By Ryan Tumilty, Ottawa Metro News, September 20, 2017
Senators and Canada’s Transport Minister were moved to the back seat Wednesday, as an autonomous vehicle took them around Parliament Hill.
The shuttle bus vehicle came to the hill as senators continue to examine the autonomous vehicle industry and what rules might need to be in place before driverless cars could be on Canadian roads.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the quick trip around Parliament was interesting.
By Laura Osman, CBC News Ottawa, September 20, 2017
Multi-million-dollar payouts to settle lawsuits stemming from the fatal crash between an OC Transpo bus and a Via Rail train in September 2013 could push Ottawa's transportation department into deficit by the end of the year, general manager John Manconi said Wednesday.
As CBC reported Tuesday, the city has so far paid out $8 million to settle 31 legal claims related to the crash, in which six people died and many more were injured. Eight lawsuits remain unsettled.
"We've maxed out on our base budget in terms of insurance claims," Manconi told the city's transit commission. "That could cause us to get into a deficit.
By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, September 20, 2017
Openness and transparency are the motherhood and apple pie of politics. It would be tough to find a person on Ottawa city council who didn’t support the concept. And yet, the city is doing worse than it used to when it comes to keeping taxpayers informed.
Those with an interest in the city’s green bin and recycling programs have just been told Ottawa’s performance in waste diversion is below the provincial average and far behind the leading cities in the province. We didn’t find that out from the city, though. That information is courtesy of a grassroots group called Waste Watch Ottawa. The group got the figures by crunching numbers supplied to a provincial agency.
By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen, September 20, 2017
A company once hailed as the future in waste management for the City of Ottawa is trying to re-establish itself as a player in the green energy industry after burning through more than $300 million in its unsuccessful first attempt.
Plasco is trying to make a comeback.
Now calling itself Plasco Conversion Technologies Ltd., the company is taking a new approach to its business and is differentiating itself from its earlier days as Plasco Energy Group Inc.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, September 20, 2017
Bus riders might be finally fed up with road construction, changed routes and detours affecting transit schedules.
OC Transpo recorded 48 million customer trips in the first half of 2017, which is 1.5 million fewer trips compared to the same period in 2016.
According to Transpo’s tracking system, ridership has remained steady during the traditionally busiest times of day, but it has dropped off in the evening hours.
Is it possible that longtime transit customers are choosing Uber? Are transit customers riding their bikes instead?
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, September 20, 2017
There have been 13 reported cases of West Nile virus in humans in Ottawa so far in 2017 — the most since the virus made its first appearance in Canada in 2001.
Before this summer, the highest number of West Nile cases was eight in 2012, said Ottawa Public Health on Wednesday. But with temperatures at summertime levels over the past week and hot weather predicted into next week, public health officials warn that virus-carrying mosquitoes will continue to bite until there have been several hard frosts.
By Kieran Delamont, Ottawa Metro News, September 19, 2017
The city is revising its measurement of the nitrate levels in the Shadow Ridge well system, which currently serves nearly 500 residents in Greely, after Metro reported that rising toxicity in the well had remained largely unaddressed.
At Tuesday's Environment and Climate Protection Committee meeting, staff corrected their own report which, when released a week earlier, stated that nitrate levels in the well had reached 5.1 mg/L. According to updated figures, the well contains only 4.5 mg/L of nitrates — still within the acceptable limit for safe consumption, but reflecting a steady increase since 2008.
By CBC News Ottawa, September 19, 2017
It's not all trash talk, but one Toronto-area municipality does have some pointers for the City of Ottawa on how to handle its waste diversion program.
The Regional Municipality of York, made up of nine towns and cities north of Toronto, has good reason to — its waste diversion rate is significantly higher than the capital's rate.
A recent report from Waste Watch Ottawa (WWO) showed only 42.5 per cent of Ottawa's residential waste was diverted from a landfill, whereas the province's top performers diverted more than 60 per cent.
And when it comes to large municipalities in Ontario, York Region is at the top of the list. Once the energy produced from burned leftover waste is factored in, the municipality diverts nearly 90 per cent of its waste from the landfill.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, September 19, 2017
Projected increases to the newly structured stormwater fee have some rural politicians livid, with one councillor fearing the city duped residents into settling for the so-called rain tax.
Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt, who heads council’s rural affairs committee, couldn’t mask his frustration during an environment committee meeting on Tuesday as staff presented their proposed 10-year financial plan for water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
The plan calls for annual increases to the stormwater fee between 10 per cent and 13 per cent through 2027.
By CBC News Ottawa, September 18, 2017
Police say they were forced to shoot and kill a moose that had been wandering through Petawawa, Ont., Monday after it charged a conservation officer.
At around 8:30 a.m., officers with the Upper Ottawa Valley Ontario Provincial Police received a report of a bull moose roaming through a local subdivision.
Over the morning, the moose made its way across Petawawa Boulevard, a busy main street, and gradually grew "distressed, exhausted and overheated," OPP said in a release.
By Kieran Delamont, Ottawa Metro News, September 17, 2017
Some residents of Greely are facing rising levels of nitrate in their drinking water as a housing development that the city previously rejected based on threat of contamination gets set to begin construction.
According to the 2016 drinking-water quality-management report, which will go before the city’s environment and climate change committee on Tuesday, the nitrate level in the city-operated Shadow Ridge well system, which serves the Greely area, rose by 27.5 per cent in 2016, reaching 5.1 mg/L — just over halfway to 10 mg/L, at which point the water is considered dangerous to drink.
By CBC News Ottawa, September 17, 2017
It's early in this year's apple harvest, but Claire Taylor already has a bad feeling.
"It's not the best. We've had an awful lot of rain," said Taylor, who's been growing apples at Cannamore Orchard near Crysler, Ont., for nearly three decades.
She isn't the only farmer predicting lower-than-normal yields this year, however.