Climate meeting gets heated at aviation museum

By Brier Dodge, Ottawa Community News, February 13, 2014

The director of an organization that denies humans cause climate change urged the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum to cancel an event at the museum hosted by Ecology Ottawa.

Tom Harris, the executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition, which doesn't believe climate change is related to human activities, called the museum to ask them to cancel the Ecology Ottawa event about the effects of climate change on skiing. The museum declined the request to cancel.

Harris offered to invite a scientist who promotes the view that the climate is always naturally changing to speak at The Future of Snow and Skiing in a Warming World, but Ecology Ottawa declined. The evening's moderator, Charles Hodgson, said the panel wasn't there to debate climate change, but instead met to discuss how climate change affects skiing.

Public meeting on urban boundary expansion set

By Jessica Cunha, Ottawa Community News, February 13, 2014

A public meeting on the urban boundary expansion up March Road will be held on Feb. 26.

A new residential community planned for the area, bordered by Old Carp Road, Windance and Celtic Ridge crescents, Murphy Court, Nadia Court, Houston Crescent and the rail corridor, anticipates about 3,000 residential units and 8,000 people.

uOttawa master plan meeting set for Feb. 26; City council approves first phase as part of transit-oriented development plan

By Laura Mueller, Ottawa Community News, February 13, 2014

Sandy Hill residents and students interested in the future of the University of Ottawa can attend an open house Feb. 26 to find out about the university's upcoming master plan.

The meeting, to be held all day at the Jock Turcott University Centre (85 University), is a chance for anyone to share their experiences of the campus with a team of consultants from Urban Strategies hired by the university to run the project.

RightBike expanding to Centretown, east of canal; Bike-sharing service receives $30,000 Better Neighbourhoods grant

By Laura Mueller, Ottawa Community News, February 13, 2014

The community bicycle-sharing service, Right-Bike, will expand out of the old west end into the downtown core and the east end thanks to a $30,000 grant and partnership with the city.

RightBike, a social enterprise that falls under the Causeway Work Centre umbrella, will look for new community partners to help run bike-share hubs in Centretown, Dalhousie, Little Italy, Sandy Hill, Vanier and Overbrook.

Forum to discuss transit concerns in Vanier

By Michelle Nash, Ottawa Community News, February 13, 2014

Vanier residents will have an opportunity to air their concerns about transit in the community at an upcoming community forum.

Organized by the Vanier Community Association and Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury, the forum will take place at the Richelieu Vanier Community Centre on Feb. 20 starting at 6:30 p.m. The event will give residents the chance to express concerns with OC Transpo service in Vanier.

Water filtration company owner charged as customers speak out - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News, February 13, 2014

Two eastern Ontario homeowners are warning others about high pressure water filtration sales tactics they say led them to buy costly systems they didn’t need.

Dan Farrell said he and his family moved out to the rural south Ottawa community of Richmond three years ago and were concerned about using well water for the first time.

New infrastructure fund includes $1B for small communities - Politics - CBC News

By CBC News, February 13, 2014

Smaller communities across the country will now have access to the same predictable funds that large urban centres have enjoyed in the past, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in Gormley, Ont., today as he unveiled the details of a much anticipated 10-year infrastructure plan. "Provinces, territories, and municipalities will now have unprecedented access to predictable, sustainable, federal, infrastructure funds for a decade," Harper said. via New infrastructure fund includes $1B for small communities - Politics - CBC News.

Highway closures kick off long weekend
Ottawa & Region
News
Ottawa Sun

By Danielle Bell, Ottawa Sun, February 14, 2014

Wintry weather is causing Family Day weekend to get off to a rocky start for drivers, with a slew of crashes this morning.

Snow-covered roads have already led to major highway shutdowns, including Hwy. 17 at Chalk River for a fatal crash involving two vehiceles, according to OPP. There are detours in place between Hwy. 41 and Paquette Rd., but police said trucks cannot access that detour.

OC Transpo buys $1.3M extended warranty on hybrids
Ottawa & Region
News
Ottawa Sun

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, February 13, 2014

OC Transpo took out a $1.3-million, one-year extended warranty on its hybrid buses last year as the transit department continues to roll with the disappointing green vehicles.

"This extended warranty is to secure the costs of the hybrid propulsion system," Transpo maintenance boss James Greer said in e-mailed response Thursday.

Peter Hume speaks up for the planning department
Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen Blog, February 12, 2014

Responding to Monday’s pretty fierce attack on the city’s own urban planning department by Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes, planning committee chairman Peter Hume says they’re, uh, already thinking of doing the main thing she says she wants.

Holmes’s criticism was big on rhetoric (“The Branch provides support to any application with little-to-no recognition or consideration of the neighbourhood wants or needs”) but when you boil it right down to its crystalline essence, Holmes’s demand is for residents and their community associations to be involved in the planning-approvals process earlier, so that the first chance they get to comment isn’t after an application has already come in, by which time, Holmes argues, it’s tacitly already approved by the city’s planning department, with all the rest of the process — including a planning committee and council vote that constitute the real official approval — just a formality.

OC Transpo ridership declines again

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, February 13, 2014

OTTAWA — OC Transpo’s ridership numbers keep sliding, with total rides falling below 100 million in 2013 for the first time in three years, newly released numbers show.

From a peak of 103.5 million rides in 2011, OC Transpo’s usage declined to 97.8 million rides in 2013, according to its report for the last three months of the year. As it has all along, the transit agency blamed cuts in the federal government, whose workers often have transit-friendly jobs working regular hours at major buildings in or near downtown.

Email:
Phone: 613 860 5353
Address:
123 Slater St, Floor 6
Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2