By Aidan Cox, Ottawa Citizen, July 19, 2016
NDP leader Tom Mulcair wants the Ministry of Natural Resources to investigate allegations made about the safety of Ontario’s nuclear power plants.
“A recent whistleblower letter … includes allegations that are troubling for all Canadians,” said Tom Mulcair in a letter he wrote to Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr.
By Devyn Barrie, StittsvilleCentral, July 20, 2016
With a couple of proposals for low-rise apartment buildings along Robert Grant (Haliburton Heights, Livery Street), and a multi-story retirement complex along Hazeldean (Wellings), we wanted to find out what Stittsville could look like with more high-density developments.
According to urbanist and Carleton University professor Benjamin Gianni, more density could mean a shift to how residents get around town.
Because high-density developments put everything closer together, people are more inclined to leave the car in favour of walking or taking transit.
By CTV News Ottawa, July 20, 2016
Earlier today Ottawa police conducted a safety blitz aimed at cyclists obeying the rules of the road.
Police tweeted out this morning that within a 45 minute blitz, 12 cyclists were charged with failing to stop at a stop sign.
The fine is set at $110 for the offense.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 19, 2016
The City of Ottawa is missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential revenue because it still doesn't have a process in place for pursuing out-of-province drivers who run red lights — despite being given the power to do so by the Ontario government more than six months ago.
In the first quarter of 2016, the city issued 5,266 violations to drivers caught in the act by the city's red light cameras, and estimates it could have handed out another 1,241 to owners of vehicles with out-of-province plates
By Doug Hempstead, CBC News Ottawa, July 20, 2016
We have some new construction to add to the pile.
Anyone who travels through Kanata in and around Terry Fox and Palladium knows there's been heavy construction there for a while. Starting today, Maple Grove is closed to traffic from Terry Fox Drive to Silver Seven Road. This affects cyclists as well.
Here's what the city says about it.
Construction also continues on O'Connor south of Laurier affecting the Laurier bike lane as crews build a new one on O'Connor.
By Glen Gower, StittsvilleCentral, July 18, 2016
Jonathan Seguin sent along some photos and warning about wild parsnip along the trails south of Abbott Street and east of Shea. Colloquially known as the “Abbott Street Dog Park”, it’s a very popular area for dogwalkers, even though it’s on private property.
The yellow weed is all over the place in our area, especially near ditches, pathways and fields. The plant’s sap can cause skin and eye irritation, and make the skin prone to burning and blistering when exposed to the sun. (It’s not as big a risk for dogs, although sap could be transferred from their fur to human skin.)
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, July 18, 2016
We’re swimming just as much as last year, we’re just doing it in more sewage.
Petrie Island’s east bay beach was closed Monday due to high E. Coli levels, but all other beaches were open to swimmers.
Nearly double the amount of raw sewage has overflowed into the Ottawa River between July 1 and July 18 compared to the same period last year: 84,000 cubic metres in 2016 versus 46,500 m3 in 2015.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, July 19, 2016
A Nepean residents’ association is racing to get the city and other levels of government to help purchase a two-acre property for a flagship community park.
The City View Community Association wants 21 Withrow Ave. to become a park to fill what residents believe to be a huge void in the area. Other parks in the community are too small to be considered a “neighbourhood park,” they say.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 19, 2016
The mosquito kill in Kanata North seems to be keeping the blood-sucking insects away this summer, but a University of Ottawa student is patrolling the marshes of the South March Highlands to see if the pesticides being used are killing off anything else in the local ecosystem.
In April GDG Environment, hired by the City of Ottawa, began applying daily doses of liquid larvicide, known as Bti (BacillusThuringiensis Israelensis) and Bs (Bacillus Sphaericus), to prevent mosquito larvae from hatching in the area.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 19, 2016
It's a step the average meat eater likely doesn't want to dwell too much on. But if you want fresh meat from local farms, you also need a local slaughterhouse.
But abattoirs are becoming scarce in eastern Ontario.So one pig farmer is taking the bull by the horns and raising money for a non-profit slaughterhouse in the community of Athens.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, July 18, 2016
The Ottawa-based Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is investigating allegations, purportedly from an internal group of specialists, that CNSC commissioners are receiving “insufficient information” to make informed safety decisions about Ontario’s nuclear power plants.
In an unsigned letter to CNSC president Michael Binder, copied to the Citizen, the authors say their main concern is that the nuclear watchdog’s commissioners “do not receive sufficient information to make balanced judgments.”
By Robyn Miller, CBC News Ottawa, July 18, 2016
A farmer from a small Ottawa-area town is bringing pasture raised chicken to market through a provincial program that aims to fill a rising demand for locally produced chicken and make it easier for small-scale farmers to break into the market.
Kornel Schneider applied for the artisanal chicken program last year and is now in his first summer of pasture-raised chicken production at Ferme Rêveuse in Curran, Ont., about an hour east of Ottawa.