Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Transit taxes poised to rise 6.4 per cent in 2020 as city predicts more LRT 'transition'

By John Willing, Ottawa Citizen, August 30, 2019

Transit taxes could rise more than six per cent in 2020 as the City of Ottawa predicts more LRT “transition” expenses and shifts money to offset a cancelled plan to boost the provincial gas-tax transfer.

It means, if eventually approved by council, the owner of the average urban home in Ottawa would pay $42 more in transit taxes in 2020, part of a projected $109 increase in all property taxes. Police taxes would increase $18 for that average urban home and taxes to pay for the rest of the city departments would increase $49 on that tax bill.

Carleton Place family helping to reverse decline of monarch butterflies

By Tara Gesner, InsideOttawaValley, August 30, 2019 It was a beautiful night to release monarch butterflies in Carleton Place. The local Watson family, consisting of Erin McEwen and Curtis and Amelia Watson, held its third public monarch butterfly release this year on Aug. 29, taking place in the Victoria School Gardens, on the grounds of the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum.

In excess of 100 people turned out for Thursday’s event, with the family using only social media to promote the release. In addition to community members and business leaders, several council and town hall representatives attended.

Ottawa’s ‘other’ underground tunnel near complete

By Catherine Latham, CTV News Ottawa, August 29, 2019

It sounds like one of those cheesy kid jokes. Name the tunnel deep under Ottawa’s downtown core that is longer than the LRT but no one really knows about?

“We get confused with the LRT all the time,” laughs one of the project managers Steve Courtland.

“It’s the big project that’s right in front of everybody but nobody really knows what’s going on.”

(...)The CSST will work by acting more like a large holding tank, equivalent to 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the tunnels will hold on to the water until the treatment system is freed up. Once the system is ready, that sewage will then get treated and cleaned as well before heading back out into the river.

Courtland’s colleague and co-manager of the project, Jenn Carreirra says the tunnel, under construction for the last three years, is equally as important as the LRT and has a very lofty goal.

“It’ means a healthier river,” says Carreirra.

The pair is heading up the city of Ottawa’s Combined Sewage Storage Tunnel (CSST) project.  It’s a $232 million state-of-the-art sewage tunnel network, eight storeys underground, with the aim of stopping sewage spills into the Ottawa River.

Pellerin: Healthy Ottawa —The health approach that changes our social and physical environments

By Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen, August 29, 2019

Nobody cares as much about your health as you do, except perhaps for Ottawa Public Health. But then, it’s their job, which they do following a principle known as “population health approach.”

(...)Consider walking. If we tweaked the design of our city to encourage more of it, “that could lead to great benefits compared to if we tried to convince every single person to be more active.”

One of the goals in Ottawa’s transportation master plan is to increase the number of trips done using active transportation (transit, biking, walking). If we achieved it, she says, we could decrease the number of diabetes cases by as many as 1,620 over a span of 10 years. “And that’s just with how we build our city and our public transit, bike paths and sidewalks.”

Anti-carbon tax gas pump stickers prompt local pro-carbon tax campaign

By Jason White, 1310 News, August 29, 2019

The Ford government's anti-carbon tax stickers for gas pumps has helped spur a pro-carbon tax public information campaign that has some stickers of its own.

Ecology Ottawa is working with a collection of citizens and groups across the country to launch the campaign. The pro-carbon tax campaign will distribute stickers across the country, not only in Ontario, where the provincial government has mandated gas stations post anti-carbon tax stickers on its gas pumps.

"(The Progressive Conservative stickers] are a propoganda tool and they tell, essentially, one very biased side of the story," Robb Barnes, executive director, Ecology Ottawa. He says the government's stickers make no mention of the tax rebate received at the beginning of the year by everyone who filed a tax return.

The Commuting Principle That Shaped Urban History

By Jonathan English, City Lab, August 29, 2019

From ancient Rome to modern Atlanta, the shape of cities has been defined by the technologies that allow commuters to get to work in about 30 minutes.

In 1994, Cesare Marchetti, an Italian physicist, described an idea that has come to be known as the Marchetti Constant. In general, he declared, people have always been willing to commute for about a half-hour, one way, from their homes each day.

This principle has profound implications for urban life. The value of land is governed by its accessibility—which is to say, by the reasonable speed of transport to reach it.

Councillor calls for 30 km/h limit for Glebe, Old Ottawa South

By Laura Osman, CBC News Ottawa, August 29, 2019

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard wants to lower the speed limit throughout the Glebe and Old Ottawa South to 30 km/h, despite warnings from city staff that doing so could actually make residential streets in those neighbourhoods less safe.

"Why not lower those speeds so that pedestrians, cyclists, people that choose a different type of transportation are safer on our streets and feel more comfortable?" Menard asked. "I think there's evidence that supports this type of move."

Among the evidence, according to Menard, are studies by the World Health Organization that indicate lowering the speed limit to 30 km/h reduces deaths, injuries and collisions in those areas.

Perth plots out spending for next 11 years with bridges, roads, recreation top of list

By Desmond Devoy, InsideOttawaValley, August 27, 2019 Brian Burns may not have a crystal ball, but he has a road map now for where Perth town hall will be spending a lot of its money between now and 2030. Perth’s town treasurer made a presentation before a special meeting of town council on Wednesday, Aug. 21 about the town’s finances.

“This is like a first draft,” said Burns in speaking about the town’s strategic asset management policy. “We have to tie it all to demographic projections,” as well as incorporating it into the budget process. There are also vulnerabilities that have to be taken into account, such as climate change, which Burns admitted “was a pretty broad” theme to cover off.

No overhaul: City asked to rethink several parts of young bylaw regulating taxis, Uber, Lyft

By John Willing, Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2019

The City of Ottawa is open to making minor changes to the bylaw that governs ride-ordering services but it’s not interested in a complete overhaul of the three-year-old regulations.

The city is reviewing several of its bylaws as part of a regular process to make sure the municipal regulations are up to date. The 2016 vehicle-for-hire bylaw, which established rules for taxis and private transportation companies (like Uber and Lyft), was particularly controversial for cabbies and the taxi industry since the requirements differed between the two types of businesses.

The taxi industry has never stopped pressing city hall to address their concerns since council in April 2016 approved the dual-licensing bylaw, which came into force on Sept. 30, 2016.

Did the city move the goalposts for accepting LRT?

By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, August 26, 2019

(...)The mayor hoisted a golden key, a symbol the city had taken control of the LRT from the system's builder, Rideau Transit Group (RTG). Political speeches were made, hands were shaken, and there was understandable good cheer all around.

But once Watson left council chambers and the technical briefing began, the afternoon took a more concerning turn, with a number of last-minute revelations now raising questions about whether the city moved the goalposts before accepting the line.

Handover hasn't happened

First of all, it turns out Watson's golden key is even more symbolic than we thought, because RTG has not handed over the Confederation Line to the city.

The ‘bikelash’ is real: What the war between bikes and cars says about us

By Brett Bubbers, The Globe and Mail, August 22, 2019

(...)More than 10.5 million people in Canada – nearly a third of the population – commute to work, alone, by car. The number of people whose drive to work takes an hour or more is rising, too. Worse, Statistics Canada found that long commutes by car can have a negative impact on commuters’ health, safety and personal finances, and may also put a strain on family relationships. Every year, the number of vehicles on the roads increases.

We are going to need to find alternatives – not necessarily to replace the commuter car, but at least to augment it. What exactly those alternatives could be is the trillion-dollar question. Uber and Lyft are vying for a piece of that market; so are Segways, hoverboards, e-scooters and all manner of strange e-devices. Public transit is overdue for massive upgrades and expansions. Car-sharing services want in on the action, too. Automakers are not going quietly into the night, partnering with high-tech mobility startups while investing in self-driving and electric technologies.

(...)Across the country, there is a loud backlash against new cycling infrastructure projects – a “bikelash,” if you will – despite widespread support for safer cycling infrastructure. Among non-cyclists in Toronto, 81 per cent are in favour of a safer cycling network, according to a 2016 poll commissioned by Evergreen, a Toronto-based non-profit that encourages urban sustainability. It’s easy to agree that safer streets are a worthy goal in the abstract, but when it comes to laying down new bike lanes on a busy roads near you, the bikelash gets real, fast. Here is what that looks like in the country’s three largest metropolitan areas.

Today's letters: Don't go near our Greenbelt

By Alex Cullen, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, August 24, 2019 Don’t touch the Greenbelt Re: Consultations on 25-year plan, ‘five big moves’ to begin this fall

The City of Ottawa recently released its discussion paper “5 Big Moves” as part of its Official Plan Review (the OP being the planning document to guide Ottawa’s future growth). Much of it is laudable, but Policy 3 under Growth Management is not.

This policy states: “Where urban expansion may be required in the future (beyond this Plan), consider the potential to expand into the Greenbelt.” Whoa! Ottawa is already at one million people and expected to grow more, but nowhere are they manufacturing any more greenspace.