Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Water plant needs $18.5M upgrade to prevent ice jams in shallow intake pipe

Ottawa Citizen

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, May 11, 2016

The city’s 104-year-old purification plant on Lemieux Island is having trouble sucking up water from Ottawa River in the winter because slushy ice clogs a shallow intake pipe.

It could cost nearly $20 million to extend a deeper pipe into the river and solve the problem, according to an environmental report.

The ice jam in the pipes has become headache for the city in recent years. Clearing the “frazil” ice has cost as much as $700,000 annually in emergency repairs and overtime. The work is critical to keeping drinking water flowing to homes across Ottawa.

Politicians might have to intervene in troubled Presto negotiations, Watson says

Ottawa Citizen

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, May 11, 2016

Politicians might have to step in to sort out a disagreement between the OC Transpo and Metrolinx transit agencies over how much more the city should pay to use Presto on public transit, Mayor Jim Watson says.

“We don’t want to be treated, nor do other municipalities, as a cash cow for Metrolinx and Presto in order to fund their operations,” Watson said Wednesday at city hall.

Reevely: U.S. wind power company seeks $475M in NAFTA claim

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, May 11, 2016

Canadian taxpayers are facing a $475-million free-trade claim from an American company that alleges the Ontario government invented scientific pretexts to stop wind farms in the Great Lakes.

That’s on top of a $500-million lawsuit against the province by Ontario-based Trillium Power Wind Corp. over the same “temporary” ban (now five years old and counting), and an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into whether government officials destroyed emails and documents that should have been kept as evidence.

Council to seek permission to use photo radar in school zones

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, May 11, 2016

Ottawa will join other Ontario municipalities pressuring the province for permission to target speeders using photo radar.

In a 20-2 vote, council agreed to ask the provincial government for permission to conduct a photo radar pilot project in school zones as long as the ward’s councillor agrees. Any money collected from fines would be used to fund road safety programs.

Bike corral moves to MacLaren

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, May 10, 2016

The city’s wayward bike corral is on the move again.

Staff installed the temporary 12-spot bike rack in a street parking spot on MacLaren Street near Bank Street on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s a first for Centretown; two other summer corrals have stayed in Hintonburg and the Glebe since the pilot launched in 2014.

But the third corral hasn’t found its rightful home. It was yanked out of Wellington West in 2014 after business owners complained it was limiting short-term parking in front of their shops.

Ottawa city council to vote on reduced parking in urban core

Metro News

By Lucy Scholey, Ottawa Metro News, May 10, 2016

Ottawa city councillors will vote on two separate proposals to reduce parking spots in the urban core on Wednesday.

One application concerns a National Capital Commission (NCC) building at 283 Sussex Dr., which sits across from the Royal Canadian Mint. The other is for two 26-storey student residence towers planned for a block between Rideau and Besserer streets downtown.

The former file, which was approved at planning committee on Tuesday, is on a comparatively much smaller scale, but neighbours say the proposal will hurt Lowertown’s parking situation.

High school students invent a bio-friendly hay bale wrap

CTV Ottawa News

By Eric Longley, CTV News Ottawa, May 10, 2016

It’s one of the biggest environmental problems you’ve never heard of, billions of pounds of agricultural plastic being burned, buried, or sent to landfills.

But have no fear, the A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S. are working on it.

“It stands for A Very Energetic Nerdy Group of Environmentally Responsible Students,” explains Rachel Wood.

Canada 'moving forward' on asbestos ban, Justin Trudeau says - Ottawa - CBC News

By Julie Ireton, CBC News Ottawa, May 11, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made the federal government's first commitment to move forward with a plan to ban asbestos.

Trudeau made the comments Tuesday while speaking at Canada's building trades union policy conference in Ottawa."We've actually made the commitment that we are moving forward on a ban … here in Canada," said Trudeau in response to a question from a trade union leader. "We know that its impact on workers far outweighs any benefits that it might provide."

Reevely: Province’s information commissioner won’t investigate alleged deletions of wind-farm documents

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, May 10, 2016

Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner won’t investigate a wind-farm company’s allegations that government officials deleted important documents about cancelling its project because that could duplicate a police investigation.

The opposition Progressive Conservatives’ energy critic John Yakabuski, the MPP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, wrote to commissioner Brian Beamish asking him to take up claims by Trillium Power Wind Corp. in a lawsuit against the government. The company says that the government made a political decision in 2011 to scrap all potential wind farms out in

Your letters for Wednesday, May 11: Renewing Sparks Street, noise complaints

Ottawa Citizen

By Thomas Brawn and Mary VanBuskirk, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, May 11, 2016

Get Sparks Street and the market right

When the (construction) dust settles on this city’s current litter of new projects and ideas, let’s hope some common sense has prevailed and Ottawans can finally enjoy exciting, and sustainable venues free of construction danger, noise and grime.

Attaran: Off the podium: Why Zika virus means we should postpone the Olympics

Ottawa Citizen

By Amir Attaran, Ottawa Citizen, May 10, 2016

This article is excerpted from a longer version that appears in the May 2016 Harvard Public Health review:

Brazil’s Zika problem is inconveniently not ending. The outbreak that began in the country’s northeast has reached Rio de Janeiro, where it is flourishing. Clinical studies are also mounting that Zika infection is associated not just with pediatric microcephaly and brain damage, but also adult conditions such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which are debilitating and sometimes fatal.

Metrolinx suggests Transpo pay five times more on Presto taps

Ottawa Citizen

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, May 10, 2016

The provincial agency that runs Presto has suggested OC Transpo shell out five times more in commissions for each smart card tap, Postmedia has learned.

A 10-per-cent cut from each fare Transpo collects when riders use their Presto cards would cause the city’s transit costs to skyrocket, leaving council to decide whether to hike fares or put the burden on the shoulders of taxpayers.