negative temperatures forecast for the next week. Is there a bright side to any of this? Not really. But we offer the tiniest of silver linings! To accompany this cold snap, we’re running a short-term daily feature: Cold Facts. 

It’s only been a week since we reported that 9.4 per cent of the Great Lakes had frozen over — a fast start, considering that some years they don’t freeze much at all.

One week later that has jumped to 22.7 per cent. That’s more than 55,000 square kilometres of ice, or nearly one-quarter of the lakes’ combined surface area, mostly along shorelines and in bays.

Rideau Canal Skateway to open five-kilometre stretch Friday

By Aedan Helmer, Ottawa Citizen, January 4, 2018

The Rideau Canal Skateway will open its 48th season at 8 a.m. Friday.

The recent cold snap brought with it days of speculation about when the “world’s largest skating rink” would be set to open, with NCC officials pleading with people to remain patient.

Officials ended that speculation Thursday afternoon, announcing a five-kilometre stretch from the Bronson Avenue rest area to Pretoria Bridge — including all of Dow’s Lake — will open at 8 a.m.

How the cold weather could change the wolves of Lake Superior

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Sun, January 2, 2018

Winter is upon us and the cold is here to last, with double-digit negative temperatures forecast for the next week. Is there a bright side to any of this? Not really. But we offer the tiniest of silver linings! To accompany this cold snap, we’re running a short-term daily feature: Cold Facts. 

Lake Superior is showing signs of forming an “ice bridge” from the mainland across to Isle Royale, home of one of the world’s oddest group of wolves.

Lengthy cold snap not long enough for Rideau Canal Skateway

By Marc-André Cossette, CBC News Ottawa, January 2, 2018

It seems the lengthy cold snap that gripped much of the country wasn't long enough for the Rideau Canal to freeze over.

After days of extreme cold warnings and a week of overnight lows that plunged deep into the –20s, crews are still preparing ice to allow skaters to venture out on the 7.8-kilometre-long ice rink.

But despite the bone-chilling temperatures that convinced many revellers to spend their holidays indoors and even cancelled some New Year's Eve events, National Capital Commission (NCC) spokesperson Jean Wolff said Mother Nature hasn't done enough just yet.

What's behind the 'staying power' of the cold air in Ottawa

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 2, 2018

Like the holiday guest who won’t go home, cold air has gripped this region since Boxing Day.

Now we have found out why.

“If you look at it since (December) 26, you have had no weather,” says David Phillips, the senior climatologist at Environment Canada. It turns out he means no stormy weather.

“That’s a key in the staying power of this cold air. Because what kicks it out is a storm, a major weather could come through — an Alberta Clipper or a Saskatchewan Slasher or a Texas Panhandle storm that kicks the cold air out,” he said.

City decides on larger planning advisory committee with more residents, developers

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, December 28, 2017

The City of Ottawa will have a 15-member planning advisory committee, significantly expanding the membership from a previous proposal that overwhelmingly favoured city hall’s inner circle.

Politicians will be joined by development experts and regular citizens on the new committee, which is being forced by the province under amendments to the Planning Act.

One noteworthy change from the city’s original proposal: the mayor won’t have a seat at the advisory committee table.

Cold helping crews thicken skateway ice

By Melissa Murray, Ottawa Community News, December 29, 2017

Every year, within hours of the Rideau Canal Skateway’s opening, hundreds of skaters flock to the ice.

And while the polar vortex hovering over the city helped crews make progress on the surface, as of Dec. 29, more work was still to come.

According to the National Capital Commission’s (NCC’s) senior manager of communications, Jean Wolff, up to Boxing Day, there was just a thin layer of ice forming on the top of the canal.

Heard a loud boom recently? It might have been a frost quake

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Sun, December 29, 2017

Winter is upon us and the cold is here to last, with double-digit negative temperatures forecasted for the next week. Is there a bright side to any of this? Not really. But we offer the tiniest of silver linings! To accompany this cold snap, we’re running a short-term daily feature: Cold Facts. 

Long spells of deep cold bring frost quakes, or cryoseisms. Here’s how they work:

Water saturates the ground and then deep cold makes it freeze. The water expands as it freezes, and pressure builds up until finally a section of frozen earth near the surface cracks suddenly. Sometimes people feel the vibration. Often there’s a loud boom.