By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, June 21, 2016
Ottawa residents will learn next week how the National Capital Commission plans to conduct its review of potential sites for The Ottawa Hospital‘s proposed new Civic campus.
Stephen Willis, the NCC’s outgoing planning director, will make a 30-minute presentation on the subject at the end of next Tuesday’s public board of directors meeting.
By Chris Holski, CFRA News, June 20, 2016
An Ottawa councillor feels a tweet sent out by the city over the weekend that raised the ire of cyclists was inappropriately worded.
The tweet in question posted Sunday morning said "Cyclists, you have to stop at pedestrian crossovers to let people cross. Yes, just like the cars. Yes. Just. Like. Cars."
By Alison Sandor, CFRA News, June 21, 2016
Ottawa Police are the first in Canada to try out a new device that helps them gauge whether motorists are giving cyclists enough room when they pass.
In Ontario, cars must give bikes a one metre berth when passing and Const. Craig Barlow said the sonar devices will help them measure that.
"It displays on my display case the distance," said Barlow. "There's an alarm that goes off if a vehicle passes within that one metre distance."
By Matthew Kupfer, CBC News Ottawa, June 21, 2016
The Ottawa Board of Health voted Monday night to ask the city to ban hookahs and other waterpipes from being smoked in public places, but hookah bar operators continue to oppose the move, saying it would hurt their businesses and their culture.
If passed by council, the ban would make it illegal for any workplace to allow people to smoke pipes, including hookahs, either inside or on outdoor patios.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, June 20, 2016
Hydro Ottawa announced Monday that it plans to buy Hydro-Québec’s remaining hydroelectric assets at Chaudière Falls, pumping enough additional energy into the province’s grid to power 22,500 homes a year.
The company, which is wholly owned by the City of Ottawa, will acquire from Hydro-Québec the remaining 33 per cent interest in the Ottawa River ring dam, as well as a 27-megawatt generating station on the Gatineau side of Chaudière Falls.
By Ottawa Citizen, June 20, 2016
City crews are expected to resume excavation of the LRT tunnel this week after water is removed from the section underneath the Rideau Street sinkhole.
City manager Steve Kanellakos wrote in a statement released Monday that crews have shown “significant” progress since the sinkhole opened up on June 8. He said the Rideau Transit Group estimates that the intersection of Rideau and Sussex, just west of the sinkhole location, will re-open in one week.
By CTV News Ottawa, June 18, 2016
Ottawa Fire and Hazardous Material Crews responded to a two-alarm blaze at an industrial site in the city’s east end Saturday.
Fire officials say they received a call for a fire located at 2075 Stevenage Dr. around 12:30. That is the address for Drain-All Ltd., an environmental waste handling company where chemicals and other hazardous materials are often disposed.
By Megan Gillis, Ottawa Sun, June 19, 2016
It’s apt that Ray Moulton’s favourite Star Wars character is Luke Skywalker.His own family’s house bears more than a passing resemblance to Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen’s dome home, where the young Jedi-to-be was raised.
Even Moulton’s real estate agent bills the energy-efficient monolithic dome as the "Star Wars house," and dressed up like Princess Leia for an open house.Now you, too, could live like a Skywalker.
(...)
Rabecca and Ray Moulton caught the environmental bug while living in British Columbia and started researching environmentally friendly construction.
By Jen Beard, CBC News Ottawa, June 19, 2016
A group of people fishing on the Ottawa River on Monday evening got a surprise when they pulled up the line and at the end was an American eel.
It was a rare catch at Britannia Beach — a man fishing nearby explained that the eel is an endangered species in Ontario and had to be released.
By Hillary Johnstone, CBC News Ottawa, June 20, 2016
Seventy-five municipalities across Ontario are calling on the provincial government to give them more say on future wind farm projects.
Some eastern Ontario communities have declared themselves "unwilling hosts" to wind farms, only to recently have the province award contracts against their wishes.
The City of Ottawa, North Frontenac and at least 73 other municipalities want Ontario's Independent Electrical System Operator (IESO) to "make formal municipal support a mandatory requirement in Ontario's next round of procurement for renewable energy projects," according to the resolution.
By Stu Mills, CBC News Ottawa, June 20, 2016
Waterworks officials in a small town southwest of Ottawa are monitoring a funeral company that has become the first in Ontario to use an alkaline solution to dissolve human remains, and then drain the leftover coffee-coloured effluents into the sewer system.
Aquagreen Dispositions began operating in a rental unit within the former Rideau Regional Centre in Smiths Falls in May 2015 after receiving a licence from the Ontario government. Hilton's Unforgettable Tails, a parallel business handling the remains of pets, had been using the same process for a couple of years prior to Aquagreen Dispositions, but it took longer to get a licence to handle human remains.
By Lucy Scholey, Ottawa Metro News, June 17, 2016
Bruce Heyman wanted to tear down the post-9/11 stark concrete barriers outside the American embassy in Ottawa.
So the U.S. ambassador to Canada travelled to Washington with recent pictures of the building.
Just before he was to make his pitch, he spotted an older photo of the embassy hanging on the wall, pre-barriers.