By CBC News Ottawa, March 8, 2014
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2014
OTTAWA — Hydro Ottawa has won approval for its plan to expand the historic hydroelectric generating facility at Chaudière Falls.
The utility has been awarded a 40-year contract to expand its facility at the falls by constructing a new, 29-megawatt facility — enough energy to power 20,000 homes for a year.
By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2014
OTTAWA — Emergency crews scrambled to contain a large fuel spill on River Road south of Manotick Friday afternoon.
Firefighters were called to 1980 River Rd. at about 1:30 p.m. after a Drummond Fuels tanker truck began leaking gasoline. The fire services’ hazardous material teams were sent to contain the spill, which occurred just a few metres from the Rideau River.
By Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2014
OTTAWA — When the media was invited on a city-organized tour of the Plasco Energy site back in November, it was with the express understanding that reporters would have a chance to meet the new CEO — U.S. energy bigwig Ray Floyd — but would not be able to ask any questions at the time.
That’s not a deal that reporters are usually willing to make, but Plasco and the city’s argument was that Floyd was fresh on the job and needed time to get up to speed on the issues. Both the company and Coun. Maria McRae, who’s the environment committee chair, promised Floyd would give a technical briefing at City Hall to councillors and the media by the end of February.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2014
OTTAWA — Denounced repeatedly as one of Ottawa’s worst eyesores, the City Centre complex has been saved from demolition for one of the saddest possible reasons: nobody was interested enough in the location for it to be worth tearing the place down.
It’s not that its owners didn’t try. Equity Realty got as far as commissioning architects to design new glassy offices and condos to replace the decrepit office tower and curved row of warehouse bays that date from the 1960s. At least twice, actually. One of those architects told the Citizen in 2004 that the place was doomed: “The current crescent-shaped building goes. Gone. Bam,” said Toronto’s David Rich, in a story about City Centre’s topping a reader poll as Ottawa’s nastiest building.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, March 7, 2014
OTTAWA — The federal government has announced plans to beef up protection for Gatineau Park, the Greenbelt and other urban green spaces and to modernize the governance structure of the National Capital Commission.
The announcement by Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, appears to sound the death knell for Hull-Aylmer New Democrat MP Nycole Turmel’s private member’s bill to strengthen protections for Gatineau Park.
By Steph Wellems, Ottawa Community News, March 6, 2014
By Michelle Nash, Ottawa Community News, March 6, 2014
By Michelle Nash, Ottawa Community News, March 6, 2014
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2014
OTTAWA — Members of Parliament will debate a private member’s bill Friday that aims to protect the boundaries, integrity and ecology of Gatineau Park.
But park watchdog Jean-Paul Murray says New Democrat MP Nycole Turmel’s “fundamentally flawed” bill does none of those things, and would in fact lead to the park’s destruction if passed.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2014
OTTAWA — Dog-walkers in Stittsville want the city to “protect” a piece of private land they’ve become accustomed to letting their pets roam, a multimillion-dollar project that’s shaping up as a new version of the fight over a forest in the South March Highlands.
At stake is a beautiful property across from the Goulbourn Recreation Complex. The Trans-Canada Trail runs along the north edge and a corridor of hydro towers runs through it. It contains a grove of old cedar trees the city itself considers important enough to be worth protecting.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, March 6, 2014
OTTAWA — Samantha Frasz usually talks about her research on a tree’s natural defence against spruce budworms like this:
“Foliar fungal endophytes produce anti-insect compounds, and these compounds have been known to be immune modulators against larvae species.”