Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

With 2 years to go, city has blown through 90 per cent of LRT contingency fund - Ottawa - CBC News

By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, August 26, 2016

When the new Booth Street bridge connecting Albert Street and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway opens on Sunday, Sept. 4, it will not include bike lanes — despite the fact that everyone, including Mayor Jim Watson, has acknowledged that omitting some sort of segregated cycling infrastructure was an error.

But by the time the issue came to a head, the Booth bridge was virtually finished. And so come Labour Day weekend, the bridge will be opened as designed and the city will go back to tear some of that work up and add safe-cycling measures by the end of 2018.

Ottawa city hall preview: LRT, truck tunnel, budget and more on fall agenda

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2016

The Olympics are over, the back-to-school sales have begun, and city councillors are dusting off their desks after a sleepy summer at Ottawa City Hall.

Postmedia’s Matthew Pearson scopes out what’s on the agenda.

Finance and economic development committee, chaired by Mayor Jim Watson The budget is arguably the most important item city council will deal with this fall because it will set the tone for 2017. It won’t be tabled until November, but work is already underway.

Walk the line: How Ottawa’s LRT is transforming this city, Part 1

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2016

It’s just before 9 a.m. and I am sitting on a grassy knoll, watching a huge crane pick up and move long pieces of reinforced steel. The racket of drills and hammers fills the air. Bone by bone, the skeleton of Blair station is coming to life. But I seem to be the only one paying much attention to what’s happening on the other side of the fence on this overcast Thursday morning.

In the distance, cars and trucks are backed up on the 174. The station teases drivers who might someday soon choose to glide into the city by train, instead of dealing with the daily bunch-up at the Split.

Walk the Line, Part 3: Imagining the Ottawa Underground

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2016

Walk the Line, Part 3 follows Citizen reporter Matthew Pearson downtown, as he imagines the station that might have been and digs into what’s going on underground and out of sight. •

There’s a patch of fresh tar on Rideau Street where the sinkhole was.

Walk the Line: Eyes on the future, what will Ottawa make of its LRT?

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2016

Walk the Line, Part 4 follows Citizen reporter Matthew Pearson as he makes his way along the final part of the Confederation LRT route, and comes “home,” thinking about the future, and the past, of the capital.•

If you stand at the edge of a cliff at the end of Queen Street, you can see the future.

Booth Street funding proves cycle tracks possible after all

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, August 24, 2016

Booth Street will get cycling lanes – eventually.

A major federal funding announcement Tuesday included $1 million for a Booth Street segregated cycle track between Albert Street and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, effectively proving the city can indeed install bike infrastructure on the Booth Street bridge.

But it won’t happen any time soon: even once the bridge is open, the track likely won’t be installed until 2018 or later, said asset management manager Alain Gonthier.

Carbon-neutral Ottawa property management firm makes history

Metro News

By Jacob Serebrin, Ottawa Metro News, August 25, 2016

An Ottawa-based firm has become the first property management company in Canada to be certified as carbon neutral by a national organization that provides education and resources to help Canadians plant and care for trees.

”It’s 2016, it’s the right thing to do,” Capital Concierge president Dan Fried says of earning the designation from Tree Canada. “I live in the community, I have children growing up in the community. We wanted to bring something good to this area.

”He says the company takes good corporate citizenship seriously and it wanted to be a leader when it comes to environmental sustainability.

City mulls new footbridge for Carleton, Vincent Massey Park

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, August 25, 2016

No more detours, no right hooks, no more drivers’ dirty looks?

That could well be the refrain from Carleton University campus sometime in the next decade if the city goes ahead with a new cycling and pedestrian bridge over the Rideau River.

On Tuesday, the federal government announced $775,000 for preliminary planning work on a footbridge between the school and Vincent Massey Park.

Landowner replaces toppled Rideau River osprey nesting platform

Ottawa & Regio

By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Sun, August 25, 2016

New build: One-bedroom penthouse with dine-in kitchen and stunning river views.

If this fits your bill — or should we say beak? — then Dave Craig has the nest of your dreams, 16 metres above the shores of the Rideau River near Osgoode.

Ottawa city hall preview: LRT, truck tunnel, budget and more on fall agenda

Ot

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Sun, August 25, 2016

The Olympics are over, the back-to-school sales have begun and city councillors are dusting off their desks after a sleepy summer at Ottawa City Hall.

Postmedia’s Matthew Pearson scopes out what’s on the agenda.

Finance and economic development committee, chaired by Mayor Jim Watson

The budget is arguably the most important item city council will deal with this fall because it will set the tone for 2017. It won’t be tabled until November, but work is already underway.

'Incremental' add-on work to $2.1B LRT line costs millions more

Ottawa & Regio

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, August 25, 2016

City taxpayers have been told countless times the Confederation LRT is on time and on budget, but the city is building on the $2.1-billion cost with add-on work.

The federal government announced this week $156 million for 57 transportation projects in the City of Ottawa. The projects include a bus loop at Tunney’s Pasture, a bike track on the Booth Street bridge, a crew room at Bayview station and customer waiting areas at stations. They are collectively eligible for $4.25 million in federal funding.

Struggling cap-and-trade auctions threaten Ontario’s $8B climate plan

Ottawa Citizen

By Brian Platt, Ottawa Citizen, August 23, 2016

The cap-and-trade program Ontario’s set to join next year is having big trouble in California and Quebec, and it could mean Ontario’s much-heralded $8.3-billion Climate Change Action Plan has far less money to spend in reality.

For the second time in a row, a joint cap-and-trade auction held by California and Quebec has failed to sell most of the emissions allowances on offer. It leaves the two governments hundreds of millions of dollars short on revenue projections, and nobody can say for certain why the auctions are failing.