By Andrew Foote, CBC News Ottawa, April 7, 2017
Municipalities along Highway 401 in eastern Ontario are calling on the province to update its road safety rules in the wake of a massive pileup last month that left a truck driver dead and caused a dangerous chemical spill.
The pileup between Brockville and Kingston on March 14 involved 30 vehicles and shut the major highway for more than a day after fluorosilicic acid spilled from tractor-trailers.
By CBC News Ottawa, April 7, 2017
Maybe it's a bucket with a wonky handle, a computer hard drive with a mysterious malady, or simply a ragged pair of jeans.
Regardless of what needs fixing, the Ottawa Tool Library is promising help will be on hand this Saturday.
The local not-for-profit is hosting its inaugural Repair Café at its headquarters inside the City Centre building.
By Simon Gardner, CBC News Ottawa, April 8, 2017
Water levels in areas south of Ottawa are now so high that some residents can't get to their cottages and homes. On Friday, the only road leading into the tiny community of Hilly Lane was completely under water.
Residents with off-road style vehicles were still able to navigate the washed out lane into the community. Most others had to park their cars on the side of Rideau River Road and use hip waders to reach their homes and cottages.
By Will Amos and David R. Boyd, Ottawa Citizen, April 7, 2017
The Liberal government’s decision to eliminate the public transit tax credit has generated a lot of misguided criticism.
Sure, the credit sounds like a nice idea. A tax credit to encourage Canadians to adopt greener transportation choices, relinquishing polluting private vehicles for eco-friendly public transit. The non-refundable tax credit worth 15 per cent of the amount spent on monthly transit passes was one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s few actions on climate change.
But Finance Minister Bill Morneau looked at the evidence, and it’s damning. A comprehensive study by University of Ottawa economist Nic Rivers revealed that the public transit tax credit is a policy boondoggle —environmentally, economically, and socially.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, April 8, 2017
Adult bass spend weeks in May and June swimming non-stop in an exhausting patrol to keep predators away from their offspring, so Carleton University’s Steven Cooke set out to find how far they travel.
Usually he attaches radio transmitters to fish when he traces their movements. But a radio transmitter won’t measure small movements around a nest. His teams installed equipment on bass that records movements of their swimming muscles, and translated that into length of movement.
By Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen, April 8, 2017
“I have eight bikes, including a rainbow-coloured bike, but I’m known as the girl with the yellow bike. In the past I’d had bikes stolen, and I was devastated and never got a bike again until I met my former partner, who was a competitive cyclist.
He built me a bike for my birthday, which was really nice.“I have a blog called XOVelo, and it’s a project where I document people who dress in style on their bikes, in Ottawa. I’ve also expanded into Toronto.
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, April 7, 2017
Residents in the village of Richmond are concerned that raw sewage is being dumped into the Jock River after a pumping station was overwhelmed by high volumes of rain.
The city has installed a bypass pipe from the pumping station to the Jock River to help relieve some of the flows at the Richmond pumping station, said Kevin Wylie, the city’s general manager of public works and environmental services, in response to a request for information.
By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, April 6, 2017
The National Capital Commission has approved the transfer of the Sir John Carling land for the new Ottawa hospital.
Several NCC board members raised concern about the plan for surface parking, the amount of land included in the transfer and the cost of environmental cleanup for the area.
Right now the current plan is to allow the hospital to use the 23 hectares for planning, and unused land can be returned. Board member Norman Hotson argued for the opposite, concerned that extra hectares will result in extra surface parking.
By CFRA News, April 6, 2017
OC Transpo is releasing more details on where transit users will be riding when the first phase of the LRT line opens next year.
More than 100 bus routes will be carrying passengers to the nearest LRT station, where they'll transfer to light rail.
All bus routes numbered 5 through 99 and all 200-series Connection routes will be affected.
OC Transpo says the LRT trains will arrive every five minutes or less during rush hour, very frequently through the rest of the day, and about every 15 minutes after midnight.
By CFRA News, April 6, 2017
OC Transpo is releasing more details on where transit users will be riding when the first phase of the LRT line opens next year.
More than 100 bus routes will be carrying passengers to the nearest LRT station, where they'll transfer to light rail.
All bus routes numbered 5 through 99 and all 200-series Connection routes will be affected.
OC Transpo says the LRT trains will arrive every five minutes or less during rush hour, very frequently through the rest of the day, and about every 15 minutes after midnight.
By Dean Beebe, CBC News Ottawa, April 6, 2017
Parks Canada is testing mucky sediment along the Ottawa stretch of the Rideau Canal to decide whether the UNESCO World Heritage Site should be added to an inventory of Canada's most contaminated properties.
At the same time, the Ontario government is investigating whether game fish in the canal have dangerous levels of toxins, and should never be put on a dinner plate.Both moves this spring follow Parks Canada's decision to temporarily halt repairs along a section of the picturesque canal after workers churned up canal-bed toxins while laying bricks in November.
By CBC News Ottawa, April 6, 2017
Public health officials in Prince Edward County have lifted a boil-water advisory issued after fuel spilled from a partially submerged barge and was detected in a sampling line at the Picton-Bloomfield drinking water plant.
Water being produced by the plant now "meets all provincial water quality standards," the county said Thursday afternoon in a media release.