Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Rebuild the economy with green innovation, cleantech companies urge

By Emma McIntosh, National Observer, May 21, 2020

After the Great Recession struck in 2008, then-U.S. president Barack Obama threw US$112 billion into green-energy-focused economic-recovery measures.

The investment boosted renewable energies, created jobs for laid-off workers and cut pollution levels.

Now, with COVID-19 grinding the economy to a halt and governments making historic injections of public money to prevent a total collapse, green-technology companies are hoping the Canadian government will make a similar bet. More than 200 organizations representing more than 2,000 green companies have signed onto Resilient Recovery, a campaign launched last week that aims to push Canadian governments to invest in clean technology, or cleantech, as the country recovers from its virus-related shutdown.

Montreal’s main street makeover puts people first

By Pat Brennan, InsideOttawaValley, May 22, 2020

MONTREAL—It was St. Patrick’s Day in 1955 that the previous makeover of rue Sainte-Catherine — this town’s main drag — occurred.

(...)Valérie Plante, 46, Montreal’s first female mayor in its 378-year history, wants a more attractive and people-oriented main street for her city.

The city is spending $1.32 billion on the eight-block stretch of the street through the downtown core. Some of the infrastructure below the street level, such as water and sewer lines, is more than 100 years old and is being replaced. More modern infrastructure, such as electrical and telephone lines, is being upgraded to supply free Wi-Fi anywhere up on the surface.

There are currently two lanes of one-way, eastbound traffic on Sainte-Catherine. In the future, there’ll be just one lane with much wider sidewalks, plenty of street furniture with comfortable benches, bicycle lanes with bicycle racks and mature trees lining both sides of the street.

https://www.insideottawavalley.com/community-story/9994999-montreal-s-main-street-makeover-puts-people-first/?s=n1?source=newsletter&utm_content=a08&utm_source=ml_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=6cf0e4c8dfed7b7e28f22e123857e24f&utm_campaign=ovha_77335

Greens question why Ford government paused environmental oversight during COVID-19

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/05/20/news/greens-question-motivations-behind-ford-governments-pause-environmental-oversight?mc_cid=a8fb922b57&mc_eid=a53630e41b

By Emma Thompson, National Observer, May 20, 2020

The Progressive Conservative government should restore the environmental protections it suspended last month, Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said Wednesday.

The government paused part of Ontario's environmental protection law on April 1, saying it could hinder efforts to respond to COVID-19. The change allows the province to temporarily push forward environmentally significant projects or policy changes without consulting or notifying the public even if they don't relate to the pandemic.

"I’m concerned that the government could be using the COVID crisis to undermine environmental protections," Schreiner said in question period Wednesday, pointing to the province's decision last week to use the suspension to delay a deadline for industry to report their greenhouse gas emissions.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/05/20/news/greens-question-motivations-behind-ford-governments-pause-environmental-oversight?mc_cid=a8fb922b57&mc_eid=a53630e41b

Barnes: Official Plan – fast-tracking sprawl would contradict Ottawa's climate commitments

By Robb Barnes, Ottawa Citizen, May 21, 2020

On May 27, Ottawa Council will make its most important environmental decision this term. At issue is whether or not to expand the city’s urban boundary and fast-track urban sprawl. Because of the many impacts of sprawl – on climate action, green space, biodiversity, trees and transit – the votes cast by the mayor and councillors could well define the environmental legacy of their entire careers.

The environmental case against sprawl is rock-solid. First, we know it’s a climate killer. More urban sprawl means more car-oriented development patterns, with houses cut off from amenities and people forced to drive to get groceries, go to work, go to school and visit local parks. This means fewer travel options, more hours stuck in traffic, and many more emissions from vehicles. It also means more energy-inefficient, single-detached monster homes. Ottawa Council passed a climate emergency declaration only last year. This vote is a test of whether council actually intends to follow through on its climate promises.

NCC to reopen parking lots, increase access to Greenbelt, Gatineau Park

By CBC News Ottawa, May 21, 2020

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is broadening access to its parks and green spaces in the Ottawa-Gatineau area as governments loosen COVID-19 restrictions on both sides of the provincial border. 

Starting at 9 a.m. Friday, most parking lots on the NCC's urban lands, in the Greenbelt and in Gatineau Park will be open for public use again.

(...)Both the Gatineau Park and the Queen Elizabeth Driveway pilot projects will continue until Sunday, June 28. Closures to vehicles on the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway and Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway will also continue on weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the NCC said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/parking-lots-ncc-1.5579523?ref=mobilerss&cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Ottawa_727_29658

Barnes: Official Plan – fast-tracking sprawl would contradict Ottawa's climate commitments

By Robb Barnes, The Province, May 20, 2020

Developers claim intensification lacks public support, but they leave out the details of which kind of intensification we’re talking about.

On May 27, Ottawa Council will make its most important environmental decision this term. At issue is whether or not to expand the city’s urban boundary and fast-track urban sprawl. Because of the many impacts of sprawl – on climate action, green space, biodiversity, trees and transit – the votes cast by the mayor and councillors could well define the environmental legacy of their entire careers.

The environmental case against sprawl is rock-solid. First, we know it’s a climate killer. More urban sprawl means more car-oriented development patterns, with houses cut off from amenities and people forced to drive to get groceries, go to work, go to school and visit local parks. This means fewer travel options, more hours stuck in traffic, and many more emissions from vehicles. It also means more energy-inefficient, single-detached monster homes. Ottawa Council passed a climate emergency declaration only last year. This vote is a test of whether council actually intends to follow through on its climate promises.

Adam: Ottawa's new Official Plan just might protect farmland

By Mohamed Adam, Ottawa Citizen, May 21, 2020

The stage is now set for Ottawa Council to reshape the city for the next quarter-century after the joint planning, agriculture and rural affairs committee approved the expansion of the city’s urban boundary this week.

This is no surprise. Given the character of the joint committee – and indeed council – holding the line on boundary expansion, as urban community associations and environmental groups wanted, was never a winning proposition. Now the boundary will expand by between 1,350 and 1,650 hectares to accommodate homes for hundreds of thousands of additional people over the next 25 years.

(...)Sprawl works because of the availability of cheap farmland to develop. Provincial rules protect prime farmland, usually the first three of seven classes. But as often happens, developers and speculators buy farmland, let it sit for years to turn into scrub, then apply to develop the land. In the past, town and city councils eager for property tax dollars approved the new homes. That’s how, over the years, quaint, historic villages were turned into the new suburbia. But if farmland of any kind is now off-limits to development, where to build?

Ecojustice urges Ford government to undo COVID-19 environmental rollbacks

By Emma MacIntosh, National Observer, May 20, 2020

Green law charity Ecojustice is urging the Ontario government to undo the province’s dismantling of environmental protections during the COVID-19 pandemic, calling them an unnecessary overreach that leaves the public in the dark.

On April 1, citing the pandemic, the government suspended a broad swath of environmental protection law, effectively allowing the province to push forward environmentally significant projects or policy changes ⁠— even those that don’t relate to COVID-19 ⁠— without consulting or notifying the public.

But the law already allows the government to skip public consultation if a public health emergency demands it, said Ecojustice staff lawyer Rob Wright. The only conditions are that the government notifies the auditor general and the public and explains its reasoning ⁠— stipulations that aren’t included in the exemption Ontario passed last month.

New advocacy group joins push for green recovery from COVID-19's economic shock

By Aaron Wherry, CBC News, May 19, 2020

Official plans for an economic recovery package in Canada — green or otherwise — are still in their infancy.

There is likely to come a time when governments will use stimulus spending to boost their wounded economies. But nearly all of the federal government's attention is still consumed by the profound challenges of containing a contagious disease and reopening communities amid an ongoing health threat.

(...)Bruce Lourie, the environmentalist and author who is now president of the Ivey Foundation, which helped organize the group, told CBC News the impetus was twofold: both to make sure the government didn't take its eye off the ball and invest in the "wrong kinds" of areas for the future, and to continue advancing work the foundation had already begun before the pandemic.

The task force's report will add to a growing supply of green-focused analysis. The Canada Green Building Council released a set of recommendations last week and a coalition of clean energy experts and operators has also written to the prime minister with suggestions.

Found a duck nest? Here’s what to do

By Julie Pollock, InsideOttawaValley, May 15, 2020 Have you noticed a nest in the yard? Or maybe on your daily stroll? Maybe there were three eggs, then a few more in the nest and you’re wondering whether you should interfere, or maybe call someone. We’re here with a duck-nest explainer to help. Where’s the hen? You may not notice her immediately. The female, or hen, will take breaks from the nest to feed a bit, bathe and preen. And she may avoid the nest when you are around.

If you are sure that the eggs have been sitting for many days unattended by the hen — and therefore unincubated — then sadly the nest has been abandoned. In this case, you can remove the eggs because she is not coming back.

How one apartment complex has become a microcosm of the urban boundary debate

By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, May 18, 2020

There's nothing particularly surprising about the fact a developer wants to build a four-storey, 30-unit apartment building in a residential Ottawa neighbourhood.

Nor is it shocking that the community opposes at least parts of the plan, which would see a 12-metre high complex built on Grenon Avenue, just east of the Bayshore Shopping Centre. The project would first require rezoning to allow more intensification on the property, and then an exception to that new zoning so it can be built closer to the lot line than usually permitted.

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"This application is an effort on the part of the group of investors to exploit a unique and small land parcel in question to its maximum, without having to observe the rules of rezoning and construction," said Lisa Zanyk, a resident living next door, at the city's planning committee last Thursday.

She's not wrong. The community was being asked not only to accept intensification — which delegates said they did not object to — but also to accept exceptions to the rules of that intensification.

Changes coming to recycling collection in Mississippi Mills June 1

By Ashley Kulp, InsideOttawaValley, May 15, 2020 Recycling collection in Mississippi Mills is going to look a little different after June 1. The municipality will be shifting to a dual-stream alternate week format for recycling collection after council approved going with a new contractor for collection and processing services, Emterra Environmental Ltd., at its April 21 special meeting.

What that means is residents will no longer be combining fibre and plastics/glass together in one bin for collection each week under the current single-stream operation; instead those materials will now have to be separated and picked up alternate weeks. The timing and routes residents currently experience will remain the same.

According to environmental compliance co-ordinator Abby Armstrong, the change will save the municipality upwards of $25,000. She said switching to a dual-stream collection on alternate weeks also allows for less contaminated materials and cleaner products for the recycling facility.