By CFRA News, July 13, 2017
The City of Ottawa still can’t hit the brakes on Quebec drivers caught by red light cameras.
In the first five months of this year, 1,750 tickets were not issued to Quebec drivers for red light camera violations because the city doesn’t have a system in place to go after out-of-province offenders.
The Ontario Government granted municipalities the power to go after out of province offenders for traffic violations in January, 2016.
By Julie Ireton, CBC News Ottawa, July 13, 2017
More than eight months after fire destroyed a flea market near Smiths Falls, Ont., the wells of a dozen nearby residents were poisoned with dangerous toxins, and questions still swirl about the regulation of firefighting foam commonly used to smother flames.
The Rideau Valley Marketplace — and everything inside — burned to the ground shortly after 5 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2016. Through his front room window across Highway 43, Cory Read captured the destruction on video. Read, his wife, Elyse Smith, who was six months pregnant, and the couple's four-year-old daughter watched as firefighters from several rural departments struggled to contain the spreading flames.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 13, 2017
Hydro dams are often blamed for the demise of eels in the Ottawa River, but a group of researchers has been trying to figure out a way to provide them a safe passage upstream.
About 98 per cent of the eel population has vanished from the Ottawa waterway over the years, making the slimy, slithering fish an endangered species. Turbines within the dams created a major barrier for eels as they travel upstream — they would either trapped or chopped up along their journey. The Canadian Wildlife Federation and the Ottawa Riverkeeper worked with Energy Ottawa to install new sets of turbines that create safe passage channels through dams on the Ottawa River, including the one at Chaudière Falls.
By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, July 12, 2017
In the latest twist in light rail expansion, the city has agreed to bring the train just a bit closer to Riverside South.
That’s a small improvement for residents, but the city’s Trillium Line extension still falls well short of its logical destination, uses diesel technology that is out of synch with the rest of the system, will require a transfer where it meets the main line, costs $535 million and will serve relatively few additional passengers.
One has to wonder why the extension of the old O-Train line is worth doing at all.
Riverside South was planned as a rail-transit suburb, a forward-looking idea. The city planned to send rail into the so-called town centre to spur commercial and residential growth. That plan was abandoned in 2006 after councillors finally figured out that serving the small suburb shouldn’t be their top rail priority.
By Allison Hanes, Ottawa Citizen, July 13, 2017
Seven dead North Atlantic right whales were found floating in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this summer, a catastrophe for a species with a population of only 525.
Necropsies so far performed on three of the seven indicate two died of blunt force trauma, probably the result of collisions with vessels in the busy shipping lanes, while one died after becoming entangled in fishing gear.
The deaths are a tragedy that could mean the difference between survival and extinction for this critically endangered marine mammal. But whether this kind of news brings you to tears or elicits an indifferent shrug, there are even more compelling reasons to care about the fate of these majestic and rare creatures. What happens to the whales may foretell what happens to our own species, human beings.
By Kieran Delamont, Ottawa Metro News, July 10, 2017
If you’ve been outside in Ottawa at any point in the first weeks of July, you have probably noticed a recurring theme in the city’s weather patterns: rain, and lots of it.
In recent months, Ottawa has seen an uncharacteristic amount of precipitation. The stretch of rain started in earnest in April, when the city received 147.6 mm of rain—at that point the city’s rainiest month since 2013.
An abundance of April showers did not bring May flowers, though. Just more May showers. May saw 176.8 mm of rain—the wettest month since July 2009, and the ninth-wettest month ever recorded in Ottawa.
By Ryan Tumilty, Ottawa Metro News, July 11, 2017
The city’s LRT contractors will face no penalty for missing the deadline to clear up downtown for Canada Day.
When thousands of Canadians descended on Ottawa for Canada Day earlier this month, the hoarding constructions signs and road closures downtown were all supposed to be gone.
The aboveground work on the $2.1-billion Confederation Line LRT was supposed to be wrapped up in time for Canada Day. As originally planned, visitors would be walking along Queen and Rideau streets downtown unencumbered by all the work taking place underneath their feet.
By CFRA News, July 10, 2017
The cost of produce at your local farmers market could soon be going up.
Some Ontario fruit and vegetable farmers say the price of their produce could rise as much as 12 per cent when the government raises minimum wage in the province to $15 dollars come January 1st, 2019.
Miller's Bay Farm in Smiths Falls employs anywhere from 20 to 25 people during the Spring and Summer and by law, every employee must be paid at least minimum wage. Owner Shannon Miller said increasing salaries from $11.40 to $15 dollars will come at a significant cost.
By CTV News Ottawa, July 11, 2017
Bayswater Avenue in Ottawa's CivIc Hospital neighbourhood has new lower city standard speed humps.Crews paved in the new lower humps today.
CTV Ottawa reported last week that higher speed humps on Bayswater installed last October were 30 mm above the city standard.
Bayswater residents from Beech Street to Sherwood Drive were sent notices from the city to inform them of the mix-up.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 10, 2017
The ducks were lucky. The truck driver, not so much.
A Vineland, Ont., transport truck driver has been charged with performing an unsafe move after his vehicle swerved off Highway 401 to avoid hitting a family of ducks.
The crash happened around 9:40 a.m. Monday just east of Prescott, Ont, before the Highway 416 on-ramp.
By Olivia Blackmore, Ottawa Citizen, July 10, 2017
A public consultation about the implementation of new flood zone designations in Quebec got off to an early start when Guillaume Carle, national grand chief of the Confederation of Indigenous people of Canada, addressed the hundreds of people who filled the Palais des congrès Gatineau Monday night.
“It’s Hydro Québec that flooded us — the city of Gatineau knew it and did not warn us,” he told the crowd. “They have an obligation to protect us.”
“The premier of Quebec lied to us — we heard the premier tell us on TV that he wouldn’t force anyone to move from their homes.”
By Marina Von Stackelberg, CBC News Ottawa, July 9, 2017
Ontario's major turtle trauma centre is declaring a state of emergency after taking in nearly 600 injured turtles this year.
The hospital at the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre is bursting with the number of turtles it's trying to rehabilitate.
Turtle surgeon Sue Carstairs spends most of her days operating on dozens of turtle shells that have been crushed by cars.