Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Councillors support O’Connor bike route despite opening day collision

Ottawa Citizen

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, October 26, 2016

It wasn’t the way the city wanted to celebrate a new bikeway on O’Connor Street.“With great smiles and ringing bells, we went out (Tuesday) and officially opened it. Believe me, when I listened to the evening news and heard there had already been an accident, nothing could have hurt more than that,” Capital Coun. David Chernushenko said Wednesday.

According to police, a driver making a left turn at Waverley and O’Connor streets struck a cyclist on the bikeway. Paramedics said the cyclist, a 44-year-old man, was transported to hospital with shoulder and rib pain.

Cyclist struck on O'Connor Street on day of bike lane official opening - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, October 25, 2016

A cyclist riding in the new O'Connor Street bike lane was struck this evening when a car made a turn at Waverley Street, hours after city councillors and the mayor ceremonially opened the bikeway.

A spokesperson for the Ottawa Paramedic Service said it happened at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The male cyclist, who paramedics said was between the ages of 30 and 40, was taken to hospital in stable condition with rib and shoulder injuries.

Planning committee OKs affordable housing application, new Barrhaven farmers’ market

Ottawa Citizen

by Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, October 25, 2016

The planning committee proved Tuesday it can get a lot done in little time.

In less than 40 minutes, the committee said “yes” to more condos for Hintonburg, as well as separate proposals to buy surplus federal land to build affordable housing and start a new farmer’s market in south Ottawa.

Sewage dump goes smoothly in Masson-Angers

Ottawa Citizen

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, October 25, 2016

A sewage treatment plant in east-end Gatineau is back in action after a day and a half of repairs that forced the city to let untreated sewage enter the Lièvre River.

Meredith Brown, the Ottawa Riverkeeper, said the sewage flow wasn’t as bad as she had feared, and not as bad as some others in Gatineau.

“We spent the morning at the site of the pumping on the Lièvre,” she said just before noon Tuesday.

Stop derailing east-end transit: residents

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, October 23, 2016

As light rail construction continues, east-end transit users are frustrated their commutes have been hardest hit by the delays – and they don’t even live along the line.

Neighbourhoods like Vanier, Rockcliffe and Manor Park won’t be directly served by the new O-train running from Blair Station to Tunney’s Pasture.

Yet its construction has had a huge impact on their daily commutes. It got worse last week when OC Transpo announced the unexpected closure of Rideau Street until the end of December to deal with sinkhole stabilization issues.

City of Ottawa first to don staff with turning signal bike helmets

Metro News

By Haley Ritchie, Ottawa Metro News, October 24, 2016

It’s a helmet with built-in turning signals and brake lights – and Ottawa is the first city to be testing it out on its staff.

“We’re always looking at different kind of technology that can apply to a road safety perspective,” said Rob Wilkinson, coordinator of Safer Roads Ottawa, a joint initiative between the city and Ottawa Police.

Earlier this year the force began using a new tool that could measure the distance between cyclists and passing cars, which was later loaned out to Montreal and Gatineau to try.

Mass arrest on Parliament Hill during pipeline protest

CTV Ottawa News

By CTV News Ottawa, October 24, 2016

There was a mass arrest on Parliament Hill on Monday during a protest against the Kinder Morgan Pipeline that runs from Alberta to British Columbia.

The protest was organized by a group of young people and students who say twinning the pipeline so it can deliver triple the oil daily is detrimental to Canada’s environment.

“It would have the same climate impact as adding 32 million cars on Canada’s roads, and at a time when we desperately need action on climate change… we can’t sign on to projects like Kinder Morgan,” said Cameron Fenton, an organizer with Climate 101.

A grim anniversary of 26 years of Canada’s failed climate policy

Ottawa Citizen

By Kate Heartfield, Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 2016

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has a plan to address climate change, and it isn’t the same as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s. While Trudeau wants the provinces to implement carbon pricing, Wall thinks that would be economically disastrous and wants the federal government to spend more money on technological innovation.

The whole debate feels a bit theoretical, doesn’t it? Who’s to say which of them knows how to solve this problem, and who actually has any confidence our politicians are trying in good faith to solve it? In Canada, reducing greenhouse gas emissions feels like science fiction, not a thing we can actually do.

Ottawa’s new water rate structure has a few leaks

Ottawa Citizen

By Erwin Dreesen, Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 2016

Four things stand out after the City of Ottawa’s environment committee unanimously approved a new water, wastewater and stormwater fee structure last Tuesday.

1. The very low water user will get shafted. “Kim, from Westboro,” as she is named in the staff documents, who uses just five cubic metres of water a month (compared to an average of 16 c/m per household), will see her bill go up from $20 a month to $33.

Dozens of oil pipeline protesters arrested on Parliament Hill

Ottawa Citizen

By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 2016

Ottawa police were called to help control a raucous crowd of protesters that gathered on Parliament Hill Monday to oppose the construction of an oil pipeline.

Around 100 students were ultimately arrested as a result of the protest, police said. Organizers of the event are calling the protest “the largest act of youth-led climate civil disobedience in Canadian history.”

Small, vocal crowd gathers for budget meeting in Nepean

By Megan Delaire, Ottawa Community News, October 21, 2016

Nepean residents were invited to bring their municipal budget-related suggestions and questions to a pre-budget consultation the Nepean Sportsplex on Oct. 18, and they came prepared.

The crowd was small – around two dozen people – but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in concerns, which they were eager to share with Mayor Jim Watson, deputy treasurer Isabelle Jasmine and Couns. Jan Harder, Rick Chiarelli, Keith Egli and Mark Taylor.

Two former mayors offer their solution on a new site for the Civic

Ottawa Citizen

By Jacquelin Holtzman and Jim Durrell, Ottawa Citizen, October 21, 2016

Following is from a letter sent to the National Capital Commission by Jacquelin Holzman and Jim Durrell, former Ottawa mayors:

In 1998, we, along with the late mayor, Lorry Greenberg, helped to bring a bad decision to the public’s attention. The province had decided to downgrade the Civic Hospital to a community hospital, placing all trauma services only at the General. It would have been a disaster – especially for patients in the west end and Ottawa Valley, since it took ambulances less time to reach the Civic than to reach the General.