Category Archives: Our City Council

January 23, 2012 In a presentation to the Environment Committee during the 2012 Draft Budget consultations, Ecology Ottawa recommended the City undertake the following three clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives in 2012: 1. Municipal Financing of Energy Retrofits. We are asking that the City fund a feasibility study of a municipal financing program for [...]

September 16, 2011 In a submission to Mayor Jim Watson’s Online Pre-budget Public Consultation, Ecology Ottawa requests that Budget 2012 be used to transition Ottawa to clean energy and energy efficient buildings, among other priorities.

January 31, 2011 An Ecology Ottawa policy paper outlining a great opportunity for the City of Ottawa to implement a city wide program to assist low-income families. Providing assistance to low-income households for energy retrofits would help families better cope with increasing energy costs and time-of-use electricity rates, while at the same time helping the [...]

January 5, 2011 This briefing paper outlines Ecology Ottawa’s proposal that Ottawa’s new Mayor and Council exercise leadership in Ottawa by promoting and implementing Pay As You Save (PAYS) financing for residential and small business property owners who wish to make major energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.

July 8, 2010 This report, produced for Ecology Ottawa by University of Ottawa professor Matthew Paterson, calls for a halt to the steady growth of the city’s road network. The report was part of Ecology Ottawa’s policy platform for the 2010 municipal elections.

An Ecology Ottawa response to the City of Ottawa draft Official Plan amendments and supporting documents (March 31, 2009). Overview: The proposed amendments to the City of Ottawa’s Official Plan and supporting documents like the Residential Land Strategy are full of good vision statements about the direction the city should be going in. They emphasise dense, walkable neighbourhoods, organizing planning and residential development around transit corridors, aiming to preserve green spaces and the rural areas around the city. These are goals that Ecology Ottawa supports very strongly and, if reached, would enable Ottawa to become a genuine leader in sustainable urban development. Getting it right in a plan such as this is crucial; the investments in buildings and infrastructure made under this plan will have social and environmental impacts over several generations.
But the devil, as always, is in the detail. And here, the draft Official Plan comes up very short indeed. Its particular goals for increasing density in the city and protecting green spaces are woefully short of what is needed. And these goals are in practice undermined by the city’s unwillingness to challenge what is business-as-usual development policy – making available large amounts of undeveloped (“greenfield”) land available for low-density, car-oriented development. This must be fundamentally opposed. For Ottawa to become a leader, it must really follow through on the principles of ‘smart growth’ that it claims to be aiming for. In short, it can talk the talk but is not yet walking the walk.

March 15, 2009 This report outlines a three-part strategy for the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and waste from Ottawa’s buildings by encouraging greener building practices for new construction. This report was also part of Ecology Ottawa’s policy platform for the 2010 municipal elections.

We propose that the city stem the tide of urban sprawl by revising its official plan and zoning by-laws to bring Ottawa’s urban density levels in line with the standards of other Canadian cities that are leading the way with smart growth strategies. This document is part of a series of “Greenprints: Policy proposals for a sustainable Ottawa.”