Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Today's letters: Classroom problems, climate challenges

By John Hollis, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, February 10, 2020

(...)Adapting to climate change is imperative

Re: Don’t expect technology to solve climate change, Jan. 27.

Jocelyne Bourgon is correct. It was the invention in 1776 of the first efficient steam engine by James Watt that opened the door to the industrial revolution. The development, demonstration, and deployment of technologies were the initial trigger for the issue of global heating, but technology is only part of the solution.

Canada’s public policy to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases has not delivered — during more than two decades. Both Conservative and Liberal governments have abjectly failed to meet international commitments made by their predecessors: Jean Chrétien made a commitment in Kyoto (1997) and Stephen Harper in Copenhagen (2009). The likelihood of Canada meeting the commitment that it made in Paris in 2015 (Trudeau) is vanishingly small. Yet this is an issue that must be addressed competently within a decade.

Today's letters: Fix Canada's assisted dying law now

By Irwin Dreeson and John McDonnell, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, February 8, 2020

(...)Here’s what the Greenbelt is for

(...)The Greenbelt was never intended to contain growth. Instead, Jacques Gréber’s vision was that satellite cities would develop outside the Greenbelt. But successive city planners allowed development outside the Greenbelt to function largely as car-dependent bedroom communities.

Only now (five decades later) is the current crop of planners coming around to the insight that the suburbs east, south and west of the centre should become “complete communities.” Indeed, in a desperate attempt to wean Ottawa off car dependency, they are advocating so-called “15-minute neighbourhoods” everywhere, in the suburbs as well as in the core.

Better late than never. Meanwhile, the Greenbelt – the lungs of our urban area – should be left alone.

(...)Don’t sacrifice the Greenbelt

(...)The Greenbelt provides countless ecological goods and services, including various natural solutions to climate change; the capture and storage of carbon; temperature regulation; flood and drought mitigation and local, sustainably produced food. If anything, the Greenbelt should be preserved, protected and showcased as a model for other urban areas.

Pellerin: Bottom line – Ottawa's LRT is still better than the alternative

By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen, February 7, 2020

I was pleased as punch to see a column by Dave Williams in the Citizen a few days ago talking about his positive experience with the LRT.  I want to say nice things about OC Transpo, too.

No, really. I like it. I take it every weekday. I leave home on Greenbank Road in the west end at 5:45 a.m. and catch an 82 to Tunney’s. From there I ride LRT to Cyrville station and walk to my final destination. Around 3 p.m. I do the same in reverse, except sometimes I stop at Rideau Street for a coffee and a quick shop, without worrying about traffic or parking.

Door-to-door, it’s 45 to 50 minutes. I listen to a podcast or, when I get a seat, read a book. You wouldn’t believe how much reading I get done that way.

I am fortunate to have some slack in my schedule. If the trip takes longer than expected it’s no big deal, just more time to read. I don’t want to diminish the anguish of those who have a rougher time with the system than I do. Their complaints are valid and should be addressed. It’s just that for me, things are going well and I know I’m not the only one.

Builder skipped approval step during first crack at LRT completion, documents suggest

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, February 8, 2020

The Rideau Transit Group in spring 2019 didn’t get an important go-ahead before the consortium first claimed to have met the requirements for a completed $2.1-billion Confederation Line, according to city documents.

RTG’s first attempt at achieving “substantial completion” and finally collecting the $59 million the city was holding back until the job was done didn’t pass the scrutiny of the city and an independent certifier.

Documents released recently by the city in response to an access-to-information request last August suggest RTG didn’t receive the blessing from a team of senior RTG and city rail construction staff tasked with reviewing contract requirements and outstanding issues in the lead up to substantial completion. RTG went ahead and filed the notice of substantial completion anyway.

Redesigning roads can reduce pedestrian deaths, but cities lack the political will: expert

By CBC News, February 9, 2020

Erica Stark was walking the family foster dog when she was struck and killed by a speeding minivan in November 2014.

Now, her husband David Stark is campaigning to make streets safer — and he says that more needs to be done in his home city, Toronto.

"We're seeing incremental improvements, but they're not happening fast enough, and I think that there needs to be more money earmarked to prioritize road safety," Stark told Cross Country Checkup. 

Last year, 39 pedestrians in Toronto were killed in vehicle-related incidents, and across B.C., 49 died in similar incidents during the same period. Meanwhile, Montreal saw a record high with two dozen deaths.

Nussbaum: On his first anniversary in the job, NCC boss lays out three priorities

By Tobi Nussbaum, Ottawa Citizen, February 7, 2020

Had you asked me just over a year ago, before I started my current job, how many bridges the National Capital Commission owned, I would have estimated: between interprovincial bridges, the parkways and pathways, spans in Gatineau Park, Greenbelt stream crossings, I might have guessed 50.

A year later, I know the answer. The NCC owns 145 bridges — along with more than 1,000 buildings on 1,700 properties that make up 11 per cent of the National Capital Region and include some of its most ecologically valuable areas.

Learning about the vast scope of the NCC’s assets, and its work, has been one of the most interesting parts of the job. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the variety and complexity of the geography of Gatineau Park; the latest techniques in heritage conservation; how to make waterfront pathways more resilient when faced with extreme weather; issues involved in protecting the 20 species at risk that live in the Mer Bleue Bog. The list goes on.

Where is Arnprior’s landfill contamination coming from?

By Derek Dunn, InsideOttawaValley, February 6, 2020 The source of contamination at the Arnprior landfill remains a mystery, town staff recently reported to council. The above provincially-approved levels of leachate in groundwater and surface water could be from the Arnprior Waste Disposal Site itself. Or from the former lumber yard the town obtained in 1996. Or the railway tracks. Or even from road salt.

Two things are for certain: it is persistent and not found naturally at those levels.

“It could be from the landfill, but not necessarily from the landfill,” said Deanna Nicholson, town environmental engineering officer. She presented a report on the issue at the Jan. 13 meeting, and later spoke to Metroland Media. “The intention is to understand what is happening. It’s not trying to pass the buck. It’s legitimately trying to find the cause.”

'Terrifying' video shows close call as car uses bike lane to pass school bus

By Matthew Kupfer, CBC News Ottawa, February 6, 2020

An Ottawa city councillor said he decided to share a hair-raising video of a vehicle passing the open door of a stopped school bus as a wake-up call to impatient drivers whose carelessness is putting lives at risk.

The video, captured Monday by an external security camera at a Scott Street business, shows the school bus coming to a stop at the corner of Tweedsmuir Avenue, across from Westboro station. Seconds after the door of the bus opens, an older-model sedan passes on its right in a clearly marked bike lane.

Moments after the car passes, children descend the steps and cross the bike lane to the sidewalk.

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper posted the video on social mediaThursday.

"It's terrifying to see," Leiper said. "Every impatient behaviour that you may feel is justified because you have to get somewhere on time could have potentially horrifying impacts."

Perth hopes for green light on landfill expansion

By Desmond Devoy, InsideOttawaValley, February 6, 2020 Don’t call after hours and don’t call it a dump. The Town of Perth’s environmental services director, Grant Machan, is adamant not to call the town’s landfill site off of Wild Life Road a dump. Instead, he calls it “one of the premier sites in eastern Ontario,” an asset the town is lucky to have, in part because the town does not have to truck its refuse elsewhere, at an added cost.

It is also an asset that is, literally, running on borrowed time.

“It was deemed to be at capacity in 2010,” said Machan, during a report to Perth town council’s committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4. The facility has been operating on temporary permits since as the town works with the province to allow for an expansion. Currently, it is “so constricted (at the landfill) that it is physically hard to operate the site,” said Machan. “We running out of space, on the top."

Eco-trends: Six ways we'll live more sustainably this year

By Mark Wessel, Ottawa Citizen, February 4, 2020

This year I predict we’ll finally gain a 2020 perspective on sustainability (and yes, you’ll soon tire of that analogy if you haven’t already), by reducing our carbon footprint in response to a combination of incentives, fines and practices deemed no longer acceptable. We’ll also become more sustainable simply because we feel good doing something positive about the environment.

Here is a list of six top-of-mind actions and initiatives many of us will embrace this year, associated with living a more sustainable lifestyle.

1. We’ll pass on single-use plastics. Canada is set to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021, but already a growing number of retailers are leading the change. For instance, Sobeys announced last year that it would phase out all plastic bags by February 2020. Plastic straws and cutlery are also on our collective radar.

2. Reusable will become cool.

Perth council tentatively repeals anti-idling by-law

By Desmond Devoy, InsideOttawaValley, February 7, 2020

Perth’s anti-idling by-law may be on its way out, but Mayor John Fenik is hoping that motorists can shut off at the town’s railway crossings.

During discussion at town council’s committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4, Fenik said he “wanted signs at train tracks” at Wilson, Isabella, Drummond, and North Street crossings, so motorists would know to turn off their engines while waiting for a train to pass. There are similar signs at bridges over the Rideau Canal in Smiths Falls, urging motorists to switch off their engines while waiting for boats to pass through the locks

(...)But the environmental discussion did not end there. Immediately afterward, council voted tentatively to ban the sale of single-use plastics in town-owned facilities.

“We are doing what we can to be a more green community,” said Fenik.

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Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

By the Associated Press, CBC News, February 3, 2020

Two lawmakers in Sweden have nominated Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, who are both members of Sweden's Left Party, said Monday that Thunberg "has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis" and "action for reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace."

The 2015 landmark Paris climate deal asks both rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).