This won't be another winter with robins

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Sun, December 18, 2017

The robins that stayed in Ottawa all last winter have done the sensible thing instead this year.

Ottawa’s annual Christmas Bird Count confirmed it this weekend: While thousands upon thousands of robins survived our winter a year ago, there are almost none here this winter. Birder Bruce Di Labio was out all day Sunday and saw one.

Maybe the robins saw what happened to the black-throated gray warbler, a southwestern bird that flew into Ottawa by mistake this winter. It froze last week.

Today's letters: Fair wages, fair taxes, free transit and F-18s

By Michael Chelsea, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, December 17, 2017

Free transit frees us all

Re: Letter, Do away with public transit fares, Dec. 13.

Consider these benefits to free urban public transit. With fewer cars on the road, there will be reduced costs in the areas of auto insurance, medical care, policing and the courts. Fewer cars will mean less fuel use, less pollution, and reduced demand for additional roads.

Free urban transit will mean many two-car families can go to one car, and some to no car, saving in the region of $9,000 per year per car (source: CAA). As the letter-writer says, free urban transit will be a tourist draw. Inveterate car users will complain about paying for something they don’t use, but their reward will be less traffic congestion.

Snowy owl's return to Ottawa may hold clues to Arctic changes

By Amanda Pfeffer, CBC News Ottawa, December 16, 2017

Bird watchers — steady your binoculars; Hardscrabble has returned.

The four-year-old snowy owl has picked a corn field in the Ottawa Valley for a second winter in a row and with his arrival comes a potential treasure trove of information.

That's because — like a satellite emerging from the dark side of a moon — Hardscrabble has returned to the land of cellular towers from the Arctic — and the electronic transmitter strapped to his back is about to send a major data dump about where he's been since last spring.

Privatization of Hydro One shields millions in green-energy spending from public scrutiny

By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen, December 14, 2017

The privatization of Ontario’s largest power utility has left the province with a major blind spot: The public is no longer able to scrutinize millions of dollars consumers are paying for green energy.

It’s a situation that shows “nobody is minding the store” when it comes to keeping track of much of Ontario’s solar energy production, one expert says.

At the heart of the issue is a simple question: Are energy producers who are paid to feed the Ontario grid with solar power being given an opportunity to milk the system?

Today's letters: Wage hikes, transit fares and the CBC

By Andrew Hartshorn, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, December 13, 2017

Do away with public transit fares

Re: Here’s why OC Transpo should worry about Uber, Dec. 8.

I enjoyed Tyler Dawson’s report on OC Transpo fares and passenger woes. So for the third time in 10-plus years, I am going to make the same proposal.

I understand that almost half of each fare is subsidized by the taxpayers of the region. But it represents quite a small part of the tax bill. Why not double the amount taxpayers pay, and make all travel on OC Transpo free? This will increase ridership, guaranteed; and reduce vehicles on the roads.  And to all the taxpayers who moan at the extra charge, ride the bus. Tourists would welcome the idea too.

McLeod: Transpo's electronic fare card system is not the ticket for low-income riders

By Jonathan McLeod, Ottawa Sun, December 13, 2017

OC Transpo has got rid of bus tickets. No more can you pop down to the corner store to grab a sheet of colourful little paper tokens before hopping on the bus.

The last of the paper tickets were sold in November. If you still have some, they can be used up until April 30, 2018. After that, they’re worthless.

At first blush, this seems to make sense. It’s the digital age and we’ve got the Presto system, which works — most of the time. (Some of the time? A lot of the time? Look, just go with me on this.) So in our ultra-modern time, we should just use Presto rather than fumbling with tiny pieces of paper.

It’s easier. It’s cheaper. There’s less waste. What’s not to like?

Ontario offering thousands in rebates for energy-efficient home renovations

By Andrea Janus, CBC News Ottawa, December 13, 2017

The province will offer thousands of dollars in rebates for homeowners who opt for energy-efficient renovations, including windows and insulation, the Ontario government said Wednesday. The announcement was well-timed, happening on a day that the temperature dipped well below zero.

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Chris Ballard and Parminder Sandhu, chair of the Green Ontario Fund, announced the new measures at the MaRS Discovery District Wednesday morning.

Boil water advisory lifted for Hawkesbury, L'Orignal, Vankleek Hill

By CBC News Ottawa, December 13, 2017

A boil water advisory issued to residents in Hawkesbury, Vankleek Hill and L'Orignal earlier this week has been lifted.

On Sunday night, a water filtration plant in Hawkesbury, Ont., flooded leading to boil water advisories in the three towns in eastern Ontario. The flood caused significant pressure loss and the plant was unable to filter water for the approximately 13,500 businesses and residences it serves.

Johnson: City budget – Ottawa still lags on climate action

By Ken Johnson, Ottawa Citizen, December 13, 2017

The city of Ottawa lags on investment in energy conservation and climate action. When the city’s 2018 budget is finalized this week,  the city’s renewable energy strategy, Energy Evolution, is set to again be under-resourced.

With a goal to be the greenest city in the world by 2020, Vancouver is actively working to reduce its carbon footprint by 33 per cent. Montreal has just boosted its carbon reduction target from 25 per cent  to 35 per cent —by 2020.

Winter is bad news for birds that forgot to fly south

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, December 13, 2017

This week’s cold and snow will likely kill off many of the birds that stayed around for Ottawa’s warm autumn, a leading birder says.

“There are a lot of late lingering birds still around,” said birder Bruce Di Labio. On Monday he photographed a black-throated grey warbler — a little songbird that somehow took a wrong turn from its home in the southwestern United States. It should have flown south, and now it’s too late.

“I was able to get about four feet from it,” Di Labio said. “It just sat there a foot above the ground, tight against this little tree. You could see it shivering and then it just closed its eyes in the sunlight, obviously trying to heat up.

Reevely: City treasurer finds surprise $10M, potholes get fixed, Watson reminds renegade councillors who's in charge

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, December 13, 2017

Ottawa’s potholes will get an extra $10 million worth of fixes next year, Ottawa taxpayers won’t have to pay an extra infrastructure levy to cover the cost, and Mayor Jim Watson got to show a group of eight rebellious city councillors on Wednesday what happens when they cross him.

All thanks to several million dollars the city’s finance department found in city hall’s couch cushions last week, just in time for the final vote on the city government’s 2018 budget.

The usually mannered debate over the city budget turned nasty late last week, when those eight councillors, led by Kitchissippi’s Jeff Leiper and Gloucester-Southgate’s Diane Deans, shared publicly a plan to hike taxes 2.5 per cent instead of two per cent. The $8 million that would raise would be dedicated to fixing Ottawa’s crumbling roads and sidewalks.

Where the wild things are…

By StittsvilleCentral, December 11, 2017

StittsvilleCentral.ca reader Kathleen Edwards Tweeted us this photo from a recent walk along the Trans Canada Trail, west of West Ridge Drive:

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