Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Reevely: Embrace the cold and make Ottawa a 'winter city'

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, December 28, 2017

This is a tough sell when the health unit is warning about losing fingers to frostbite, but Ottawa can and should do more to embrace winter rather than resisting it.

We do a lot already. We piled into the Crashed Ice downhill-skating competition last March in such numbers that crowd-control was a problem. We packed the outdoor stands at Lansdowne for a snowy Grey Cup and again a couple of weeks later for a frigid Sens-Habs outdoor hockey game. Last New Year’s Eve, thousands of people stood in blowing snow to see fireworks shooting off from behind Parliament.

After increase in assaults, bus union pushes for protective shields for Transpo drivers

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, December 29, 2017 Pointing to an increase in assaults on OC Transpo workers this year, bus drivers are renewing their call for protective shields. Clint Crabtree, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279, said Transpo has notified him of more than 100 assaults so far in 2017, compared to 87 assaults in 2016.

“I am at the point where I just feel it’s unacceptable,” Crabtree said in an interview. “People need to be going home to their families without being assaulted at work.”

NOTEBOOK: Updates to mixed-use development at 195 Huntmar

By Glen Gower, StittsvilleCentral, December 26, 2017

Shenkman/Cavanagh have submitted a revised Plan of Subdivision  to the City of Ottawa for a major mixed use development on their land at 195 Huntmar Drive. The new plans will be presented at a public meeting scheduled for January 10.

The property at 195 Huntmar is an oddly-shaped parcel of land that extends west from Huntmar Drive around the existing police station, and north to Palladium.  The existing community of Fairwinds is directly to the south.  The 135.7-acre (54.9 hectare) property is mostly farm fields, brush and trees.

Top 5 issues at city hall for 2017

By Jennifer McIntosh, Ottawa Community News, December 27, 2017

(...)Light rail line to start late:

Whether or not a sinkhole is to blame, the Confederation Line won’t be ready by the date in the contract with Rideau Transit Group.

(...)City picks out location for central library:

Another megaproject was the proposed central library. Council picked a location at Lebreton Flats that raised the ire of some area councillors — including Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney and Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum.

“The Centretown neighbourhood is among the densest in all of Ottawa; more than 23,000 people live within a kilometre of the current site at Laurier and Metcalfe,” McKenney wrote in the co-authored letter to residents. “How that population can be served by a new location within walking distance will therefore be an important criterion.”

Environment Canada says long-lasting cold wave unusual for this time of year

By Peter Rabobowchuk, CTV News Ottawa, December 27, 2017

Environment Canada says it's not about how cold it is, but how long this wave of frigid air will stay around that's unusual.

Meteorologist Alexandre Parent said Wednesday the big chill is affecting the Prairies, Ontario and western Quebec and was to spread into the Maritimes.

But Nova Scotia was already dealing with a winter weather system that snapped hydro poles and knocked out electricity for thousands.

Windchill -40: Gatineau is much, much colder than Ottawa today

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Sun, December 27, 2017

It’s cold in Ottawa. But Gatineau is just plain ridiculous.

Gatineau’s weather station reported that the air on the Quebec side of the river was colder than Ottawa’s air by an amazing 8.6 degrees on Wednesday morning.

At 8 a.m. it was -24.1 C in Ottawa and -32.7 C in Gatineau.

Both figures are pure temperature, without including wind chill. With the windchill, in Gatineau it felt like -40.

There's cold. There's really cold. And then there's today.

By Megan Gillis, Ottawa Sun, December 28, 2017

Environment Canada has issued an “extreme cold warning” and Ottawa Public Health has a frostbite warning in effect until further notice.

“A period of very cold wind chills is expected,” the weather agency warned, surprising no one with a face.

“Wind chills will moderate during daytime hours today. However, wind chill values between minus 30 and 35 are expected again tonight.

Reevely: NCC's starting to flood the canal, Ottawa's best thing

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, December 27, 2017

The National Capital Commission’s crews have begun flooding the Rideau Canal to thicken the ice and smooth it for skating.

We’ve had a couple of crummy skating seasons in a row: the shortest and the second-shortest ever. Maybe this year breaks the pattern, though as always, any speculation on when the first civilians might go out for a twirl is irresponsible.

Earthquake shakes area near Maniwaki

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, December 28, 2017

A pre-dawn earthquake rumbled through the area north of Maniwaki Thursday, which is part of the same geological neighbourhood as Ottawa and Gatineau.

It had a magnitude of 4.1 (an earlier estimate said 4.2), which is enough for people to feel but unlikely to cause damage to buildings.

The earthquake at 3:51 a.m. was centred 85 kilometres north of Maniwaki, near the Cabonga Reservoir. It was 18 kilometres deep.

Yes, Ottawa, it's a polar vortex again

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, December 27, 2017

You can now officially blame a polar vortex for Ottawa’s frigid temperatures.

But wait, what’s a polar vortex?

Most of Canada has a blanket of cold air that has pushed its way down from the Arctic, where it spends much of the year going around in circles (that’s the “vortex” part) and not bothering us at all.

Developer sued for cutting down trees won't pay up

By Susan Burgess, CBC News Ottawa, December 22, 2017

The builder who scaled down a contentious 27-bedroom development in Old Ottawa South earlier this week has unfinished business with neighbours of another intensification project in Centretown.

Years before Jordan Tannis began work at 177 Hopewell Ave., he converted 186 James St. from a tri-plex to a 10-unit building. At the time, a group called Friends of James and Bay sprung up to oppose his effort to provide fewer parking spaces than would normally be required in such a development.

Tannis won that fight at City Hall, but he lost another one in court when the owners of three townhouses next door successfully sued him for chopping down three mature trees without their permission.

Ottawa sewage overflow in 2017 even more than future tunnel could handle

By Darren Major, CBC News Ottawa, December 23, 2017

A year of heavy rainfall led to the release of more than two billion litres of untreated sewage into the Ottawa River this year, far more than even a storage tunnel being constructed to mitigate the problem could have handled.

This year about 2.1 billion litres — enough to fill nearly 850 Olympic-sized swimming pools — was dumped into the river from the City of Ottawa, according to the city's data.

• Sewage tunnel dig to begin later this fall under Kent Street

• Ottawa River full of untreated sewage during May flooding

Annual overflow numbers have been decreasing in the last decade, according to Scott Laberge, the city's wastewater collection program manager. But due to an abnormal amount of rainfall, this year's overflow numbers increased dramatically, he said.