Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Councillor seeks tougher rules for Sandy Hill development

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, August 21, 2016

Garbage, parking and cladding – oh, my.

Infill issues are back on the agenda as Coun. Mathieu Fleury asks the planning committee to require extra scrutiny for Sandy Hill.

If the committee agrees Tuesday, all residential development applications would be subject to an extra site plan control process, although it would be limited to making sure building materials complement the heritage neighbourhood and that there’s adequate space for parking and waste bins.

Why Oscar Wilde was offended by the Ottawa River

Ottawa Citizen

By Randy Boswell, Ottawa Citizen, August 21, 2016

When the renowned Irish poet and essayist Oscar Wilde gave a public lecture in Ottawa in May 1882, about a decade before his rise to further heights of fame as a novelist and playwright, the controversial aesthete diverted from his prepared remarks on the decorative arts to denounce the sorry state of the sawdust-choked Ottawa River.

“This is an outrage,” Wilde lectured the locals, the reaction likely muted in a national capital ruled not by legislators but lumber kings, and where thousands of families depended for their livelihoods on Ottawa Valley forests and the sawmills of the Chaudière Falls.

Hot, dry summer could dull Ottawa's fall colours - Ottawa - CBC News

By Robyn Miller, CBC News Ottawa, August 20, 2016

Those vibrant reds, oranges and yellows that brighten the region's foliage each fall could be dulled — and arrive earlier — thanks to this year's sizzling, bone-dry summer.

In fact some trees are already changing colour and shedding their leaves in parks across Ottawa.

Public consultations for possible Ottawa Hospital sites to begin Sept. 22

Ottawa Citizen

By Elizabeth Payne, Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 2016

The National Capital Commission will unveil possible sites for a new Civic hospital at its public board meeting on Sept. 12. Ten days later, members of the public can have their say about where the hospital should go.

The NCC says public consultations on The Ottawa Hospital Civic campus site review will begin at the Canadian War Museum on Sept. 22 with an open house and question and answer session. The NCC will also launch an online consultation survey on the hospital site.

A healthy and sustainable Ottawa river is vital for Canada’s capital

Ottawa Citizen

By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 2016

On a crisp, sunny day in early November 1864, delegates from the Confederation conferences in Charlottetown and Quebec City boarded the steamer England for a river tour of Ottawa, this new country’s proposed capital.

Ottawa was still little more than a rough lumber town, and many delegates weren’t convinced it should be the capital. But the view from the Ottawa River surprised and impressed them, Queen’s University professor David Gordon recounts in Town and Crown, his 2015 illustrated history of the capital.

6 ways the city of Ottawa is reconnecting with its river

Ottawa Citizen

By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 2016

LeBreton Flats

Since its proposal was rated highest in a competition earlier this year, Eugene Melnyk’s RendezVous LeBreton team has been trying to negotiate a development agreement with the NCC. If its plan proceeds, 7,000 people will call LeBreton Flats home — as many as lived there in the early 1900s — by the time the final phase is complete, two decades from now. Another 12,000 could work there.

Pedestrian, cycling tunnel at University of Ottawa reopens Monday

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 2016

A popular pedestrian and cycling tunnel that connects Sandy Hill and the University of Ottawa with Centretown and other points west of the Rideau Canal will reopen Monday.

The tunnel, which passes under Nicholas Street and the Transitway between the university and Colonel By Drive, was closed in early May so crews could tear down the former Campus station and begin building the new uOttawa light-rail station.

City Hall Blog: Lumber floats at Lyon station

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 2016

On a visit to the Glue Pot Pub one afternoon this week, I noticed a strange sight down in the deep hole where a future entrance to the Confederation LRT’s Lyon station will be: Water. And lots of it.

Stacks of lumber and other construction material appeared to be floating, while a single worker — standing on a makeshift raft made from a large piece of plywood — used a huge hose to suck the water up to a hydrovac truck parked above on street level.

Beechwood bus stops leave passengers scrambling

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, August 18, 2016j

An attempt to make Beechwood Avenue safer and more efficient has left some bus users scrambling to catch their bus on time.

Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury consolidated several bus stops along the corridor this summer, as part of a broader plan to make Beechwood a more complete street.

But some bus users say the changes have left them scrambling to catch transfers, especially between routes 9 and the 1 or 7.

City warns of phoney bad drinking water claims

Ottawa & Region

News

Ottawa

By Aidan Cox, Ottawa Sun, August 18, 2016

The city is warning residents to beware of phoney claims made about the quality of Ottawa’s drinking water.

The City of Ottawa released a statement Thursday that describes reports of door-to-door salesmen providing “incorrect information about water quality” to residents. The false information provided is supposedly part of their sales pitch for selling water filtration and treatment systems.

The city wants to remind residents that its municipal drinking water meets all federal and provincial health-based quality guidelines and standards.“Ottawa’s drinking water has been rated by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change as being among the safest in the world and it is continually tested to ensure that those high standards are maintained,” said the city.Residents are also reminded that: City employees do not contact residents to sell products or services. Except for emergency situations, any visits that may require access to homes or businesses by city staff are scheduled in advance. Residents are provided with advance notice of projects that may impact them. All employees requesting access to homes have city-issued photo identification cards.Residents who are directly contacted by people claiming to be city employees for city business are asked to check identification, and, if concerns remain, contact the city prior to allowing access.Please report any suspicious, unsolicited calls or visits to the Ottawa Police Service by calling 613-236-1222.

Tunnel could solve Ottawa's truck problem — as long as we don't have to pay - Ottawa - CBC News

By Amanda Pfeffer, CBC News Ottawa, August 18, 2016

Every day, a few thousand heavy trucks wind their way off the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge from Gatineau, Que., and pour onto the streets of Ottawa, inching their way through traffic toward the highway laden down with everything from heavy oil to construction material to beer. They share intersections with cyclists and pedestrians, and over the years a number of tragic accidents bring to the fore why most major cities in Canada don't do this.

But for several decades, efforts to find a solution have been dashed. The last project — an interprovincial bridge over the Ottawa River east of the downtown core — fell apart when communities there didn't want the truck problem shoved into their neighbourhoods.

Tories question impartiality of lawyer named to environmental assessment panel - Politics - CBC News

By Joanne Smith, CBC News Ottawa, August 18, 2016

The Conservatives are casting doubt on the impartiality of a lawyer named to the panel tasked with reviewing the environmental assessment process, saying the more than $33,000 he has donated to the Liberals, the Greens and the New Democrats over the years is a sign of bias.

"It's pretty clear that, like so many other consultation processes that the Liberal government has embarked upon, this process is designed and, quite frankly, rigged to get the outcome they want," said Conservative environment critic Ed Fast.