Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Stay away from riverbanks and streams, conservation authority warns - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News, February 19, 2017

With daytime highs around Ottawa to remain above zero for the next few days, one local conservation authority is warning people to stay away from the banks of streams and rivers.

The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority says that the pleasant temperatures are creating "unstable" ice conditions near the region's waterways. "All watershed residents are advised to stay off of the ice on rivers and streams and avoid ice and snow-covered stream banks where footing can be unpredictable," the agency said in a recent warning.

Ottawa's Light rail extension will take trains to Trim Road, Riverside South and Moodie Drive

CTV Ottawa News

By CTV News Ottawa, February 17, 2017

Ottawa's plan to extend light rail service will extend to Moodie Drive in the city's west end.

The $3.6 billion dollar LRT Stage 2 plan also includes light rail service to Trim Road in the east end and Bowesville in Riverside South.

The Trim Road extension would cost $160 million.

Coming thaw could lead to dangerous water conditions, conservation authority warns

Ottawa Citizen

By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2017

The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority is warning of unsafe conditions along local water courses as the temperatures rise above freezing and the snow begins to melt over the next few days.

The risk is greatest in areas south and west of Ottawa where there is less snow on the ground to absorb the meltwater, the authority says.

“In all cases, the ice cover can be expected to become unstable to various extents with weakening ice and water on the surface. Ditches and smaller streams may begin flowing and shifting ice could cause blockages at road crossings with localized road flooding possible,” the authority said.

Warm, sunny weather prompts NCC to close Skateway indefinitely at 11 p.m.

Ottawa Citizen

By Normand Provencher, Ottawa Citizen, February 18, 2017

After 25 skating days since the Skateway opened 36 days ago, the National Capital Commission is taking no chances in the recent thaw and is closing the facility as of 11 p.m. Saturday.

”Current weather conditions erode the quality of the ice surface and create hazardous conditions for skaters and the public,” agency said in a release.

“This closure, while we wait for colder weather, will provide the best possible chances to preserve the ice with the goal of extending the 47th skating season of the Rideau Canal Skateway.”

Burbs getting denser, but lighter on retail mix: report

By Jennifer McIntosh, Ottawa Community News, February 17, 2017

A report looking at the development ratios in the ‘burbs has some holes, planning committee chair Jan Harder said on Feb. 14.

“For me, the more I read, the more I questioned where it was taking me,” she said.

If you dig into the eight individual neighbourhoods that were built after 2005, which the report looked at, the information, while factual, didn’t represent the neighbourhoods they were in, she said.

Reevely: We’ll sabotage our rail plan with wider highways because we can’t resist a deal

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2017

Building rail is expensive but sabotaging it is cheap, so that’s Ottawa’s plan with our new $5.1-billion rail system. The trick to getting a bargain is doing both at the same time.

When Mayor Jim Watson and city staff showed off the latest news on the next stage of their light-rail plans Friday morning, the presentation included a revelation that the city intends to rebuild Highway 174 east of Montreal Road to turn dedicated bus lanes into car lanes. It’ll “bundle” the job with laying the tracks and building the stations that will extend light-rail service from Blair station to Trim Road by 2022.

Transfers better than no train at all to YOW, airport head says

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2017

Changing trains twice to get to the airport from downtown is still better than having no rail connection at all, the head of Ottawa’s airport authority said Friday after the city formally unveiled its ambitious plan for expanding the light-rail transit network.

The plan includes a four-kilometre spur to the airport, but riders would have to change trains at South Keys station. Those heading downtown would have to make a second connection onto the Confederation line at Bayview station. The total trip would take about 40 minutes.

$3.6B rail package includes LRT to Moodie Drive

Ottawa Citizen

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2017

The city’s refreshed Stage 2 transit plan calls for a rail extension to Moodie Drive, punching another suburb’s ticket to Ottawa’s LRT club.

“The west is finally in,” Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley said Friday after Mayor Jim Watson unveiled the new rail blueprint. “It’s great to feel we’re part of the LRT party.

”The city was going to make Bayshore Shopping Centre and Algonquin College the western end points for the LRT system in 2023. Staff crunched the numbers in the $3-billion Stage 2 rail estimate and realized they could keep on building tracks to Moodie Drive while maintaining the budget.

Buses not welcome on Bayswater, councillor says

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2017

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper says he doesn’t want OC Transpo buses detoured down Bayswater Avenue for months while the Trillium line is closed as part of its $535-million expansion.

The eight-kilometre O-Train line between Bayview and Greenboro stations would be shut down for 16 months between May 2020 and September 2021 while the city adds new stations at Gladstone, Walkley and South Keys, and extends the line south to the Ottawa airport and Bowesville Road.

The replacement Route 107 bus, which typically goes into service whenever the Trillium line is closed, currently uses Preston, Carling, Bronson and Heron. But Preston can get pretty congested, so city officials want the option of running buses down Carling, Sherwood Drive and Bayswater instead.

Alternative eco programming could keep Regina Street school open

Metro Ottawa

By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, February 15, 2017

A unique proposal to turn Regina Street Public School into an alternative school focused on ecological learning could save it from being closed.

For the past five years the public school has made use of nearby Mud Lake as a tool for regular hands on outdoor learning. That unique project could save the school from being closed down as the OCDSB looks to save money by shuttering under capacity schools.

In order to keep the school open, parents and area trustee Theresa Kavanagh are advocating that it become a unique regional “lab school” for kindergarten to Grade 6 students focused on environmental education.

Cathcart Park to get improvements

By Michelle Nash Baker, Ottawa Community News, February 16, 2017

Soon Cathcart Park will be a place where dogs and children will be able to mingle peacefully.

An off-leash dog park on one side and a playground on the other, the park will be receiving improvements this spring in an effort to deal with the ongoing issues of the shared space between the dogs and children.

Reevely: New $3.6B cost for Ottawa’s rail plans makes provincial funding deal urgent

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, February 16, 2017

The rush is on to get the provincial government to sign up to Ottawa’s rail plan before a 2018 election that could send Ontario’s transit-funding promises higgledy-piggledy.

Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Liberals are big fans of infrastructure spending. They’ve promised they’ll be here with $1-billion-plus that the city is counting on for the set of light-rail expansions it’s calling Stage 2, to follow the first phase of construction done in 2018. But until there’s a minister’s signature on a contribution agreement, that promise’s force is only political, not legal.