By Andrew Kvetin, Ottawa Community News, December 3, 2015
A Kanata family has pulled a switcheroo on Hydro Ottawa – after installing solar panels on their townhome, the energy company now owes the family energy.
That’s one of the happy by-products of having the first net metering solar array in Hydro Ottawa’s system, said Samir Ibrahim, who owns the Trailwest home along with his wife and two children.
By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, December 9, 2015
A 135-year-old unused rail bridge owned by the City of Ottawa was going to become a nifty cycling connection to Gatineau, but the 2016 budget could scrub the plan.
The Prince of Wales Bridge north of the Bayview transit station isn't exactly collecting dust, since it's a popular spot to watch a summer sunset or the Canada Day fireworks over the Ottawa River.
By Andrew Coyne, Ottawa Citizen, December 7, 2015
The other day I happened to be in Ottawa. I happened to have a lunch at a downtown restaurant where I happened to overhear a conversation between two businessmen. The subject of their conversation, as it happened, was how to get money out of the federal government.
(...)
For the company is not just making cars, or planes, or what have you. It is making things the politician really wants: jobs, usually, or at least the claims of them, but also association with prestigious technologies, or green cred — anything that will make the politician feel important, or get him elected, or both. And whereas the firm is typically unable to persuade consumers in competitive markets to pay it enough to cover the costs of making its notional product — hence the need for subsidy — the same product will buy it millions of dollars in subsidies.
By Matthew Pearson and Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, December 9, 2015
Jim Watson’s firm grip on Ottawa city council appeared to slip Wednesday after five councillors voted against the 2016 budget.
The mayor has presided over unanimous budget votes ever since he was elected in 2010, but this time around he failed to convince all 23 members of council that a two-per-cent tax increase was enough to continue providing the level of service residents have come to expect.
Meanwhile, efforts by some councillors to freeze transit fares or secure additional money for struggling community agencies fell on largely deaf ears.
By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, December 9, 2015
(...)
Council approves LRT toilets, but not pay-to-peeCity councillors have approved a plan for public washrooms at Bayview and Hurdman stations at a cost of about $2 million. But if the plan includes pay toilets, they want the matter to return to council.
The capital costs of the washrooms would come from the $80-million LRT project contingency fund. However, there is an estimated $13,000-a-month in extra maintenance costs. At finance committee on Dec. 1, Mayor Jim Watson asked city staff to explore the possibility of pay toilets. This sparked a controversy over whether it was fair to ask transit riders to pay to pee.
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, December 8, 2015
The city would install more car chargers if the province paid for them, Coun. Keith Egli said Tuesday.
The transportation committee chairman was responding to the province’s plan to give $20 million to “public and private partners” to expand Ontario’s electric vehicle charging network.
Few details are available – a full plan is due later this month – so it’s unclear if the city is eligible, Egli said.
By Susan Sherring, Ottawa Sun, December 9, 2015
Hail the hallowed turtle.
In an effort to protect the Blanding's turtle, the city spent $700,000 erecting a turtle fence on Dwyer Hill Rd.
And city staff believe many more hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent doing the same across the city -- all at taxpayers' expense -- to protect endangered species.
By CBC News Ottawa, December 8, 2015
Ontario's Liberal government will hand out $20 million in grants next year to help create a network of public charging stations for electric vehicles.
The province wants public and private sector partners to build fast-charging electric vehicle stations in cities, along highways and at workplaces, apartments and condominiums, said Premier Kathleen Wynne.
"This program is part of Ontario's new, $325-million green investment fund," Wynne announced Tuesday at the climate change talks in Paris. "We know that for electric vehicles to take off in Ontario there has to be the infrastructure in place."
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, December 9, 2015
Yes, squirrels really are extra fat this year, as they keep foraging, feasting and storing calories at a time when we usually have snow and frozen ground.
“What a year for fat squirrels! Have you seen some of these guys? They’re colossal,” marvelled Dan Brunton, a naturalist and environmental consultant in Ottawa.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, December 9, 2015
The battle of the budget will be over hiking — or freezing — transit fares next year.
Against the wishes of Mayor Jim Watson and transit commission chairman Stephen Blais, Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum planned to ask city council on Wednesday to freeze fares for 2016 and instead increase the transit levy a further 0.9 per cent — a move he says will cost the average homeowner less than $6 next year.
Nussbaum’s premise is simple: Mass disruption in the city’s transit system next year as the result of ongoing construction of the Confederation LRT line is no time to ask OC Transpo riders to pay more.
Par Michel Bolduc, ICI Radio-Canada Ottawa Gatineau, le 8 décembre 2015
La province espère inciter davantage d'Ontariens à s'acheter un véhicule électrique, en investissant 20 millions de dollars dans la construction d'un réseau de bornes de recharge.
Ces stations seraient installées à proximité des autoroutes ainsi que sur les lieux de travail et à l'extérieur de condominiums, par exemple.
Le ministre des Transports, Steven Del Duca, explique que l'une des raisons expliquant la faible popularité des véhicules électriques à l'heure actuelle est le nombre limité de kilomètres qu'ils peuvent parcourir avant d'être rechargés.
By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, December 7, 2015
Ottawa could consider congestion taxes and other pay-to-drive systems as early as next year, just as the province is rolling out its new carpool toll lane program.
Transportation minister Steven Del Duca announced Monday morning the province will convert one stretch of the QEW’s high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, allowing single drivers to pay to use what’s otherwise only available to carpoolers.
Ottawa’s carpool lanes likely won’t get the same treatment for years, but the transportation committee may look at other options in the meantime after Coun. David Chernushenko asked staff last week to estimate the cost and effort required to study best practices for congestion taxes, municipal gas taxes and user fees on bridges.