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News Clippings

Photographer snaps rare daytime footage of elusive fisher - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, January 6, 2017

An Ottawa man captured rare daytime footage of a fisher — a mainly nocturnal type of weasel — while snowshoeing on National Capital Commission trails.

For the first time in his 12 years of bushwhacking through the trails, nature photographer Justin Hoffman saw the elusive fisher on Jan. 2.

"It was fast asleep when I came upon it," he said Thursday on CBC Radio's All In A Day, adding he didn't immediately recognize it because it's so rare to see one during the day.

Gatineau transit talks break down after union president suspended - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, January 7, 2017

With a potential bus strike looming, the union representing public transit workers in Gatineau has walked away from labour negotiations with the Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO).

The union announced Friday it was ceasing talks after disciplinary measures were imposed on its president, Félix Gendron, and other members of the union.

Should Trudeau have gone to the Bahamas?

Ottawa Citizen

By Albert McConnell, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, January 6, 2017

Vacation choices show climate hypocrisy

Everyone deserves a vacation. Even the prime minister. Is it not a bit ironic, though, that our prime minister, who wants us to cut carbon emissions goes to British Columbia to ski when he could have gone to Tremblant, and vacations down south in the Bahamas.

Imagine the carbon emitted by the plane to get there and back. It seems that these people are ”do as I say and not as I do” characters.

Outaouais woodland skateway attracts thousands during inaugural week

Ottawa Citizen

By Elise Schulzke, Ottawa Citizen, January 7, 2016

The man who built a three-km skateway that winds through the forest around Lac-des-Loups, near Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, can’t believe the reception it’s getting.

“I feel like I’m dreaming this,” he said Saturday.

The trail, located about an hour’s drive north of Ottawa, attracted more than 3,000 people in the first eight days it had been open.

Drought conditions improve in Mississippi Valley

By Ted Raymond, CFRA News, January 5, 2016

Drought conditions in the Mississippi Valley watershed have improved, thanks to some recent snow and rain.

The Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority says the snow and rain over the last two weeks has "improved the recovery process" and water levels are trending toward normal historic conditions.

The MVCA is now calling their situation a "minor drought." The drought conditions in the watershed had been listed as severe as recently as December, 2016.

Gatineau mayor mulls LRT connection to Ottawa

Metro Ottawa

By Dylan C. Robertson, Ottawa Metro News, January 3, 2017

Gatineau’s mayor says a Light Rail Transit line could connect both sides of the Ottawa River.

In a year-end interview with Radio-Canada, Mayor Maxime Pedneaud -Jobin said the biggest problem faced by the Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) is poor transit connections with the Aylmer district.

"There are studies that have been done for the future high-speed link, whether it’s an LRT, bus, all that. We are doing this and we are moving towards a solution," Pedneaud -Jobin said.

Baseline Road rapid transit corridor travelling towards opposition - Ottawa - CBC News

By Chloe Fedio, CBC News Ottawa, January 4, 2016

The City of Ottawa's $160-million plans for a new rapid transit corridor between Billings Bridge and Bayshore Station could face hordes of opposition at an upcoming committee meeting over concerns of installing bus-only lanes in the middle of Baseline Road.

The proposed 13.8-kilometre Baseline Road Rapid Transit Corridor also requires the partial expropriation of more than 200 residential and commercial properties, as well as the complete acquisition of up to 15 properties, to maintain two lanes of traffic on each side of the road, and include segregated bike lanes for cyclists and sidewalks for pedestrians.

The environment is the secret to preparing for the next 150 years

Ottawa Citizen

By Madeline Ashby, Ottawa Citizen, January 3, 2016

During this, Canada’s 150th year, maybe it’s time we take stock of how we shall navigate and plan for the next century and a half.

First, the environment. As we speak, pundits and ministers in Alberta are tut-tutting about whether or not the province is “still standing” after instituting a carbon tax. Environment Minister Shannon Phillips has already called it “a large change with large rewards,” while the Wildrose opposition’s electricity and renewables critic insists that the “science isn’t settled,” on anthropgenic climate change. (He offered no word on how many scientists it would take to achieve quorum on the issue. Presumably the number is roughly equivalent to the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin.)

Today’s letters: Widening the highway, recognizing flight instructors

Ottawa Citizen

By Brian Hayes, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, January 3, 2016

Widening the highway is wrongheaded

Re: Here’s why we need to widen Highway 417, Dec. 24

.I guess it’s too late to put Bob Chiarelli on the “naughty” list for his response to David Reevely’s column questioning the plan to widen the 417.

Chiarelli, a politician, states “I suspect people driving on Highway 417 will be thrilled to learn the highway will be widened to accommodate the increased traffic.” Problem is, as Reevely has pointed out multiple times, all traffic studies show that it’s only a short time before the new capacity is swallowed up. Wider highways encourage driving. Is that what this “green” government really wants?

Reevely: Ontario plans new recycling and garbage rules, in pursuit of 'circular economy'

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, December 30, 2016

The Ontario government is planning a total revamp of the province's garbage-handling programs, from blue boxes to fluorescent bulbs to kitchen scraps, hoping to cut the amount of waste we make by 80 per cent over the next 35 years. It's also hoping to make manufacturers pay for the whole thing, by some process that'll be…

City unloading Bombardier trains, the original Trillium Line workhorses

Ottawa

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, December 28, 2016

Three Bombardier trains, the original workhorses of the Trillium Line, are on the auction block.

The City of Ottawa put the Bombardier Talent trains on the market just before Christmas, now that OC Transpo is comfortably operating six new Alstom Coradia Lint trains on the Trillium Line.

The pollution scourge of 1866 was…sawdust

Ottawa Citizen

By Randy Boswell, Ottawa Citizen, December 28, 2016

The high cost of cleaning up the contaminated Chaudière Islands before the $1.2-billion Zibi property development can proceed is a story almost 200 years in the making.

Windmill Development and its partners are seeking some $60 million in public funds to rehabilitate these historic brownfields just upstream from Parliament Hill. To make matters more complicated, it’s all part of a swath of downtown Ottawa freshly re-claimed by Quebec-based Algonquin people.

“This site has been industrial for up to 200 years, so there is a real range of contaminants present,” Windmill executive Jeff Westeinde told the Citizen recently.