Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Ottawa wants to let ByWard Market vendors carry more local food

Metro Ottawa

By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, March 7, 2017

ByWard market or bylaw market?

The city says it wants to relax the rules and regulations around sellers and buskers in the bustling downtown commercial zone.

“We almost zap the fun out of the market,” said Mayor Jim Watson during discussion at city hall on Tuesday morning.

“We don’t want this market to turn into a bureaucratic maze, where someone has to apply and fill out four forms to strum their guitar on the corner,” he said. “We have so many rules and regulations involving size of stand, type of canopy, what products you can sell and what times of the year.”

Stage 2 LRT will make transit more reliable: Blais

By Jennifer MacIntosh, Ottawa Community News, March 7, 2017

Once the second stage of light rail is in place, residents will find the city’s transit line more reliable as a whole, said transit commission chair Stephen Blais.

As the city nears the end of public consultation on the procurement process for the next step in the light rail plan, the city hosted an online and in-person public consultation on March 1 to answer the public’s questions.

(...)Trevor Haché  with the Healthy Transportation Coalition, says the city has made strides with consulting the public on the plan, but worries about the ridership numbers.

Ottawa's SunTech Greenhouse shuts off million-dollar lighting system this winter over hydro costs

CTV Ottawa News

By Joanne Schnurr, CTV News Ottawa, March 7, 2017

An Ottawa greenhouse operation has hit a hydro snag in its attempt to mimic Mother Nature. SunTech Greenhouses in Manotick had installed a million dollar L-E-D lighting system to grow produce year round but after doing the math, the owner decided not to flip the switch.

Two years ago, SunTech installed row upon row of L-E-D lights in one and a half acres of its greenhouses. It was an expensive experiment trying to mimic Mother Nature. The problem is the sun is free; hydro not so much.

Amid parking woes, Westboro, Hintonburg main drag to continue offering free parking

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2017

Paid parking on Westboro and Hintonburg’s main drag may have solved some of the neighbourhoods’ parking woes, but local businesses and community associations wouldn’t go for it, says Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper.

On-street parking along Somerset, Wellington West and Richmond often exceeds practical capacity, meaning more than 85 per cent of available spots are taken. The situation causes congestion and forces drivers to hunt for spaces on residential side streets.

Bid to name Airport Parkway footbridge faces delays amid city’s lawsuit

By Erin MacCracken, Ottawa Community News, March 6, 2017

A family’s bid to name the Airport Parkway footbridge after a Hunt Club man who was struck and killed as he crossed the busy road could be shelved for years.

“Everybody was disappointed that the naming would be delayed so long,” said Hunt Club resident Brandy Dagenais.

She and her family have been advocating that the pedestrian and cycling bridge, which connects South Keys and Hunt Club, be named after her brother-in-law Kenny Dagenais, who was fatally struck by a car as the 26-year-old cut across the parkway on Oct. 22, 2007, not far from where the bridge was ultimately built.

Residents concerned new landfill could become mega-dump

CTV Ottawa News

By Matt Skube, CTV News Ottawa, March 6, 2017

Where does all the garbage go? For Clare Kinlin, the answer is not Spencerville.

"It's easier to build a dump in our county now than it is to build a barn," Kinlin says.The longtime Spencerville resident opposes a plan for Leeds Grenville County to sell a parcel of land to the Tomlinson group, in order to build a new landfill in Edwardsburgh/Cardinal Township.

"There's no financial benefit to us that would outweigh any risk it would pose to the environment," he says.

New radio system goes haywire for more than three hours

Ottawa & Region

News

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, March 6, 2017

There has been another bungle with the city’s new communications system, with several departments, including transit, losing radio service for more than three hours on Friday.

Denis Crete, system manager of the city’s corporate radio system, confirmed the radio service was down between 8:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., and full service wasn’t completely restored until 1:32 p.m.

Coffee, jam and cheese could be coming to ByWard, Parkdale markets

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2017

Local coffee roasters, cheese makers and jam producers could soon be invited to sell their products at the ByWard and Parkdale markets.

The city is proposing to expand the criteria for its outdoor markets to include a new “microprocessor” category. Microprocessors are considered small-scale, local producers who are “actively and directly engaged in the transformation or processing of an agri-food product” intended for consumption.

Rock of ages past: Recent fossil find has local researcher thinking big

Metro Ottawa

By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, March 5, 2017

A local researcher has made some potentially world-changing additions to his rock collection. University of Ottawa geologist Jonathan O’Neil was part of the international team that discovered what they say is the oldest fossil record ever identified and therefore the earliest known evidence of life on the planet. The find was written up in Nature last week.

Some scientists, not all, believe Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago. O’Neil’s team have dated the fossils, which they found in northern Quebec, to between 4.3 billion and 3.7 billion years ago. If those numbers don’t impress you, consider that dinosaurs appeared a mere 230 million years ago and that humans began walking on two legs 6 million years ago.

Smokers shouldn’t be university students, or faculty

Ottawa Citizen

By Bob Hertzog and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, March 3, 2017

Transit isn’t everything to Orléans residents

Re: Why not add a lane and sabotage rail? Feb. 18; Now that new LRT plans are a go, city turns its attention to consultation, Feb. 25.

David Reevely has twice recently criticized Ottawa Council’s decision to widen Highway 174 in conjunction with LRT Phase 2. This criticism is unjustified and unfair. Highway 174 is the main artery into the city from Orléans, similar to Highway 417 in Kanata.

Plan takes shape for new look ‘Welcome’ into Stittsville

By Brian Dryden, Ottawa Community News, March 3, 2017

A plan to create a seniors-friendly greenspace fun area near a new retirement residence under construction in Stittsville looks like a winner for the entire community, the local city councillor says.

The area in question is a sliver of greenspace where the “Welcome to Stittsville” sign is located at the corner of Main St. and Hazeldean Rd.

Online and in-person consultation draws questions about LRT details

By Melissa Murray, Ottawa Community News, March 3, 2017

At a city hall public information session on the second stage of the light rail plan, residents peppered staff with questions ranging from the 16-month shut down of the Trillium Line to the need for more public consultation.

“Why does the city want to rush through this process? What is the big urgency? We need more consultations, especially in the west end,” one resident Anna Bevilacqua asked on Facebook.