By Melissa Murray, Ottawa Community News, January 26, 2017
There were no concept drawings or proposals to weigh in on, but residents welcomed the opportunity to comment on the Booth Street lands before the process gets too far.
About 150 people attended the Jan. 24 public consultation to hear from Canada Lands, a Crown corporation that specializes in real estate development and attractions management, about the property and the next steps toward redevelopment of the site.
By Glen Gower, StittsvilleCentral, January 27, 2017
Last week we published a list of ten spots in Stittsville in need of sidewalk or pedestrian upgrades. We asked readers for your suggestions and heard from a lot of you. Here’s a sampling:
“I live in Traditions area. Why is there not a sidewalk from Fernbank to Elm Street along Stittsville Main Street? Where the church is. Children who want to walk from Traditions to where the gas station is, have to cross at Fernbank, go across a busy street, then go past the library, and cross at the light there. We need a sidewalk on the west side of the road there.” -Lori Claringbold
“I would recommend the entrance to Crossing Bridge. Hobin Street this end is very dark at night and it’s hard to see groups of people walking on the road with the curves and parked cars. very dangerous without a sidewalk.”–Kate Tomaszewski
By CFRA News, January 27, 2017
If you think there are more potholes in the city this winter - you're right.
City roads manager Luc Gagne says his crews have filled 8,396 potholes since January 1st.
That's about 4% more than the three-year average of 8,079 repairs.
But it's far higher than the 4,897 potholes that city crews had patched during the same period last year.
By CTV News Ottawa, January 27, 2017
The Ontario government is doubling the amount of money for transit funding by boosting gas tax rebates over the next five years.
Currently, the City of Ottawa receives just over $34 million transit funding through the gas rebate. That funding will climb to $66 million in 2021.
"We are going to be sharing more of that money with our cities like Ottawa so they can provide quality public transit," said Ottawa MPP and Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi.
By CBC News Ottawa, January 27, 2017
The National Energy Board has thrown out previous rulings on TransCanada's Energy East pipeline and will start the process over from scratch.
"The new hearing panel assigned to review the Energy East and Eastern Mainline applications has voided all decisions made by the previous hearing panel," the board said in a short release Friday. "These decisions will be removed from the official hearing record."
TransCanada said in a statement that it will review the NEB's decision to determine its impact.
By the Canadian Press, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2017
TORONTO — Premier Kathleen Wynne is set to deny the Toronto mayor’s request for the ability to impose tolls on two major commuter highways, The Canadian Press has learned.
An official with knowledge of the decision but who wasn’t authorized to speak about it on the record said that it’s about “affordability.”
Instead, Wynne will announce on Friday the government will provide hundreds of millions of dollars for municipalities for transit in the form of a gas tax enhancement.
By Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2017
OC Transpo will pull 43 double-decker buses from the road this weekend to effect repairs to their wiring systems.
The action was taken after a driver reported an odd smell on a double-decker bus Thursday night. It comes 10 days after a fire consumed a Route 222 double-decker bus on Piperville Road. Everyone on board that bus escaped unharmed thanks to an alert driver.
Troy Charter, OC Transpo’s director of transit operations, insisted that last week’s double-decker bus fire and the fumes reported on the same kind of bus Thursday are not related incidents.
By Norman Provencher, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2017
After a week of headaches for commuters, negotiations are expected to resume Monday the Société du transport de l’Outaouais and its 600 unionized drivers and mechanics.
The two sides have pencilled in 13 additional dates to try to hammer out a new collective agreement and put an end to a work-to-rule campaign that has transit in the Gatineau areas in a shambles
.Following a meeting of the region’s transportation commission Thursday night, the STO also posted on its website that there had been discussions of financial restitution to riders in the form of fare reductions of some sort.
By Adam Kveton, Ottawa Metro News, January 26, 2017
Residents had their first chance Tuesday to put forward ideas for the redevelopment of a former government metallurgy lab site near Dow’s Lake.
The Canada Lands Company, an arms-length crown corporation that redevelops unneeded federal government land, held their first public consultation on Tuesday for the site, located on the west side of Booth Street between Norman and Orangeville streets.
The company’s purpose is to redevelop and re-integrate land into its surrounding neighbourhood while generating enough money to fund itself, said Jean Lachance, senior director of real estate in Ottawa for the company.
Some attendees of the public meeting expressed interest in seeing a grocery store at the site, affordable housing, open space, and the preservation of some of the federally-designated heritage buildings on the site, said Lachance.
By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, January 26, 2017
New Edinburgh residents were at City Hall on Wednesday raising a stink about an excavation project which they claim will sully their quiet community.
"To our horror, every time we learn a bit more, it becomes more and more serious about our ability to even stay in our homes," said New Edinburgh resident Victoria Henry.
The $231-million construction project will reduce the amount of raw sewage flowing into the Ottawa River after heavy rainfall, but it requires digging a new sewage tunnel.
Until it’s completed, it will increase truck traffic on local roads and tear up part of Stanley Park.
By CFRA News, January 26, 2017
A report for next Wednesday's Transportation committee says 15 private properties will have to be completely expropriated to make way for the Baseline transit corridor.
The 14-kilometer-long corridor will run down the median of Baseline Road from Heron, connecting with the O-Train, to the Transitway at Bayshore.
The report says the right of way would also require the expropriation between one and 15 meters at another 207 private properties, and ten publicly-owned properties.
By Stu Mills, CBC News Ottawa, January 26, 2017
A project to revitalize Wakefield's shoreline with a dock, boardwalk and new toilets has run into opposition after a municipal councillor from a neighbouring ward called for a public referendum on project financing.
Delays to the project could reportedly jeopardize a grant of $479,000 from the Canada 150 Infrastructure fund.
The opposition, however, is related to a loan from La Pêche, which promised $370,000 that would be paid back over a 25-year period.