Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Developers urged city to consider their lands in urban boundary expansion

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, January 16, 2021

The city received nearly 50 submissions from developers or their consultants making cases for including their lands inside an expanded urban boundary as municipal planners decided the best candidates for joining the growing suburbs.

Now that council has decided how much more land should be brought inside the urban boundary, it needs to figure out which lands will receive the honour of becoming part of suburban Ottawa.

(...)The city is using criteria and scoring system to determine which lands should be included in the urban boundary. In general, the properties should be in close proximity to public transit and have existing or planned municipal infrastructure, such as water services, wastewater services and roads.

The city has found 1,011 hectares of land that should be brought inside the urban boundary, but the council-approved direction calls for 1,281 hectares to be added to the urban area.

(...)The staff also report recommends creating a “Gold Belt” similar to the Greenbelt created in the 1950s, consisting of agricultural land, natural areas and key mineral aggregate resource areas.

The Gold Belt would effectively create “ultimate boundaries” for Barrhaven, Riverside South, Stittsville and Orléans, limiting new urban expansion between the Greenbelt and the Gold Belt.  

“The intent of the inner boundary of the Gold Belt in the new official plan would be to contain, until the end of the century, all future urban expansions and any new communities,” the report said.

“This would also assist in preserving the unique identities of the city’s villages and ensure they are not overtaken by future urban expansions. Leapfrogging of the Gold Belt for new urban land would be prohibited in new official plan policy.”

On Saturday, Ecology Ottawa expressed criticism of the city’s intention to limit future urban expansions, saying that, without stronger policies, it was just a “mirage.”

We've run out the clock — and Trudeau's climate accountability bill isn't enough

By Seth Klein, National Observer, January 15, 2021

(...)On Nov. 19, Justin Trudeau’s federal government tabled its long-awaited bill seeking to embed new greenhouse gas reduction targets into law. But sadly, Bill C-12, dubbed the “Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act,” provides virtually nothing in the way of robust accountability. In its current form, it is, in short, a stunning disappointment and desperately in need of amendments to make the bill worthwhile.

The good news is that, with a minority Parliament, the government needs the support of one or more of the NDP and Bloc Québécois to pass C-12 (or it could seek to pass the bill with the aid of the Conservatives, which would speak volumes). That means, as you read this commentary, there exists a very short window of opportunity to strengthen the proposed law and turn it into something that can indeed induce significant climate action.

If you have ever wondered when you might contact your member of Parliament to share your thoughts and hopes and you are concerned about the climate emergency, well, right now would be a very good time.

Biden indicates plans to cancel Keystone XL pipeline permit on 1st day in office, sources confirm

By Kyle Bakx, CBC News, January 18, 2021

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday.

A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president's team with U.S. stakeholders.

(...)Climate actions planned for first day

They include a raft of environmental policies to be enacted on the first day of his presidency, including re-joining the Paris climate accord. The note shown to stakeholders has led some to expect that the first-day climate actions will include the move to cancel the project to carry Canadian bitumen. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in his first conversation with Biden as president-elect in November, indicated that he wanted to speak further about some potential irritants — including Keystone XL and Biden's proposed Buy American policies. 

City staff propose 'gold belt' to hem in future Ottawa development

By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, January 16, 2021

The City of Ottawa is about to have a second marathon debate about where to allow future suburbs to be built, and this time staff propose hemming in development by creating what's being dubbed the "gold belt."

Eight months after city council decided to expand the urban boundary by 1,281 hectares to help house a growing population, senior city planners have released the map of which properties should be developed — and which property owners stand to see values soar if their lands are rezoned. 

(...)With council determined to protect farmland, staff have also proposed a way to rein in urban development through to the end of the century.

They recommend establishing a "gold belt" or "countryside belt" of farm fields and mineral deposits that would separate existing Kanata, Orléans, Barrhaven and other new communities from rural villages.

(...)Last May, a joint meeting of Ottawa's planning and rural affairs committees went on for three days and heard from more than 100 people.

The discussions are watched closely because there's money to be made when the city brings land inside the urban line and allows it to be developed.

Countries must ‘urgently’ adapt to climate change, UN warns

By Levon Sevunts, CBC International, January 15, 2021

The international community must step up its efforts to adapt to climate change and build up resilience in the face of growing impacts of global warming or face mounting costs, damages and losses, according to a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.

The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 finds that while many countries have made progress in planning for climate change adaptation, there are significant financing shortfalls in getting them to the stage where they provide real protection against droughts, floods and rising sea levels.

(...)Climate change adaptation – building up countries’ and communities’ resilience in the face of climate change impacts – is a key pillar of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

(...)

The report places a special focus on nature-based solutions as low-cost options that reduce climate risks, restore and protect biodiversity and bring benefits for communities and economies.

Initiatives ranging from restoring degraded tropical forests, coastal mangroves, floodplains and prairie grasslands to planting trees in city parks are increasingly being recognized as an effective approach to addressing climate risks.

However, the report finds that funding of nature-based projects constitutes only a tiny fraction of funds dedicated to climate change adaptation. An analysis of four global climate funds that spent $94 billion on adaptation projects found that just $12 billion went to nature-based solutions.

Eco-friendly coffin company springs to life in Lanark County

By Evelyn Harford, InsideOttawaValley, January 16, 2021

Most people think about green living. But what about green death?

Donna Klassen started Earthbound Coffins — a family-owned business — to provide an alternative, eco-friendly option for people who desire a simple and green burial.

(...)Each handcrafted coffin is made with Lanark County timber. The rope handles are made together with a local craftsperson. The use of non-toxic glue and minimal hardware make them biodegradable, unlike more contemporary caskets adorned with satin and flashy hardware, rich stains and polishes.

The production of the coffins is sustainable, too. The offcut wood heats the workshop and wood shavings are reused as lining or used for Klassen’s horses and chickens — the wood ash is even used in the family’s vegetable garden.

Klassen’s coffins offer simplistic beauty and an option for those wishing to choose natural burial — something Klassen is passionate about.

“Instead of putting more chemicals into the earth, you’re actually enriching the earth,” she said. “After taking all your life from the world, it’s the one way that your body actually gives back.”

Green burial is one of the most eco-friendly options for a person to choose for their body’s final resting place after death. Traditional burial requires a lot of resources underneath and above ground including lawn maintenance, concrete encasement of caskets, which are often made of polished wood or metal. There is also worry that chemicals used in embalming will eventually leak into the earth, polluting water and soil.

Cremation contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Natural Burial Association, the average cremation uses 106 litres of fuel to burn a single body and it emits toxins like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10308400-eco-friendly-coffin-company-springs-to-life-in-lanark-county/?s=n1?source=newsletter&utm_content=a10&utm_source=ml_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=6CF0E4C8DFED7B7E28F22E123857E24F&utm_campaign=ovha_91446

Pellerin: In future, let's treat trees, mountains and rivers like people

By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen, January 15, 2021

When we finally get the pandemic under control — after we get used to respecting the rules of lockdown, I mean — we’ll have to turn our attention to new routines that don’t involve treating the environment like a trash can. And for that, we’ll need to think about the future at least as much as we think about instant gratification. And remember that trees are people, too.

No, really. But first, the future.

2030 is now less than a decade away and if we are to keep our word and limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius as per the Paris Agreementwe say we’re so keen on, we’re going to have to step on the electric accelerator.

It’s hard for any individual person or family to know what to do, beyond reaching for the low-hanging fruit of trying to drive less and tweaking consumption habits. Some people add solar panels to their home, or use geothermal, or invest in green research and jobs. Others do something much more fun: They build a little company called Robin Hoodies and use it to improve biodiversity.

It was founded a year ago by a mother-and-son team in Nova Scotia. Sheila Henderson and Justin Henderson Comeau initially invested $30,000 to launch a business in which half the profits go towards buying land that is legally protected against development. Land that is allowed to “rewild.” The initiative is called Robin Hoodies because the idea is to take from the present and give to the future.

So far, they have purchased 45 acres and hope for much, more more. The hoodies are swell, too. They come with a piece of twine to remind you to hang them to dry. Oh, and soon you’ll be able to send back your old hoodie, no matter how stained or tattered, to be turned into something else. A fine way to promote a circular economy.

(...)We need more people to speak up and act for the benefit of future generations. Given half a chance, Henderson will tell you how important it would be to have a “minister of the future” in every government, someone whose job would be to stop us from ruining our children’s planet for our own immediate economic benefit. Or at least slow us down.

Draft report recommends creating a "Gold Belt" to limit sprawl

By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, January 16, 2021

Two city council committees — planning and agriculture and rural affairs — are to meet on Jan. 25 to considerwhich lands should be inside Ottawa’s urban boundary.

It has been a contentious matter. Ottawa’s population is expected to grow to 1.4 million people in the next 25 years and to reach two million people by 2100, and the city has endorsed ambitious intensification goals.

In May, council voted 15-6 in favour of a growth plan that would add between 1,350 and 1,650 hectares of development land inside the urban boundary and set a residential intensification goal of 51 per cent between July 2018 and July 2046, increasing to 60 per cent between 2041 and 2046.

In a draft report released Friday, city planners used a scoring system to recommend approving 1,011 hectares of category 1 lands fornew neighbourhoods, encouraging growth near existing commercial areas and existing or planned transit hubs.

(...)The report recommends adding 140 hectares near Highway 417 at Carp Road and near Highway 416 at Barnsdale Road to Ottawa’s supply of vacant lands to accommodate industrial-related jobs.

It also recommends creating a “Gold Belt” similar to the Greenbelt created in the 1950s, consisting of agricultural land, natural areas and key mineral aggregate resource areas.

The Gold Belt would effectively create “ultimate boundaries” for the suburbs of Barrhaven, Riverside South, Stittsville and Orléans, limiting new urban expansion between the Greenbelt and the Gold Belt.  

“The intent of the inner boundary of the Gold Belt in the new official plan would be to contain, until the end of the century, all future urban expansions and any new communities,” the report said.

“This would also assist in preserving the unique identities of the city’s villages and ensure they are not overtaken by future urban expansions. Leapfrogging of the Gold Belt for new urban land would be prohibited in new official plan policy.”

Clothes washing likely behind ‘pervasive’ plastic pollution in the Arctic, researchers say

By Damian Carrington, National Observer, January 23, 2021

The Arctic is “pervasively” polluted by microplastic fibres that most likely come from the washing of synthetic clothes by people in Europe and North America, research has found.

The most comprehensive study to date found the microplastics in 96 of 97 sea water samples taken from across the polar region. More than 92 per cent of the microplastics were fibres, and 73 per cent of these were made of polyester and were the same width and colours as those used in clothes. Most of the samples were taken from three to eight metres below the surface, where much marine life feeds.

Other recent analysis estimated that 3,500tn plastic microfibres from clothes washing in the U.S. and Canada ended up in the sea each year, while modelling suggested plastic dumped in the seas around the U.K. was carried to the Arctic within two years.

(...)

“The Arctic is, yet again, at the receiving end of pollutants from the south,” he said. Toxic chemical pollutants including mercury and PCBs are well known at the pole. “It’s certainly cause for concern, when we realize that the Inuit people rely very heavily on aquatic foods.”

The three- to eight-metre layer of sea water is “a biologically important area where we find phytoplankton, zooplankton, small fish, big fish, seabirds and marine mammals, foraging looking for food,” said Ross. Large animals such as turtles, albatross, seals and whales are known to be killed by plastic and he said there was no reason to think it was different for the smaller ones.

Logging in Algonquin park is just one example how Ontario is failing to protect nature

By Katie Krelove, National Observer, January 12, 2021

One side-effect of COVID-19 restrictions has been a renaissance in our collective appreciation for nature. All over the province, people have flocked to forests, wetlands and beaches to seek solace, wildlife sightings and places to safely be with others. Many parks and conservation areas were overwhelmed. In fall 2020, Algonquin Provincial Park was forced to limit visitors who wanted to see the spectacular autumn colours due to crowds, overflowing parking lots and a highway dangerously clogged by vehicles and pedestrians.

Nature at risk: auditor's report

This surge of recognition for the benefits of wild places is encouraging, especially if it translates into broad support to see them conserved and expanded. That’s why the scathing series of annual reports on the environment released last November by Ontario’s auditor general should be of concern to anyone who has spent time in nature over the past year. They expose alarming deficiencies in the province’s management of protected places, biodiversity and processes to add to the network of parks and conservation reserves.

The audit specifically calls out the 65 per cent of Algonquin open to commercial logging, logging roads and gravel extraction as an example of a protected place that’s not really protected. It’s not the first to do so. In 2014, Ontario’s environmental commissioner called for an end to logging in Algonquin, and the Wilderness Committee has been advocating for real protection for the park for years.

Ottawa traffic congestion declined more in 2020 than any other major Canadian city, study says

By Jason White, City News, January 12, 2021

An annual study on traffic congestion in major cities showed that Ottawa's congestion declined more in 2020 than in any other major Canadian city studied.

The survey was released by TomTom, a Dutch electronics company behind satellite navigation devices. It found that Ottawa had 134 days when traffic congestion levels were less than half of the same day in 2019.

"These are changes we have never seen before, in doing all of our traffic research," said Nick Cohn, a traffic expert with TomTom.

While traffic congestion declined everywhere in 2020, because of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions and stay-at-home orders, Ottawa saw its congestion decline the most out of the 12 Canadian cities included in the TomTom 2020 Traffic Index.

It appears the ease with which Ottawa's workforce, in government and high-tech, have switched to working from home, as opposed to other areas with more workers in manufacturing or natural resources.

(...)"I hope that we all keep some of this flexibility, and we've learned that we can be productive from home if we need to be and maybe not go to the office every day of the week, and save some of that wasted travel time, wasted fuel, and emissions."

Buckles: Ottawa planners still favour roads, inappropriate construction

By Daniel Buckles, Ottawa Citizen, January 6, 2021

Ottawa city hall recently released the first complete draft of a new Official Plan, a policy framework that will guide city building and municipal budgets for decades to come. The draft has a fresh look and feel, with prominent references to health objectives, climate change and equity considerations affecting Ottawa’s vulnerable or racialized communities.

But some things haven’t changed. The draft plan continues Ottawa’s long allegiance to established building industry interests, with clear biases in favour of new construction over home retrofits; roads over active transportation and green spaces; and inappropriate development over trees.

The vision for the downtown core and inner urban area, for example, acknowledges the desperate need for space to build an active transportation and green-space network, and prohibits new car-oriented infrastructure. However, it does not plan to draw down the public Right of Way currently taken up by streets and roads (which account for roughly 30 per cent of the urban area). It is well known by now that major cities around the world, such as Barcelona, Paris and Portland, have done just that, successfully by most accounts. Until and unless the Official Plan prioritizes opportunities to convert or narrow roadways for green space and active transportation, life in Ottawa will remain wedded to the car and impoverished in many other ways.