By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, January 15, 2020
(...)Nussbaum, chief executive of the National Capital Commission, is featured in a new rap video released Wednesday by the Crown agency as it works to open the Rideau Canal Skateway.
Lifting the tune of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby,” Nussbaum joins fellow NCC staff in their take, “Ice, Ice Maybe,” educating hopeful skaters on what it takes to open the skateway for the 50th season.
By Joanna Chianello & Kate Porter, CBC News Ottawa, January 16, 2020
A City of Ottawa planning report in support of a 500-home development on a gravel pit in Barrhaven says the province's ministry in charge of natural resources confirmed the site has been mined of its sand and gravel.
Only one problem: the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says it has done no such thing.
"[The ministry] has not stated that aggregate resources on the licensed site are 'exhausted'," according to an emailed statement from ministry spokeswoman Jolanta Kowalski.(...)As far as the ministry is concerned, the Brazeau Pit is still licensed under provincial law, and significant changes to the site "would be processed as a major amendment," which would be a months-long process that would include the opportunity for the public to comment through the Environmental Registry of Ontario.
By Sophia Harris, CBC News, January 15, 2020
McDonald's Canada plans to change its general policy of rejecting reusable mugs, a practice that has angered customers for years.
On Tuesday, the restaurant chain told CBC News that it hopes to have a new national policy in place by the end of February, which will allow customers to be served coffee or tea in their personal mug instead of a disposable cup.
"We listen to our guests, and we know this is an area of growing importance to Canadians," said spokesperson Ryma Boussoufa in an email.The statement comes after CBC News first reached out to McDonald's in October, inquiring about customer anger over its current policy.
Brenya Green said she was stunned when she recently ordered a coffee at McDonald's and the restaurant chain told her that drinks must be served in disposable cups for sanitary reasons.
By Peter Hum, Ottawa Citizen, January 15, 2020
For almost 15 years, Dominique Dufour has been concerned about climate change.
Now, as chef and co-owner of Gray Jay Hospitality, she has committed to reducing her six-month-old Preston Street restaurant’s carbon footprint.
Dufour will serve her most eco-conscious dinner yet on Sunday, relying solely on produce from Quebec and Ontario, and also restricting her à la carte menu to vegetarian dishes. At her “carbon-conscious pop-up,” Dufour will offer five dishes working in her open kitchen with Montreal chef Maurín Arellano.
Below, Dufour, who came to Ottawa from Montreal in 2018 to open Norca in the Le Germain Ottawa Hotel, discusses why locavorism is better for the planet.
By Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen, January 16, 2020
When LRT was fully launched in October, it altered about 100 associated bus routes and the daily rides of about two-thirds of OC Transpo passengers. The system, in effect, was shaken, stirred, reassembled.
What happens when 200,000 or more riders are taking a different path (major or minor) to their destinations — on new bus routes, new trains, connecting at new stations, and running through mobs for links that maybe aren’t on schedule?
On occasion, they slip, trip and fall.
The City of Ottawa reports it has had eight injury claims connected to OC Transpo since LRT had its soft launch on Sept. 14. (Figures to Dec. 31.)
By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen, January 16, 2020
Do you know how many cyclists and pedestrians were killed in traffic collisions last year in Ottawa? The official numbers are not out yet (in 2018 they were one and eight, respectively). But we know it was too many, because it was more than zero.
I talk about Vision Zero every chance I get. You know why? Because it works.
Last year in Oslo, Norway’s capital city of 673,000 inhabitants, a single person died in a road accident – after driving a vehicle into a fence.
That’s it. In all of the city, in all of the year, no pedestrian, cyclist, passenger, transit user or driver, except for that unfortunate person in the fence incident, lost their life in traffic.
(...)Oslo, by the way, has winter too. It’s actually closer to the North Pole than we are. Yet it’s not just managing without cars downtown, it’s thriving. Staying alive, too. Did I mention we should embrace Vision Zero? Because it works.
By CBC News, January 10, 2020
As Montrealers enter a new decade, Mayor Valérie Plante says it's crucial that all municipal decisions take into account how our climate is changing.
"Everything about the city now has to [be seen through] this lens — what about climate change?" Plante said Friday on CBC Montreal's Daybreak.
She said that means reducing waste and carbon emissions, as well as planning for extreme weather events such as the major springtime flooding seen in parts of Montreal in two of the last three years."Everytime we turn on the TV we see what's happening elsewhere in the world related to climate change," she said.
"When we think about transportation, when we think about roads, our infrastructure, housing, how we build stuff, we have to have this obsession."
By Elise Ondet and Alexandra McAllister, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, January 11, 2020
(...)Kudos to local companies that minimize waste
Re: Ottawa coffee shops make bringing your own mug a little easier with swap and loan programs, Jan. 3.
As a citizen who is very concerned about the climate crisis, I was happy to see that you highlighted some coffee shops in Ottawa that are making a true effort to minimize the waste they generate and are trying to create real behavioural change.
(...)Drive-thrus are hurting the environment
Last December, a reader wrote in about her concern with idling vehicles. I live near a drive-thru coffee/fast food outlet. At any given hour, at least half a dozen cars are waiting at the drive-thru lane to pick up their orders, with their engines idling. I am not a scientist but surely the amount of gas emissions must be huge, and this is only one outlet.
I would love to see one of these fast food outlets close down their drive-thru access and ask patrons to come inside the facilities, place their order and perhaps sit down for 15 minutes to enjoy their drink or meal.
By Andrew Cohen, Ottawa Citizen, January 11, 2020
(...)There is no reason for optimism in discussing climate change, which goes unanswered around the world and in the United States, in particular. The fires burn hotter and longer in California, the seas rise off Florida, the tundra melts in Alaska.
The fires burning today in Australia are the future of our feverish world. This will become the norm. They show not only the fierceness of nature but a failure of leadership; the ineptitude of the country’s prime minister staggers.
Of all the challenges we face today – war with Iran, growing authoritarianism, a belligerent North Korea, swelling anti-semitism – climate change is the greatest threat, the hardest to solve and most resistant to hope.
By CBC News, January 10, 2020
Gregor Macdonald, a Portland, Ore.-based journalist and author of the ebook Oil Fall, has been chronicling the way electric cars have been disrupting the petroleum industry, which of course relies heavily on people driving gasoline-powered vehicles.
But Macdonald admits he slept on a development that might have an equally significant effect on oil demand and, consequently, carbon emissions.
"I consider myself to be someone who's very on top of these trends, and I have nearly missed the e-bike explosion because it's happening so fast," said Macdonald. "It's blown up in the last 12 to 18 months."
Suffice to say Macdonald is now up to speed on the e-bike surge. These devices — which still have pedals, but also contain a rechargeable battery and can hit speeds of 25 km/h — have seen tremendous growth in recent years. In a report released in December, market research firm Deloitte said it expected global sales of 130 million e-bikes between now and 2023.
That outlook is a lot more bullish than the one for electric cars. For example, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, whose projections are generally seen as more optimistic than those of other research firms, sees the number of electric cars worldwide hitting the 130 million mark closer to 2030.
Electric cars have long been viewed as the most effective way to decarbonize the transportation sector, but Macdonald believes people are waking up to the benefits of a smaller, stealthier ride. For one thing, they're cheaper: Whereas the lowest-priced electric car is about $30,000, a new e-bike is in the $1,000-$5,000 range.
By Emily Chung, CBC News, January 7, 2020
The infinite triangular loop of arrows that we know as the recycling symbol adorns millions of plastic pop and water bottles we carefully sort in the blue bin. It comforts us with the idea that each one will be recycled over and over again forever.
But unfortunately, most of the time, it's a lie.
Many bottles aren't recycled at all, and those that do get recycled usually aren't turned into other bottles or recycled again after that.Instead, they end up in the world's landfills — or worse, in the ocean. In Canada, plastic bottles and caps were the top plastic trash items collected during shoreline cleanups in 2019, just behind cigarette butts. They're also typically among the top three items in shoreline cleanups worldwide.
By Krystalle Ramlakhan, CBC News Ottawa, January 5, 2020
Drivers are once again misuing a segregated bike lane to turn at the intersection of St. Laurent Boulevard and Donald Street, less than six months after flexible posts were installed to halt the same problems.
Last summer, vehicles were using the bike lane to merge and turn, even after the City of Ottawa spent $1.2 million to create the "protected intersection."
The problem appeared to have been resolved for a few months after the city installed flex posts which closed the bike path to vehicles, but the visual cues were removed in preparation for winter road maintenance.