Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

OC Transpo fare freeze idea far-fetched, argues Mayor Jim Watson - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, December 8, 2015

Mayor Jim Watson has criticized a city councillor's campaign to freeze a planned fare hike for OC Transpo riders as compensation for all the service disruptions they'll face over the next two years."

The notion is, 'Well there's going to be disruptions in the next two years, let's freeze fares,'" Watson told reporters on Tuesday. "There's going to be disruptions for the next eight years because phase two [of the city's light rail project] is going to go ahead. Are we freezing them for eight years?"

Letters: The Adàwe bridge and Ontario’s nuclear shutdown

Ottawa Citizen

By Harris Boyd, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, December 7, 2015

A bridge as destination

The new bridge across the Rideau River linking Sandy Hill and Overbook is an excellent addition to both communities, restoring a crossing that has not been available since 1952. Based on the crowd attending the opening ceremony on Friday and the traffic on the bride during this first weekend, it is obvious this link is already very popular with local residents as well as those from farther afield. It is also evident that the bridge, rather than just being a convenient way to get from Point A to Point B as most bridges are, is a destination in itself. Many people are going down to the new bridge just to linger and enjoy the unobstructed views of the Rideau River in both directions, a view not possible for many years.

NCC wants your big ideas about the national capital of the future

Ottawa Citizen

By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, December 8, 2015

The National Capital Commission is encouraging Canadians to take to Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to share their big ideas for the future of Canada’s capital.

The NCC wants its Plan for Canada’s Capital, a planning framework for the next 50 years now under development, to include 17 “major milestone projects” that will transform the capital region between 2017 and 2067.“The milestone projects will span multiple political and economic cycles, and are meant to ensure that the nature and character of the seat of the government of Canada continues to reflect the country throughout the 21st century,” the NCC said in a release Tuesday.

Five things to watch at Ottawa city hall this week

Metro News

By Emma Jackson, Ottawa Metro News, December 6, 2015

City councillors will approve the 2016 budget this week, but they'll also be dealing with heritage issues as the Boyd house in Kanata goes up for designation and rezoning and city staff attempt to put out Stittsville's barn-demolition fire. But amid all the controversy councillors will also announce an "electrifying addition" to the 2017 celebrations.

(...)

Clearing the air: The Ottawa Board of Health will decide how to consider banning hookahs and e-cigarettes from all public property this Monday. The consultation plan includes surveying residents on the merits of a ban, talking to owners of vapour and hookah lounges and consulting community and health services groups.

City to install rain gardens on Stewart Street in Sandy Hill

By Alex Robinson, Ottawa Community News, December 7, 2015

The city is looking to build rain gardens on Stewart Street in Sandy Hill as part of an initiative to keep dirty water out of the Ottawa River.

The proposed project would reconfigure two blocks of the street – from King Edward Avenue to Friel Street – to install the gardens to decrease the amount of untreated water that flows into the storm sewer and then into the river.

(...)

The project, which will cost approximately $800,000, is part of city’s Ottawa River Action Plan, which seeks to clean up the river and build infrastructure to keep sewage from flowing into it.

Coalition asks transportation committee to consider toll roads

By Jen McIntosh, Ottawa Community News, December 4, 2015

Trevor Haché, representing the Healthy Transportation Coalition, wants to see the city study the feasibility of introducing toll roads.

At a transportation committee meeting on Dec. 2, Haché said he wants the city to put more money into the cycling network and said the money could come from cancelling the widening of the Airport Parkway, increasing parking fees and instituting user fees for roads.

Councillors on the committee seemed skeptical of the idea.

“Would you be willing to pay user fees for cycling?” asked Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais.

Transportation Safety Board says OC drivers speed to make up time

Ottawa & Reg

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, December 6, 2015

The Transportation Safety Board learned bus drivers made a habit of speeding on Transitway, north of the Barrhaven rail crossing where the deadly bus-train crash happened in 2013, to make up time on their schedules.

But the city disputed that finding, telling the TSB in private that there is no issue with lost time because OC Transpo has scheduled routes so that drivers don't have to speed.

Ontario Liberals introduce high-occupancy toll lanes pilot project - Toronto - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, December 7, 2015

Ontario's transportation minister has announced that the province will be launching a high-occupancy toll lanes pilot project on Queen Elizabeth Parkway from Trafalgar Road to Guelph Line in Oakville, Ont., and Burlington Ont., in June 2016.

Previous reporting on this storyThe so-called HOT lanes will allow motorists without passengers to pay to use High-Occupancy-Vehicle (HOV) lanes, which were designed to encourage carpooling.

Adami: Resident questions city’s sewer surcharge for water that doesn’t go down the drain

Ottawa Citizen

By Hugh Adami, Ottawa Citizen, December 6, 2015

Kevin Murray took on Ottawa City Hall, fought a good fight and, predictably, still came out a poorer man.

The senior citizen’s patience was recently tested by the city over a water bill he received after his backyard garden hose started leaking in early August from a small puncture. The water tap was on but the hose nozzle was turned to the off position.

Murray’s water bill ballooned as a result. His bi-monthly bill is roughly $140-$145. When the big bill arrived last Aug. 22, total charges amounted to $1,068.16. Murray attributed $922 to the leak, including $497 in sewer surcharges. The sewer levy covers maintenance and operational costs associated with the release of water charged on the bill into the sanitary or storm sewer system.

Letter: Deal with the problem of radioactive waste

Ottawa Citizen

By Jan Heynen, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, December 5, 2015

Re: Ontario’s impending nuclear shutdown means a greenhouse-gas spike, Dec. 3.

This Citizen column by David Reevely joins a long list of publications that ignore a very important problem with nuclear power generation: pollution from fossil fuel is replaced with radioactive waste. CO2 causes global warming and it stays in the air for a number of years. Radioactive waste from nuclear power generation lasts for hundreds or thousands of years.

What’s more, nobody has found a safe way to get rid of it. The waste can be used to make “dirty bombs,” which is a low-tech weapon. Then there is the vastly bigger threat of failure from a nuclear plant than from alternatives (see Fukushima, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl).

Jenkins: Cities and climate change

Ottawa Citizen

By Phil Jenkins, Ottawa Citizen, December 6, 2015

For the past few days, as a curious and possibly endangered citizen, I’ve been reading up on the role cities in general, and Ottawa in particular, are expected to play in the mitigation of the coming, inevitable climatic disruption. It’s been rather like watching game tapes to prepare tactics for the upcoming contest, a contest of monumental proportions.

This spate of concerned research was prompted by several things. By the daily news coverage of the climate change summit in resilient Paris; by the return of the federal government to the positive side of the climate change conference tables; by the fact of Mayor Jim Watson, unable to attend the conference, being quoted as saying, via his spokesperson, that he “looks forward to speaking with those mayors who do attend (Paris) upon their return”; by the emails I’ve received lately from steadfast Ecology Ottawa (ecologyottawa.ca) regarding the advances and retreats in civic policy on climate change; and by the conversations I had after the fact with many of my neighbours returning from the 100% Possible rally on Parliament Hill last weekend, one of the biggest the city has ever seen (organized in part by Ecology Ottawa); and by the fact of the minister of environment and climate change being an Ottawa MP, plus the symbolism of her new title.

Video: Pedestrians and cyclists celebrate the opening of Adàwe crossing over the Rideau River

Ottawa Citizen

By Ottawa Citizen, December 4, 2015

Ottawa councillor Tobi Nussbaum officially opened Adàwe crossing, the new pedestrian bridge that links Donald Street and Somerset Street East, on Friday, November 4, 2015.

This new link provides pedestrians and cyclists with easy access to the communities, amenities and employment located on either side of the Rideau River. The name Adàwe is the Algonquin term meaning to trade and is symbolic of the history of the Rideau River, the aboriginal heritage of the area and the bridges ability to link the communities on either side.