By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, January 21, 2014
Cash-strapped Parks Canada has deferred about $104 million in needed maintenance and repairs along the Rideau Canal, Ontario’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The figure comes from a Citizen analysis of Parks Canada’s 2012 National Asset Review, which lists and assesses nearly 12,000 built assets with a replacement value of more than $15 billion. The review was released under Access to Information.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 22, 2014
OTTAWA — Weather records have again gone missing from Environment Canada’s computers across much of the country.
There are rows of blank squares on the government department’s website instead of Sunday’s and Monday’s temperatures and precipitation figures for Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Windsor and other cities.
By The Gazette (via Ottawa Citizen), January 22, 2014
MONTREAL - Electricity consumption across the province peaked at a record 39,240 megawatts about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Hydro-Québec announced.
The utility reiterated a request to customers to reduce, where possible, the load on the power network during peak morning and early-evening hours.
By Ottawa Citizen, January 22, 2014
The Dalhousie Community Association held a protest Wednesday morning, urging city council to re-work a plan that will divert significant OC Transpo traffic onto Albert and Scott streets during Ottawa’s LRT project.
By Carys Mills, Ottawa Citizen, January 21, 2014
OTTAWA — Cover up, Ottawa, it’s cold out there.
This week’s frostbite advisory was upgraded to a warning by Ottawa Public Health for Monday night into Tuesday morning. By afternoon, the warning had been extended until Friday, during which time the city advises people to cover up as much exposed skin as possible.
By Derek Spalding, Ottawa Citizen, January 21, 2014
OTTAWA — Getting a short strip of sidewalk plowed or sanded along Centrepointe Drive is not easy, say residents who regularly trudge through several feet of snow or delicately manoeuvre on icy surfaces.
Juliana Chaves holds her hand near her thigh when she demonstrates just how high the snow can get on the 100-block of Centrepointe Drive. She’s not surprised this suburban street was the source of the most complaints to the city’s service centre last year when it came to the lack of clearing sidewalks from snow and ice.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 20, 2014
Worldwide loss of big predators — wolves, bears, big cats and the rest — has a ripple effect across whole continents, even changing forests and the course of rivers.
But the capital region stands mostly apart from the global trend.
By Carey Mills, Ottawa Citizen, January 20, 2014
OTTAWA — Fooled ya’. Last week’s mild weather no doubt tempted you with springlike imaginings. Well, forget the fantasies. Reality bites back this week.
On Sunday, Environment Canada issued a special weather statement for Ottawa and elsewhere in the province, warning that a “sharp cold front“ will bring two to four centimetres of snowfall in most places. On Sunday, Ottawa Public Health followed up with a frostbite advisory for the capital.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, January 20, 2014
OTTAWA — OC Transpo closed part of the O-Train line due to signal problems for the third time in a week Monday — just a day after a shutdown, lasting all Sunday, that was to upgrade that same system.
Starting at 11 a.m., the transit agency replaced train service between Greenboro station and Carleton University with a parallel shuttle bus.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, January 20, 2014
OTTAWA — The Montreal-based operator of Ottawa’s bike-sharing system filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.
In Ottawa, the National Capital Commission owns the bikes and stations with Bixi logos on them peppered around downtown Ottawa and Gatineau, but the company operates the system on a contract that runs till 2015. It wasn’t immediately clear what effect the filing would have on operations here.
By Patrick Langston, Ottawa Citizen, January 16, 2014
OTTAWA — Ontario residents got some nasty news in November 2013: hydro bills will rise a startling 42 per cent over the next five years, according to the provincial government’s long-term energy plan. Over the next two decades, they’ll jump 68 per cent. That means a typical bill of $125 a month will increase to $167 by 2016 and $210 by 2032, according to the government’s forecast.
Those increases come even as we’ve been reducing our electricity consumption. Hydro Ottawa says that over the past 10 years, residents have reduced electricity usage 14 per cent, thanks to conservation programs and awareness, as well as more efficient appliances. As of 2012, the average usage per month was 675 kilowatts per hour.
By Derek Spalding, Ottawa Citizen, January 17, 2014
OTTAWA — The city lacks necessary leadership when it comes to protecting the environment, say frustrated councillors coming into their final year of the political term.
Several politicians expressed their concerns after yet another environment committee meeting, scheduled for next week, was recently cancelled.