Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

City Council Settles for Near-Inaction on Waste Management

By Ecology Ottawa's Council Watch, Peace and Environment Newsletter, July 5, 2023

On June 14, City Council considered the future of waste management in Ottawa. The end decision is a disappointing microcosm of protecting the status quo, fearing change, ignoring evidence and best practice, and falling short of the ambition required for true environmental progress.

...It’s disappointing to see Council back down from necessary—albeit insufficient—ecological action. This was an easy win: only one-quarter of households would be affected by the original proposal, and municipalities across the country already have comparable programs. If Council fails to take action on such simple issues, how will they respond on other ecological issues that traditionally face greater opposition, like densifying or reducing car dependency? 

Find the whole article here.

City of Ottawa looking at zoning changes to allow more grocery stores

By Ted Raymond, CTV News Ottawa, July 3, 2023

Two city of Ottawa committees are looking at changing zoning rules that prohibit grocery and other food stores in certain areas.

Most areas in the city allow for what are known officially as "retail food stores", which include supermarkets, butcher shops, bakeries, produce outlets, delicatessens and farmer’s markets. Some places, however, allow only retail stores and restaurants, but not retail food stores.

A report prepared for the planning and housing committee and the agriculture and rural affairs committee recommends amending zoning bylaws to allow retail food stores in several more parts of the city.

"Food is a basic requirement for a healthy, walkable 15-minute neighbourhood," the report says. "The Zoning By-law already permits retail food stores broadly across the city.

Find the whole article here.

Leloup: COVID damaged the zero waste movement, but our planet still needs it

By Valérie Leloup, Ottawa Citizen Op-Ed, July 3, 2023

Zero waste as a lifestyle focused on individual behaviour, says the CEO of Ottawa's NU Grocery. Post-pandemic, it must be part of a system-wide shift.

...Despite being a first in Ontario, NU Grocery was not alone in the zero waste retail space. Refill stores were opening in every corner of the world, driven by the growing popularity of the zero waste movement. 

...The pandemic was a boon for big box stores and online retailers. It was a death sentence for many small businesses in the field of zero waste. NU Grocery was no exception.

Find the whole article here.

Transportation committee approves 'restrictive' new rules on gardens grown on city rights of way

By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, June 25, 2023

A committee of Ottawa city council has approved a series of regulations attached to a bylaw governing residents’ use of municipal rights of ways for gardens as well as legalizing and regulating little libraries.

The amendments to the 2003 Use and Care of Roads bylaw, passed by the transportation committee on Thursday, are aimed at ensuring that roadways are safe and unencumbered, that staff have access to utilities for maintenance and that underground infrastructure is not damaged.

At the same time, the amendments give residents firm guidelines about what they can build or plant on city rights of way.

Find the whole article here.

Work to fix Ottawa's urban forest is falling short, committee warned

By Kristy Nease, CBC News Ottawa

The city's plan to get more trees in the ground is behind schedule, inadequately funded and failing to meet the urgency of the moment after years of exceptional storm damage, critics told Ottawa's environment committee this week.

... William van Geest, a program co-ordinator at Ecology Ottawa, said he didn't think the storm excuse was valid. The community has known for some time about climate change bringing more powerful and more frequent storms, he said.

"The city should not treat such events as an exception, but as a reality," he said, adding the city should set aside money to ensure there are no further delays.

Find the whole article here.

What can you grow or build on a city right of way? Ottawa council is to decide next week

By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, June 21, 2023

A coalition of community groups is fighting proposed changes to the Ottawa bylaw governing any garden grown by a resident on a city right of way.

The groups say right of way gardens provide shade, biodiversity, food, beauty for neighbourhoods and tree canopy to battle the effects of climate change.

...Planting a garden on a right of way is a stewardship relationship wth the city, said William van Geest, living cities program coordinator at Ecology Ottawa. The person growing the garden doesn’t own the land outright, but is using it and caring for it. 

Find the whole article here.

 

City councillor, grieving mother call for action on Gladstone Avenue bike lanes

By Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen, June 18, 2023

Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster is calling on city council to immediately install new barriers on Gladstone Avenue to make the street safer for cyclists.

Gladstone, she said, is an official truck route in Ottawa even though it’s also on many cycling maps.

“We need to throw down a quick build to make the street safer until we can do the studies required for a complete realignment,” Troster said in an interview. “For a street that dangerous, I don’t want to just see flex posts: I want to see concrete barriers.”

Find the whole article here.

Councillor wants to put wheels in motion for future bike-share program in Ottawa

By Josh Pringle, CTV News Ottawa, June 18, 2023

An Ottawa councillor wants to get the wheels in motion on the possible return of a bicycle-sharing program operating in the capital.

Coun. Shawn Menard will introduce a motion at Thursday's Transportation Committee meeting to ask staff to report back in 2025 on recommendations for an "appropriate bike-share model that would serve the city's needs."

"Implementing a bike share program would align with the city's new Transportation Master Plan and its goals to reduce the dependence on private automobile use," Menard says in the motion.

Find the whole article here.

 

Not your parents' heat pump!

By Giacomo Panico, CBC News Ottawa, May 27, 2023

The home appliance that can replace your air conditioner AND your furnace got a bad rap in the early 90s... Now many folks are installing heat pumps. As the temperature rises, we spoke to a home efficiency expert about the pros and cons.

Giacomo talks to an expert from Envirocentre on this topic.

Find the interview here.

Ottawa moves to 'producer pay' recycling, but blue and black box pickups unchanged — for now

By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa residents won’t see any changes in the curbside pickup of their black and blue boxes next month when the city becomes one of the first in the province to switch to Ontario’s new Individual Producer Responsibility recycling program.

...“It’s a very good step to make sure producers are responsible,” said Alice Irene Whittaker of Ecology Ottawa. “It’s good in principle and we think it will be good in practice, but I always emphasize that recycling is not the answer. It’s one part of a larger solution.”

Whittaker says people can reduce waste and the need to recycle by simply buying less, using items longer or sharing them with other neighbours through programs like the Ottawa tool library.

“That will ensure items never even get to that (recycling) stage,” she said.

Find the whole article here.

Bye bag tags: 3-container limit the newest garbage policy up for debate

By Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa

Ottawa's mayor wants to limit households to three garbage bins at the curb each collection day and remove any requirement for bag tags.

It's a move Mark Sutcliffe hopes will have more buy-in around the council table on Wednesday, even if it means a more lenient policy than city staff had originally recommended, or the "compromise" he had proposed just last week.

... "This is ineffectual policy. This is not going to change fundamental habits," remarked Duncan Bury, who co-founded the volunteer-based organization that pushes for better diversion policies. 

"The question to ask now is, 'What's the point?'"

Find the whole article here.

Wildfires are fuelling eco-anxiety but taking climate action can help, experts say

By Nicole Ireland, the Canadian Press, City News, June 10, 2023

... Like many other Canadians who found their communities enveloped in smoke from devastating wildfires in B.C., Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia over the last several weeks, Austin is experiencing what’s often called “eco-anxiety” or “climate anxiety.”

Climate anxiety is “a feeling of hopelessness about either the present environment and what’s going on in terms of the problem of climate change, but also the future,” said Dr. Lindsay McCunn, an environmental psychologist at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, B.C.

Find the whole article here.