City Council to decide the fate of “Choosing Our Future”

Feb. 21, 2012 (Ottawa) — The City of Ottawa’s Environment Committee is set to discuss three plans today that fall under the heading of Choosing our Future. These plans are the result of a four-year planning process and, if fully embraced, they would save Ottawa residents billions of dollars a year in energy costs, increase support for local farmers, help protect our parks and rivers, promote high-tech businesses, and build a world class public transportation system, among many other things. However, the staff report to be approved at Committee today does not commit the city to do much more than “receive” the plans.

“Council should be congratulated for coming up with a plan that will save residents money, promote local business, and protect the environment, but it is still not clear if they intend to follow-through with the plans,” said Graham Saul, Chair of Ecology Ottawa, who will be making a public intervention at the Environment Committee meeting today. “The Choosing Our Future reports will be remembered as a bold new vision for a sustainable and healthy Ottawa, or a colossal waste of taxpayer resources, it’s up to Council to decide.”

The plans propose measures that would, among many other things, help: build complete neighbourhoods and communities; retrofit the suburbs; reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote public transportation and electric vehicles; encourage high performance buildings and renewable energy; protect and restore green and natural systems; protect the quality of our water; attract new businesses at the leading edge of sustainability; help reduce waste and increase recycling; and support local food and agriculture.

The staff report to Environment Committee states that the plans can be used to guide the soon to be initiated refreshes of the Official Plan, Transportation Master Plan, and Infrastructure Plan, among others. The three plans also identify examples of actions and catalyst projects that could be taken but, with a couple exceptions, there is as yet no indication of whether or not the Environment Committee intends to proceed with the implementation of these proposed measures.

“This is an opportunity for Council to move forward with a vision that people across the city can rally around and that will make us proud to call Ottawa home,” said Saul. “The city spent four years and presumably millions of dollars consulting people and coming up with these plans, they need to make it count or it will just feed the cynicism that surrounds these kinds of initiatives. Ecology Ottawa is going into the meeting with two questions: How are you going to move forward, and how can we help?”

Ecology Ottawa is a grassroots environmental organization that is working to promote environmental leadership in the City of Ottawa. We have more than 5,000 supporters across the city and over 400 volunteers.

For more information, contact Graham Saul, Chair of Ecology Ottawa, at 613-558-3368.

Background:

This afternoon, the Environment Committee is set to receive the final results of Choosing our Future, an initiative of the City of Ottawa, in partnership with the City of Gatineau and National Capital Commission, to guide Canada’s Capital Region towards a more liveable and prosperous future. The initiative includes three long-range plans that have been created as the culmination of the initiative. They are as follows: A Plan for Sustainability and Resilience Plan in Canada’s Capital Region, An Energy and Emissions Plan for Canada’s Capital Region, and A Risk Prevention and Mitigation Plan for the City of Ottawa.

These plans are the outcome of a five-step process beginning in 2008 that included: the commission of a series of papers, and public forums; the establishment of advisory groups and preparation of baseline analyses; extensive modelling to explore the implications of some of the strategies; the production of a series of discussion papers and a series of workshops to discuss them; the production of the final plans. Ecology Ottawa does not know what the full cost of this process was but it presumably ran into the millions.

You can view the staff report to Council here:  http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/ec/2012/02-21/03-ACS2012-ICS-CSS-0005%20Feb%202012.htm

Links to the extensive supporting documentation can be found at the bottom of the staff report. The documents include:

•     Energy and Emissions Plan (78 pages – most important document)
•     Sustainability and Resilience Plan (120 pages – parent document)
•     Risk Prevention and Mitigation Plan (50 pages)
•     2011 Sustainability Baseline (31 pages)
•     Agenda item: Choosing Our Future – Long Term Plans (city website – summary)
•     Choosing our Future End-State Goals (1 page graphic)

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From: paul.dewar@parl.gc.ca
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Subject: RE: Please commit to funding the Ottawa River Action Plan

Thank you for your email regarding the Ottawa River Action Plan.

I have repeatedly called on the government to take action to protect the Ottawa River, which is now designated a national heritage river.

Approximately one million people use the Ottawa River as their source of drinking water. However, the watershed is impacted by several sources of pollution including municipal sewage and industrial wastewater.

Our municipalities are facing a growing infrastructure deficit, which means they face significant challenges in keeping contaminants out of the river.

I released an action plan and motion in the House of Commons that calls on the federal government to commit to setting regulations to protect and preserve the integrity and natural environment of the Ottawa River.

This action plan calls for strengthened environmental regulations from the federal government and enforcement of the Federal Fisheries Act, as well as an increase in funding to municipalities to improve their infrastructure. Compliance records should be published and there should be a public right to know when untreated sewage is spilled into the river.

Furthermore, my plan calls for regular monitoring of ecological indicators and more funding for research. As it stands, water quality information for the Ottawa River is not integrated or consistent.

The federal government should establish a watershed management plan for the Ottawa River now, instead of waiting for pollution levels to reach the same catastrophic levels observed in the Great Lakes.

I will support a budget proposal that increases funding to municipalities to help them improve the water quality of the Ottawa River. We can’t wait any longer to protect its ecological and environmental integrity.

Thank you again for writing to me on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Paul Dewar, MP | Député Ottawa Centre
879 Edifice Confederation Building
613.996.5322    www.pauldewarmp.ca
CEP 232

From: david.mcguinty@parl.gc.ca
Sent: Jan 19, 2012
Subject: RE: Please commit to funding the Ottawa River Action Plan

Thank you for your email regarding funding for the Ottawa River Action Plan.

I find it extremely encouraging and heartening to have received over 200 emails from concerned citizens on this critically important matter.

I have spent my career committed to sustainability issues and to the quality of Canadian rivers; I will continue to encourage the government to fund such worthy projects.

The Ottawa River Action Plan is indeed very deserving of support from the Federal Government and I am hopeful it will be included in Budget 2012.

Sincerely,

David McGuinty
Member of Parliament
Ottawa South

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Position: YMCA Digital Skills, Graphic Design, Social Media Intern

Type: full-time, 20 week paid internship (late-February to mid-July 2012)

Compensation: $16.00/hour, 40 hours/week

Organization: Ecology Ottawa www.ecologyottawa.ca

Location: Ottawa, Ontario

Application deadline: before the end of the day on Sunday, February 12, 2012

Internship Project Description

The successful candidate will work closely with the policy coordinator at Ecology Ottawa. He or she will help with the graphic design needs of Ecology Ottawa including, but not limited to, the creation of YouTube videos, the design of brochures and promotional materials, the design and implementation of social media engagement activities (Facebook, Twitter), website design and updates using WordPress.

The intern’s duties will be divided into four different components. First, the intern will work with the Policy Coordinator (who is also the organization’s webmaster) to help ensure the newly launched Ecology Ottawa WordPress website is dynamic and frequently updated. WordPress is a semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. Since WordPress technology is fairly new to most people at Ecology Ottawa, after he or she becomes proficient in using the technology themselves, the intern will help colleagues and volunteers learn to use the website proficiently. This could include creating User Manuals (designed for volunteers) about the WordPress website, in partnership with the webmaster. Second, the intern will help create YouTube videos that promote promising practices related to renewable energy and energy efficiency. The intern will work with the policy coordinator to film, edit and publish these videos on-line on YouTube and potentially other on-line video websites. Third, the intern will use their imagination to help conceive of and design promotional materials and brochures for Ecology Ottawa, including 2-page Cases For Support documents (that could be used to help with organizational fundraising), as well as design the graphics for a large booth that Ecology Ottawa will frequently have at community events, such as festivals and meetings, etc. Finally, the intern will help increase the use of Social Media as a public engagement tool, by frequently posting relevant information to our Facebook and Twitter accounts and asking for public input on, and participation in, initiatives being run by Ecology Ottawa.

Additionally, the intern will learn important life and professional skills while working for a small but effective not-for-profit organization.

Qualifications

To participate in this Digital Skills Youth Internship Program, individuals must meet all criteria. Are you eligible?

• I am between 15 and 30 years of age (inclusive) at the time of placement;
• I am a post-secondary graduate;
• I am unemployed or underemployed at the time of placement;
• I am out of school;
• I am a Canadian citizen or permanent resident;
• I am legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations; and
• I am not in receipt of employment insurance (EI) benefits;
• If selected and determined to meet the eligibility criteria of the program, I will be offered the position pending a satisfactory result on a Police Record Check. This will be completed through the YMCA’s contracted provider, at no cost to the youth. Once this step is complete, additional hiring documents will be required to complete the process (employment contract, tax forms, and direct deposit forms).
• The intern must be fluent in English and fluency in French would be a definite asset.

Experience with the above mentioned software applications and graphic design software, such as Microsoft Publisher and Adobe Illustrator, would be a definite asset.

A University Degree or College Diploma is also a requirement.

The Digital Skills Youth Internship Program is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from equity seeking groups’ including qualified individuals identifying as having a disability, as being a visible minority, aboriginal/First Nations people and francophone.

Ecology Ottawa’s Background, Mandate and Expertise

Ecology Ottawa is a not-for-profit organization working to make Ottawa the green capital of Canada. We believe that Ottawa residents are concerned about issues such as pollution, waste, and global warming, and that they want sustainable communities where public transit, renewable energy, recycling, and green space protection take priority. We help connect Ottawa residents to their natural environment through education on the water, air, land and wildlife in the city’s large land mass. We are helping to build environmental leadership through empowerment of residents interested in environmental issues, and through promotion of policy options based on best practices to city staff and municipal representatives.

Founded in 2006 by a group of passionate volunteers, Ecology Ottawa has grown to become the city’s leading source of information about local environmental issues and events. Our electronic newsletter, sent out twice a month, reaches over 5,000 people. On Twitter, we have more than 2,000 followers, and on Facebook more than 750 individuals ‘like’ us and are kept informed about what we are working on. We have partnered with several other community and environmental groups to organize highly successful public events and produced and distributed thousands of copies of fact sheets, policy papers and other outreach materials to engage Ottawa residents in the protection of their local environment.

We are driven by staff, a dedicated steering committee, and a volunteer base of over 400 people. The steering committee includes people with years of experience in government, the not-for-profit sector and private industry, which has helped in ensuring responsible financial and organizational management. Our many volunteers, the majority of which are youth between the ages of 18 and 30, also boast a diversity of backgrounds, experiences and talents. We currently have a Katimavik program participant volunteering with us full-time.

The YMCA Digital Skills, Graphic Design, Social Media Intern will be supervised by Ecology Ottawa’s staff (specifically Trevor Haché, Policy Coordinator) and will report on their work in weekly meetings, in which they will receive constructive guidance and feedback.

Our Supporters

Ecology Ottawa’s work is supported by more than 400 volunteers and over 5,000 subscribers to our bi-weekly electronic newsletter. In addition to donations made by over 1,000 individuals, we have received financial support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Community Foundation of Ottawa, Human Resources and Social Development Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-op, the Ontario Sustainability Fund, Earth Day Canada, The City of Ottawa’s Community Environmental Projects Grants Program. As well, we have received in-kind contributions from YMCA (Youth Eco Internship) and Katimavik.

Past projects with YMCA interns

Ecology Ottawa has benefited greatly by having YMCA Youth Eco Internship in the past. Those interns have had extremely useful experiences here and they have been able to use the skills they have learned to help them find meaningful work.

To apply for this position, or to learn more, please visit the following website:

https://www.dyip.ca/dyip_admin/_dyip_apply/application/index.php?l=en&dyip_interest=y

Jan. 26, 2012 (Ottawa) — Ecology Ottawa praised the National Capital Commission (NCC) today for its plan to further expand Ottawa’s greenbelt and denounced members of the development community who are already working to undermine this responsible move.

“The NCC’s intention to add a 10 per cent expansion beyond the existing Greenbelt over 50 years is exactly that type of visionary idea that Ottawa needs more of,” said Graham Saul, chair of Ecology Ottawa.

The local environmental organization denounced those in the development community that are speaking out against the plan.

“These businesses and associations seem to be acting like the opposite of good corporate citizens,” said Trevor Haché, the group’s policy coordinator. “Greedy agendas driven by vested interests should be outright rejected by the National Capital Commission, Ottawa city council, and Ottawa’s citizens.”

“Developers already cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars appealing the previous council’s decision to limit the expansion of the urban boundary,” added Saul. “And now they are suggesting that we should pave over our parks and farms instead of focusing on building a world class city that we can all be proud of.”

Ecology Ottawa believes that the NCC’s plan will further allow the city to become both environmentally and financially sustainable. Indeed, sprawl’s destructive effects are well known. It promotes pollution and excess energy consumption from car traffic, and increases run-off of polluted water from miles of asphalt. It is also expensive, creating far-flung infrastructure that is costly to service and maintain.

“The success of the city’s light rail plan depends on greater density inside the Greenbelt—not more sprawl,” Saul said. “Compact and walkable neighbourhoods, a concentration of residential development around public transportation corridors, and the preservation of green spaces and rural areas are critical to ensuring our nation’s capital realizes its full potential.”

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For more information, please contact:

Graham Saul, chair, Ecology Ottawa
613-558-3368 (cell); 613-860-5353 (work)

Trevor Haché, policy coordinator, Ecology Ottawa
613-860-5353 (work)

Three hours and 57 minutes …

Ottawa Citizen, December 22 2011
By Patricia LeBouef

OTTAWA — VIA Rail says new express trains to be added Jan. 24 will travel between Ottawa and Toronto in three hours and 57 minutes — the quickest time ever between the national and provincial capitals.

VIA Rail currently offers five weekday, three Saturday and four Sunday trains from Ottawa to Toronto, with times ranging from four hours, 18 minutes to four hours, 50 minutes, according to its published schedule.

The railway said the express trains are part of service improvements it expects will add 100,000 passengers a year to its Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle.

“We are making those changes based on traffic patterns, customer demands as well as market research,” said spokesman Malcolm Andrews.

Read more here

Hot water tank company chips in to help the Food Bank

Ottawa Citizen, December 19 2011
By Patricia LeBouef

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Food Bank will be receiving an extra gift this year courtesy of FreeHotWaterTank.ca.

For every hot water rental tank the company installs, it will donate $50 to the Food Bank. This promotion will last until Jan. 31, 2012.

“We’ve been looking at doing something for the Christmas holidays,” said Joel McBreairty, owner of FreeHotWaterTank.ca. “Hunger is something that is absolutely the most difficult thing to deal with over the holidays and we really felt it was a great way to give back to Ottawa.”

They are hoping to reach their goal of $10,000.

Each dollar that is given to the Food Bank translates to about $5 of actual food.

McBreairty believes that donating to the Food Bank corresponds to the company’s dedication to be as environmentally friendly as possible. In addition to their products being EnergyStar approved, all emission produced by hot water tanks are neutralized through the purchase carbon offsets.

Read More Here

City in spat over funding of hazardous waste disposal program

Ottawa Citizen, December 15th 2011
By Neco Cockburn

OTTAWA — Ontario’s environment minister appears to be staying out of a dispute between City of Ottawa officials and Stewardship Ontario over funding for the city’s household hazardous waste disposal program.

A spokesman for Environment Minister Jim Bradley said Thursday that “the ministry would encourage the city and Stewardship Ontario to continue with their discussions” around the amount of money the city is to receive for its program, which allows residents to get rid of materials such as solvents, batteries and paint, and faces an anticipated shortfall next year of $429,000.

The comments were made in response to a letter sent last month by Councillor Maria McRae, chair of council’s environment committee, who on behalf of the committee asked Bradley to review funding for the “popular and effective” program.

Read More Here

Scooter-type e-bikes banned from NCC pathways

Ottawa Citizen, December 15th 2011
By Neco Cockburn

OTTAWA — Electric-powered vehicles including heavier “scooter-type” e-bikes are now prohibited from National Capital Commission pathways, according to a report issued by the NCC on Thursday.“Power-assisted bicycles that are physically similar to conventional bicycles” are still allowed on pathways, the NCC says, but “scooter-type power-assisted bicycles (i.e. with a fairing) are prohibited.” (A fairing is a rigid plastic covering to deflect wind and rain or to reduce drag.)

The same rules are in place for parkways closed to vehicles for the NCC’s Sunday Bikedays and Saturday Short Loops programs.E-bikes are classified under Transport Canada regulations as “power-assisted” bicycles, and can reach speeds of 32 km/h with their electric motors.
The NCC conducted public consultations earlier this year after it proposed rules for those and other electric vehicles “in response to the arrival of these new types of vehicles and to mitigate the various issues relating to them — particularly issues affecting user safety,” the report says.

Read More Here

Ottawa is No.1 for Spin

The Ottawa Citizen, December 14 2011

If Ontario’s most recent report comparing municipalities’ performance measured political spin, Ottawa would surely be near the top of the list. Mayor Jim Watson says the city has received “a good report card,” but only if one takes a highly selective look at the more than 100 aspects of city service that were measuredOttawa’s cost per hour of transit vehicle operation is highest in the province, nearly 50 per cent higher than the median.

We pride ourselves on waste diversion, but only Thunder Bay has a lower percentage of total waste diverted from landfills. Good thing Ottawa’s garbage collection costs per tonne are low.
Ottawa’s cost of operating a hectare of park is above average, and it is up 50 per cent in just three years.

Read more here

Ecology Ottawa wants delay on Plasco deal

CBC News, December 9th 2011

Ecology Ottawa says the city should not sign a contract on a garbage-processing deal with Plasco Energy Group until it first discusses its waste diversion strategy.

The environmental group said it felt compelled to make a statement about the proposed deal with Plasco because of the “sheer scale and significance of this project to the future of waste management in the City of Ottawa.”

“We were not aware the city was planning to move so quickly to sign a 20-year contract committing to send roughly half of Ottawa’s residential garbage to a commercial-scale Plasco facility that is three times larger than the existing demonstration project,” wrote policy coordinator Trevor Haché.

City staff and Plasco worked out a 20-year-deal that calls for Plasco to take on 300 tonnes a day of residential waste at a cost of $83.25 per tonne.

Read more here

Needy households offered free insulation

CBC News, November 30, 2011

An Ottawa organization is looking for drafty homes to insulate — for free.

The Envirocentre, an Ottawa non-profit group that specializes in energy efficiency, runs a weatherization program for low-income households. Spokesman Andrew Cole said while the current program ends in a month, they have funds to insulate for 50 more drafty basements homes.

Each home costs about $3,000 to insulate, with the money coming from Enbridge Gas, a part of an agreement the company has with the Ontario Energy Board.

Elizabeth Blois, who rents a house in the east end of Ottawa, is the kind of client Envirocentre is seeking.

Before finding out about the program, Blois said, the basement “was cold. I didn’t even want to come down to the basement, it was that cold.”

With her heating bills rising and cold air rushing into the home through the uninsulated concrete basement, she turned to Envirocentre for help. They determined she was eligible for the program, and within a week the work was done.

The effect was immediate, she said: “I noticed a complete difference — a complete transformation — as soon as they left.”

Read more here

Editorial: Put a real price on garbage

Ottawa Citizen, November 30, 2011, page A14

You practically need a graduate degree to understand the complex system of residential waste collection in Ottawa. There are blue boxes, black boxes, green bins, yard waste collection and regular garbage, each with their own pickup schedule and organization to deal with the waste. Coming soon, to further complicate things, Plasco Energy Group will begin converting some of the city’s garbage to energy.

It is easy to be distracted by the many directions the stuff Ottawa residents throw out goes these days and assume that, now that we have a system to recycle and compost everything from plastic strawberry containers to table scraps, garbage is no longer a real issue for the City of Ottawa. But it is.

Ottawa residents have more options than ever when it comes to getting rid of household waste, but they are still producing too much of the stuff traditionally known as garbage, and the city is standing back and letting them get away with it.

The province’s Environment Commissioner Gord Miller could have been speaking about Ottawa when, in his annual report released Tuesday, he said Ontarians are not doing enough to reduce their waste outputs, and there is little financial incentive to convince them to. Ottawa has a slightly better than provincial average waste diversion rate of about 40 per cent.

Read more here

Diane Holmes earns an A+ for environmental strategies

Centretown News, Thursday, 24 November 2011
By Robin Grant

Environmental lobby group Ecology Ottawa released its annual report card Tuesday assessing the city councillors environmental strategies based on how they voted on key motions. Centretown’s Diane Holmes scored A+.

“The report card performs a watchdog function,” said Janice Ashworth, community organizer at Ecology Ottawa. “Our role is to provide information to voters on how their councilors are performing on environmental issues.”

Read more here

Ecology Ottawa Issues Annual City Councillor Report Card

CFRA, Wednesday, November 23, 2011
By Phil Gaudreau

Ecology Ottawa’s annual City Council report card suggests environmental issues are getting more attention at City Hall this year.

Policy Coordinator Trevor Hache tells CFRA News they ignored promises made and focused on results, meaning the scoring was all based on how Councillors voted on 12 environment-related questions (minus those where they weren’t present).

Three Councillors got “A”s, nine councilors (and the mayor) took home “B”s, another nine were awarded “C”s, leaving just one Councillor with a “D.”

Read more here

Mapping the Ecology Ottawa city hall report card

Ottawa OpenFile,Wednesday, November 23, 2011
By Trevor Pritchard

The closer you live to the centre of the city, the more likely you are to have a councillor who fares well in today’s report card by environmental advocacy group Ecology Ottawa.

We’ve mapped the results of Ecology Ottawa’s annual report, which assesses how Ottawa’s 23 councillors voted on 12 different matters of environmental importance.

Read more here

Ecology Ottawa rates the councillors

Ottawa Citizen, November 23, 2011
By David Reevely

Overall, council doesn’t come out too badly. The worst grade is a D, for Doug Thompson, who voted the way Ecology Ottawa would have liked on five out of ten issues. Mayor Jim Watson gets a B.

The usual caveats apply to a report card of this nature. Sensible people could disagree on what the “pro-environment” choice was on some issues, like whether the price of the OC Transpo UPass should be raised. Ecology Ottawa finds voting against the price increase the pro-environmental choice, which is a reasonable position to hold; OC Transpo’s argument is that the transit system needs financial support and can’t run if riders are too heavily subsidized, which is also a defensible view. On the whole, though, the votes involved are pretty straightforward.

Read more here

Ottawa councillors get their grade on environment
Organization judges city councillors based on how they voted on environmental issues

Metro Ottawa, November 23, 2011
By Jessica Smith

Coun. David Chernushenko shows off his green side Nov. 15 by being the first driver (of a bike) to travel down Bank Street when it reopened to traffic in the Glebe following a lengthy closure due to traffic.
Ecology Ottawa is releasing a report card on city councillors’ environmental voting records in 2011 Wednesday morning, but some councillors question the group’s methods.

The latest Council Watch grades are based on how councillors voted on 12 issues in 2011 that have an impact on the environment — including OC Transpo funding, road expansions, garbage pickup and the urban boundary.

Top-scoring councillors, David Chernushenko and Diane Holmes, voted the way Ecology Ottawa wanted on 11 of 12 issues. The 12th vote was one that cut OC Transpo funding and triggered the route optimization plan.

Read more here

Green Gradings For Council

Ottawa Sun, November 23rd, 2011
By Jon Willing

Ecology Ottawa has published its annual council gradings based on enviro-related votes.

“Overall this council seems like a team with the potential to implement an environmental agenda but who needs to be reminded that cities that invest in public transportation and smart land use planning and that reduce waste, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will be the true leaders – economically, socially and environmentally – in the coming decades,” Ecology Ottawa concludes.

The grades are posted on Ecology Ottawa’s website.

Read more here

MorningFile: Occupy Ottawa evicted, council gets environment report card, and the first snowfall

Ottawa OpenFile, Tuesday, November 22, 2011
By Trevor Pritchard

Let’s begin with some breaking news: police began evicting the Occupy Ottawa protesters from Confederation Park early this morning. The tents began coming down at around 2 a.m., and according to reports eight protesters were arrested without incident and released. According to a notice on the group’s Facebook page, there’s a protest being planned for 3 p.m. this afternoon in front of the National Capital Commission’s headquarters. The NCC issued eviction notices to the camp on Monday.

Read more here

National Energy Board predicts greener Canada
But fossil fuels will still dominate energy mix in 2035: report

Calgary Herald, November 22, 2011
By Dan Healing

Canada will produce more green energy and its overall energy usage will grow at a slower pace over the next 24 years, according to a report from the National Energy Board on Tuesday.
But Canadians will continue to use and produce energy that is predominantly based on fossil fuels, it says. “This document is a means for the NEB to fulfil our vision of contributing to the pursuit of a sustainable energy future for Canada,” said NEB chairman Gaetan Caron. “The 2011 report, which is based on cross-Canada research, shows Canadians can be confident about their energy future.”

Read more here

Plasco, city reach tentative waste-to-energy deal

Ottawa Sun, Friday November 25 2011
By Jon Willing

Plasco Energy Group has a tentative deal with the city, but company chief Rod Bryden says he’ll wait until it’s approved council before celebrating.
Plasco is on the cusp of signing the new deal with the City of Ottawa to process residential waste at its plasma gasification plant. The process is seen by many as the future of waste management.

Read more here

Explainer: What’s Ottawa doing about climate change?

Ottawa OpenFile, November 18, 2011
By Jonathan Migneault

When we think of climate change, we often think of international conferences and treaties that get a bunch of world leaders—or scientists—in the same room. They talk about what each country can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a certain amount.

Agenda 21 was an international action plan for, among other things, sustainable development. That was developed in 1992. Since then, the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, brought 191 countries into the global effort to combat climate change. And the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meets every year to work toward the same goals.

In 2009, the G8 set a goal in Italy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2050.

Agreements like these frame climate change as an international issue that requires strong action at the federal level. But organizations like Ecology Ottawa say that municipalities also need to take climate change seriously if the problem is to be tackled in any serious fashion.

Read more here

Plasco deal back on the table

Metro Ottawa, November 15, 2011
By Jessica Smith

Environmental groups are voicing concerns after city staff said Tuesday that council may vote on a contract with waste-to-energy company Plasco as early as December.

The company based in the Trail Road Landfill says it can turn garbage into energy, metal and other byproducts through a process called “plasma gasification.”

City staff began negotiating a waste-disposal contract with Plasco in 2008, but talks went dormant as the company awaited provincial approval. Plasco recently got the go-ahead from the Ministry of the Environment, restarting the negotiations, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick said.

Trevor Haché of Ecology Ottawa says his group is concerned about air pollution.

“Burning plastic creates nasty stuff,” he said. “They say gasifying eliminates the dioxins, which would be wonderful if, A, that was 100 per cent true; B, it created no other nasty emissions we should be concerned about; and, C, if it did so in an energy-positive way.”

Read more here

Recycling success: More plastic placed in blue boxes, Ottawa panel told

Ottawa Citizen, November 15, 2011
By Neco Cockburn

Residents have recycled more plastic after the city expanded the number of items that can be placed in blue boxes, council’s environment committee heard on Tuesday.

In June, the city added “household plastic containers” such as takeout containers, “clam shell” bakery and produce containers, clear egg cartons, pails, flower pots and planting trays to the list of what will be picked up in blue boxes.

Staff have seen a “significant” 37-per-cent increase in plastics that have been recycled from June to September, compared to a three-year average over the same period, said Marilyn Journeaux, the city’s manager of solid waste.

Staff used their update to the committee to remind people that plastic bags are “contaminants” that should not go into the blue box or green bin. A list of places that will take back clean bags can be found at ottawa.ca/recycle.

Read more here

Talks on for long-term deal with Plasco, city manager says

Ottawa Citizen, November 15, 2011
By David Reevely

A long-term deal to have Plasco Energy Group zap Ottawa’s garbage into energy could be presented to city councillors as soon as December, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick reported Tuesday morning.

Kirkpatrick has been in on-and-off talks with the local company, led by tech entrepreneur Rod Bryden, since 2008, he told city council’s environment committee. City council agreed to a pilot project with Plasco, which uses a technology called “plasma gasification” to break up garbage and turn it into electricity and a gravel-like product, in 2005. A demonstration plant has been built just outside the city’s Trail Road landfill to develop Plasco’s technology. In 2008, city council told Kirkpatrick to monitor Plasco’s work and, if the process worked, negotiate a long-term deal for Plasco to take large amounts of city garbage.

The negotiations went on hold for a long time while Plasco refined its technology and raised money from venture capitalists, but now that Plasco’s been given a certificate of approval — essentially an operating licence — from the Ministry of the Environment and has plenty of investors, the outline of a contract has been set, Kirkpatrick said. He and Plasco are still working out the details, but “we’re getting close,” he said.

Read more here

Ottawa tests new public consultation format

CBC News, November 15, 2011

One Ottawa community is serving as the guinea pig for a new public consultation system being tested by city staff.

The city wants to start sharing community design plans online by posting videos and advising residents to submit comments or email planners directly.

Staff believe this will save money in the long run on display boards and costs to rent rooms for public reviews. It could also involve more residents who do not attend open houses.

“We need to reach out beyond the people who are comfortable in the open house presentation format,” said Barbara Backland, a community consultation specialist with the city.

“I think it’s just an opportunity for us to try something different.”

The Hintonburg-area community of Bayview will be the first to see this new format of presenting a community design plan. Staff will unveil a new plan for the Bayview O-Train and transit station and the surrounding area online.

Read more here

The greening of Ottawa

Ottawa Citizen, November 14, 2011, page A12
By Phil Jenkins

I’m not a total disciple of the tipping point theory – it makes history sound like it progresses in snaps and releases, rather than in waves that grow and crest – but it has become a neat journalistic catchphrase, like “perfect storm.” The tipping theory is really an exercise in hindsight, in looking back historically to see if you can spot just when it all started to go horribly wrong or terrifically right.

For example, the Occupy movement might well, in a few years, be the signpost for the money hoarders to realize that the gap between them and you and me had reached the snapping point, the point at which historical precedent kicks in and there is a countervailing, hopefully bloodless, force. If the end result of this particular tipping is that at least one country somewhere places a tax on financial transactions (most certainly it won’t be Canada) then those little tents opposite the Lord Elgin might have contributed to the moment in history when things began to swing in the right direction.

Then again, the Occupying phenomenon might not be the tipping point: It might only be a nudge nearer the edge, which is a perfectly useful contribution in its own right. It’s only with hindsight that we’ll know, but the fun of the theory is to be able to say you were among the first to spot it. Being able to later say, “I knew right then, things had changed,” is very satisfying. (Note to the Occupiers: When they shut down your overnighting in Confederation Park, which is bound to happen at some point, how about setting up a yurt village at Lansdowne Park? Make it a people’s park again, at least for a little while.)

Read more here

Taxes, transit main concerns at final budget consultation

CentreTownNews, Friday, 11 November 2011
By Alex Butler

The final public consultation on the city’s draft budget at city hall drew only a small group of downtown residents to air their concerns.
About 40 people attended the consultation and only a few residents spoke during the meeting. Many comments came from community group representatives.
While many details of the draft budget were commended, some residents criticized the timing of the consultations.

Centretown resident Dan Mullaly came with two concerns, one being the consultation schedule.
“It is nigh-well impossible to digest this budget document in a week,” says Mullaly.
The Federation of Citizen’s Associations of Ottawa-Carleton also issued a press release, stating that the meetings were rushed and inconveniently timed.

Bob Brocklebank, vice-president of the association, says a week is not long enough to review the budget. He says after a budget is released, residents should be able to have a general discussion.
“A budget is one of the few opportunities, maybe the only opportunity, in which it’s possible to have wider comment about the city’s activity,” says Brocklebank.
Mullaly said he has not reviewed the budget, but has concerns.
“I have serious concerns about my tax dollars,” he says.
The 2.39-per-cent tax increase was repeatedly questioned, along with the 2.5-per-cent increase in transportation fares.
Ecology Ottawa’s Trevor Haché praised the budget for its green initiatives, but criticized the OC Transpo fare hike. “We currently have some of the most expensive cash fares in the country.”

Read more here

Residents pleased with cycling-friendly budget

Your Ottawa Region, November 10th 2011
By Eddie Rwema

Issues ranging from a property tax increase, transit investment, and cycling infrastructure dominated a two hour long central public consultation session for the 2012 budget held at the city hall on Nov. 4.

The meeting was the fourth of the fifteen public consultation meetings planned to seek public inputs, suggestions, comments and critique to the proposed budget.

Relatively well attended, Mayor Jim Watson told participants that through a new initiative called “Ottawa on the Move,” the city was destined to become a far more bike-friendly.

Since amalgamation, the amount of cycling paths has almost doubled, going from approximately 360 kilometres in 2000 to the current 685 kilometres of bike lanes, paved shoulders and multi-use pathways.

The 2012 budget provides an additional $12.1 million to help build and maintain the existing path network. In total, the proposed budget identifies more than 70 kilometres of bicycle lanes and paved shoulders that will result from the roads resurfacing program.

“From the cycling point of view, this is the largest cycling investment over a term of council in the city’s history,” said Watson. “Something we are proud of.”

Read more here

Budget consultation ends without a bang:
Property taxes to go up by 2.39 per cent

Ottawa Citizen, November 5th 2011
By David Reevely

The final major consultation on the city’s 2012 budget ended with the same whimper that characterized the first three.

It took the form more of a defence of the budget by a panel of politicians and staff, where a few dozen residents watched as a handful took to microphones mostly to raise objections to the plans – to borrow money for capital projects, to raise transit fares, to put relatively little money into green energy – and mostly had it explained to them why their concerns were invalid, already addressed in the budget or not really the city’s business.

The 2012 budget, as first written, would raise property taxes by 2.39 per cent, or about $75 on the $304,800 home the city considers average, and freezes recreation fees. It also proposes to borrow $125 million for an extra-long list of capital projects, mostly transportation-oriented.

Mayor Jim Watson told the gathering that much of the credit for that belonged to downtown councillors who “hounded” him, particularly for sidewalk improvements.

The city’s isn’t freezing taxes because prices go up, Watson said, but “we have to show restraint, especially as we head into difficult times.”

Read more here

Harper heads to G20 summit with Greek crisis looming large

Postmedia News, November 2, 2011
By Jason Fekete and Mark Kennedy

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has joined global leaders in France for the G20 Summit, where the decisions they make will have tremendous implications for the pocketbooks of consumers, federal government finances and the Canadian economy.

Read more here

Wheat-board chief fears final harvest if Harper has his way

Globe and Mail, Wednesday, November 2, 2011
By Steven Chase

The Canadian Wheat Board is doomed if the Harper government proceeds with a bill to strip it of control over western grain sales, the beleaguered marketing agency’s chairman warns.
The farmer-controlled board is currently the world’s biggest grain exporter by volume but Allan Oberg says scrapping its monopoly power and allowing producers to sell their output through any middleman would spell the end of the agency.

Read more here

Powering up
Let the sun shine, and it’ll keep you charged

Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Nov. 01, 2011
By Lynn Greiner

Sunny days are a real treat, especially as winter approaches. They warm the heart, improve morale and now, they even provide a power source for many of those electronics that run our lives.
Smartphones, e-readers, cameras and music players all live in our pockets, purses and bags, get used a lot, and tend to run out of juice at the most annoying moments – for example, when you’re on the road trying to make a sale.

Read more here

Ottawa can plant the seed for Canada to feed the world

Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Nov. 01, 2011

More so than any other country, say agricultural economist Larry Martin and researcher Kate Stiefelmeyer, Canada is equipped – by history, by geography, by aptitude and by infrastructure – “to feed the world.” Agriculture was our founding industry. We have vast tracts of arable land. We have abundant fresh water. We have know-how. We have everything we need to be a global food superpower.

Read more here

City council could consider Plasco deal as early as December

The Ottawa Citizen, October 26, 2011
By Joanne Chianello

OTTAWA — In what could be a game changer for the way this city manages its garbage, Ottawa officials are negotiating a long-term contract with Plasco Energy Group that could divert hundreds of thousands of tonnes of garbage from the Trail Road landfill at a cost of more than $8 million a year. Plasco, the waste-to-energy company started by Rod Bryden, received both air and waste certificates of approval on Monday from the provincial Ministry of Environment, the brightest green light this company has seen in its five-year history with the city.

Read more here

Price of fuel jacks up Transpo rates 64

Ottawa Sun, October 26, 2011
By Jon Willing

OC Transpo riders will absorb another 2.5% fare increase in 2012 and the head of the transit commission warns there could be larger rate increases in the future.
Coun. Diane Deans said high fuel costs are throwing a wrench in the budget and causing financial unpredictability. Nearly $10 million is projected to be spent on diesel fuel next year at Transpo.
Deans said the threat of higher fare hikes in the future is “just a warning” for now.
Riders won’t know how much more they each will be paying next year until the city budget is approved by council, but Transpo knows the changes will come into effect July 1, 2012.

Read more here

Algonquin interest in Western Wind wanes

The Canadian Press, October 26, 2011

OAKVILLE, Ont. – A possible takeover bid for Western Wind Energy Corp. (TSXV:WND) has fallen by the wayside.
Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (TSX:AQN) said Wednesday that it was no longer interested in pursuing discussions or conducting due diligence on Western Wind, a Vancouver-headquartered renewable energy producer with operations in California and Arizona.

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City seeks answers to garbage questions Survey, ‘waste fairs’ look ahead 10 years

Ottawa Citizen, October 12th 2011
By David Reevely

As part of preparing a 10-year strategy, the City of Ottawa wants residents to fill out a survey, in person or online, asking nitty-gritty questions about garbage.
Questions like whether it’s possible for households to produce less garbage over the next few years.
And big-picture things like whether Ottawa should be a regional leader for disposing of garbage and processing recyclables, possibly taking waste from across Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais. The survey also seems to ask for ammunition in the city’s quiet fight with the province over how it regulates garbage generated by businesses and public institutions, which is almost all collected by private companies and hauled to private but highly visible landfills like the Waste Management facility on Carp Road near Highway 417.

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Oilsands fight to intensify, envoy told- Canada’s lack of climate change action tied to growing opposition in U.S

Ottawa Citizen, October 12th 2011
By Mike De Souza

Opposition to oilsands expansion in “Canada’s Texas” and a controversial U.S. pipeline expansion project is growing because of a failure to crack down on pollution, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Gary Doer, was told by staff.
“The anti-oilsands campaign is very real and shows no sign of letting up,” wrote Marc LePage, a special adviser on climate change and energy issues at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, in an email to Doer.
“This will not go away and will likely intensify in the absence of movement on climate change legislation.”

Read more here

Canadian firms warming to climate-change measures

The Globe and Mail, Oct. 12, 2011
By Richard Blackwell

Canadian companies, once leery of the costs and headaches of dealing with climate change, now realize that it may provide a significant business opportunity.

Many firms now sell products to deal with climate-change issues, save money by cutting energy consumption or use their new-found environmental awareness as a marketing tool, according to the latest survey of Canadian businesses being released Wednesday by the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Read more here

King Edward group keeps up 25-year fight
Lowertown residents are battling what is essentially a six-lane highway running through their neighbourhood

Ottawa Citizen, October 2, 2011
By Bruce Deachman

Marc Aubin sometimes wonders if it will take a horrific calamity – an overturned truck carrying toxic chemicals, for example – before authorities will finally lend a serious ear to Lowertown residents’ concerns surrounding the volume and speed of traffic coursing along King Edward Avenue.

For 25 years, the King Edward Avenue Task Force, a small citizens’ advocacy group of which Aubin is current chair, has lobbied politicians and planners – in vain, for the most part – to do something about what is essentially a six-lane highway cutting through the middle of their neighbourhood.

Numerous issues are in play, including not just the speed and volume of traffic, but also noise, excessive truck traffic, pollution, safety and the general well-being of nearby residents and the area’s livability.

Read more here

Chemical-munching mussels contaminating Great Lakes

Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 2011
By Agence France-Presse

Zebra mussels from the Caspian Sea, introduced to North America by accident, are becoming a veritable plague releasing toxic chemicals into the Great Lakes, Canadian biologists say.

The mussels hitch-hiked to Canada on the ballasts of cargo ships arriving on the continent in 1986. And in the past two decades the thumbnail-sized creatures have spread and are found in more than a third of the Great Lakes.

Not content with devouring plankton and indigenous species, the mussels are sucking on toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) trapped in the lakes’ sediment and releasing the chemicals into the freshwaters, Todd French, a biologist at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario told AFP.

“Zebra mussels act as a siphon. They absorb everything and reject what is toxic,” he explained.

PCBs were first manufactured in 1929, and were widely used in sealing and caulking compounds, cutting oils, inks and paint additives.

Read more here

Low-VOC wood finishes here to stay

Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 2011
By Steve Maxwell

Canada is more than six months into a two-year phase-out period for many solventbased wood finishes, and the changes are showing up on store shelves. You may have noticed gallon cans of your favourite finish disappearing, replaced by something different.

The main issue is a group of substances called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Government-led changes to reduce VOCs in the atmosphere are behind the shift, and it affects the products you can buy and how you use them.

VOC REGULATION

The issue centres on the solvents that make many traditional urethanes, varnishes, stains and paints dry, and they’re more harmful than we used to think, though not in obvious ways.

We know now that small concentrations of VOCs trigger negative reactions in the atmosphere. VOCs also cause measurably lower indoor air quality in homes and offices. Whether you think these issues are worth worrying about doesn’t change the fact that more and more store shelf space is devoted to waterbased finishes, especially in the one-gallon format.

Read more here

Not a ‘science project’… but a home
A two-storey stucco high in the Gatineau Hills uses up to 90-per-cent less energy than a conventional home and packs one of the most impressive views around. But beware the road: It’s a wild ride, writes Sheila Brady

Ottawa Citizen, October 1, 2011, page I1
By Sheila Brady

The narrow, gravel road leading up to David Nobbs and Louise Mailloux’s Wakefield home perched high in the Gatineau Hills is a thrilling ride, even on a sunny, calm morning in early fall.

Negotiating down the hairpin turns and steep pitches after a freezing rain in February would be a no-no, with the distinct possibility of plunging into the woods or the Gatineau River. A February freeze would be the time to cancel all appointments, put on the coffee pot, fire up the computer and enjoy nature performing outside the high-tech windows.

Happily, Mailloux and Nobbs have the freedom to work from their newly finished home, which happens to be one of just a few passive homes in Canada. The construction achievement means it will use 85-to 90-per-cent less energy to heat and cool than a conventional home, thanks to a combination of superior insulation, a taping system under the drywall that has shut down virtually every air leak and a series of ultra energy-efficient windows that keep the cold on the outside and warmth on the inside.

Read more here

Traffic calming program stuck in gridlock
Backlog includes $6.5M in projects with $700,000 annual budget

Ottawa Citizen, September 30, 2011, pages A1, A5
By David Reevely

The city’s traffic-calming program is so hopelessly underfunded that individual councillors should decide how to allocate the limited money available for each ward, the city’s transportation staff say.

There is a backlog of 462 projects, from new stop signs to better centre-line markings to street narrowings, mostly aimed at slowing cutthrough traffic in residential neighbourhoods all over the city, says a report to be presented to council’s transportation committee next week.

The to-do list amounts to $6.5 million worth of work, which is a problem, because the annual budget for it amounts to $30,000 per ward, or less than $700,000.

Projects now are tackled according to a citywide priority list, which means that as new high-priority ones are added, older projects bump down the list. The report says some neighbourhoods have been waiting 15 years for work that’s been approved, but never made it over the line onto the list of things the department has the money to do.

Read more here

Climate change could cost Canada $43B a year by 2050: Report

Ottawa Citizen, September 29, 2011
By Mike de Souza

Canada’s environment minister says his government is not surprised that its own advisory panel on business and environmental issues is warning that greenhouse gas emissions could cost the Canadian economy up to $43 billion each year by 2050 if it fails to come up with a domestic plan to tackle global warming.

The groundbreaking assessment, submitted to government by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, is the first of its kind to analyze Canadian trends in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, population and the economy, in the context of climate change science.

The federal advisory panel warned in the study, titled Paying the Price: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada, that Canadians could have a steep price to pay if governments reject the science that links human activity and greenhouse gas pollution to global warming. The costly consequences could include major flooding in coastal cities, effects on human health and dramatic changes in the forestry industry and other sectors.

“Ignoring climate change costs now will cost us more later,” said the report, which was produced by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, an independent organization whose members were appointed by Harper’s government.

Read more here

Climate change will cost Canada $5B yearly by 2020, report shows

Toronto Star, September 29, 2011
By Heather Scoffield, the Canadian Press

Climate change will cost Canada and its people about $5 billion a year by 2020, a groundbreaking analysis for the federal government warns.

Costs will continue to climb steeply, to between $21 billion and $43 billion a year by the 2050s — depending on how much action is taken on reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions and how fast the economy and population grow, the analysis says.

“Climate change will be expensive for Canada and Canadians,” says the report from the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, issued Thursday.

“Increasing greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide will exert a growing economic impact on our own country, exacting a rising price from Canadians as climate change impacts occur here at home.”

Read more here

Wind-energy firm Trillium Power sues Ontario

The Globe and Mail, Sep. 28, 2011
By Richard Blackwell

A company that planned to build a series of huge wind farms in Lake Ontario is suing the provincial government for $2.25-billion, claiming it unfairly cancelled all offshore wind projects earlier this year.
Trillium Power Wind Corp. spent millions of dollars over many years planning its projects, and had dutifully followed the government’s application processes, the suit claims, but the rug was pulled from under its feet when the province said it would not consider any offshore development until more scientific studies were done.

Read more here

Committee gives thumbs-up to more development on city’s fringe

Ottawa Citizen, September 27th, 2011
By David Reevely

OTTAWA — After two sessions of debating how to expand the city’s urban-development boundary by 850 hectares, most of which were spent wrangling over a few hectares in northern Kanata, city council’s planning committee decided to approve almost the same growth their planning staff first recommended more than two years ago.

Read more here

Solar panel company Siliken Canada to drop 2 shifts

Ottawa Citizen, July 7, 2011
By Don Lajoie, Postmedia News

WINDSOR, Ont. — Just weeks after provincial cabinet ministers presided over the official opening of its new alternative energy plant, the Windsor, Ont., manufacturer Siliken Canada announced it has been “forced” to lay off two shifts.

Read more here

Shallower light-rail tunnel will help meet $2.1 billion budget

The Ottawa Citizen July 7, 2011
By David Reevely, Joanne Chianello and Neco Cockburn

OTTAWA — Mayor Jim Watson threw his political weight behind the city’s light-rail plan Thursday afternoon, ditching his previous skepticism now that planners and engineers have found a way to make it hundreds of millions of dollars cheaper by running trains through a shallower tunnel downtown.

Read more here

88M litres of sewage hit Ottawa River

Ottawa Citizen, July 7, 2011
By David Reevely

OTTAWA — About 88 million litres of mixed sewage and rain flowed into the Ottawa
River thanks to storms in the last week of June, the city estimates.

Read more here

Ontario Tories vow to scrap eco fees

Ottawa Citizen, July 6, 2011, page C3
By Mohammed Adam

To mark the one-year anniversary of the HST and eco fees, Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod said Tuesday that an Ontario Progressive Conservative government would eliminate eco fees in the province.

But Liberal Environment Minister John Wilkinson called the Tory policy “reckless,” saying it would either lead to such items as paint, used tires and electronics being dumped in landfills, or municipal property taxes going up to pay for recycling them.

At a Kanata baseball diamond, MacLeod – flanked by Ottawa West-Nepean candidate Randall Denley, Jack MacLaren, who is running in Carleton-Mississippi Mills, and Ottawa South candidate Jason MacDonald – condemned the fees as a “sneaky tax grab.”

Read more here

New LRT cost estimates due Thursday
Watson plans transit address

Ottawa Citizen, July 5, 2011
By David Reevely

Revised estimates of the cost of Ottawa’s proposed light-rail system are due Thursday, one week before a special council meeting to discuss whether and how the project fits into the city’s long-range financial plan, and Mayor Jim Watson is planning a speech on the subject.

Watson’s office has sent invitations to a list of guests for an “address on transit” at 3 p.m. this Thursday in the city hall rotunda. “From optimizing our transit service to investing in our cycling infrastructure, and planning for Light Rail Transit, the City of Ottawa continues to invest in public transit in order to keep our community competitive, efficient and prosperous,” the invitation says.

The special council meeting is scheduled for the council chamber at City Hall at 10 a.m. on July 14, a week later. Unusually, citizens will be able to sign up to address councillors, since they’ll be sitting as a “committee of the whole.”

Read more here

Panel OKs land to be added to urban area
Planning committee decides to stick with proposal from list made in 2009

Ottawa Citizen, July 5, 2011
By Joanne Chianello

Council’s planning committee approved Monday exactly which parcels of land are to be included in the 850 hectares to be added to the urban area, even though the city’s lawyers and planning staff wanted to consult the public before confirming the new additions.

Last month, the city lost an appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) over the amount of the land to be added to the city’s limits. The previous council had decided it wanted to add 230 hectares to the city over a 15-year period, after the city’s planning staff had recommended increasing the city limits by 850 hectares. Developers appealed council’s decision at the OMB and won, a proceeding that cost taxpayers $408,775.

Councillors are now charged with approving the pieces of land that are to be added to Ottawa’s urban area. City staff had come up with a recommended list of lands – totalling about 850 hectares – in May 2009, before the council of the day reduced the amount to 230 hectares. Since it’s been two years since that list was made, the city’s planners and lawyers recommended that councillors ask the public for any new information that should be considered before a final decision is made in September.

Read more here

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 building and home retrofits in which energy savings are greater than annual payments (pay-as-you-save), and in which the benefits and costs can be transferred to new owners.
All costs of operating the program by the City would be covered by user loan repayments making it revenue neutral to the City.

2. Community Owned Solar Power Systems on City Facilities.
We recommend that the city develop a program that would allow renewable energy cooperatives or other community organizations to investment in solar power projects on city facilities, and assist these organizations to develop solar projects.

3. Energy Efficiency Assistance Strategy for Low Income Families.
We recommend that the City develop a new long term strategy with the EnviroCentre, Enbridge Gas, Hydro Ottawa, social agencies, the Province, and low income communities themselves to provide home and electricity audits, financing options, and technical assistance to Ottawa’s low income families who do not live in social housing units. The City of Ottawa has worked closely with these partners in the past.

Download the following resources:

- The full Ecology Ottawa presentation to the Environment Commitee (Nov. 15, 2011)
- A slide presentation on Municipal Financing of Energy Retrofits (Jan. 19, 2012)
- A short report describing how a Municipal Financing Program would work in Ottawa (Jan. 19, 2012)
- Audio file of Roger Peters at the Environment Committee (Nov. 15, 2011)

January 17, 2012

Dear Ecology Ottawa supporter,

Every year, the City of Ottawa dumps hundreds of millions of litres of untreated sewage directly into the Ottawa River. Now you have an opportunity to help stop this travesty once and for all.

Please click here to send a quick letter to all Ottawa area MPs urging them to ensure that funding for the Ottawa River Action Plan is included in the federal 2012 Budget.

Support for action already exists. Indeed, local Member of Parliament John Baird has said: “It’s no longer an environmental issue. For many residents of the city of Ottawa, including myself, it’s a moral issue.” We could not agree more.

Thankfully, the city has developed the Ottawa River Action Plan to address this issue and the plan is already delivering results. In June, the city announced that recent infrastructure upgrades have cut discharges by more than half compared to measurements of four years ago. However, in 2011, the city still discharged 417-million litres of combined sewage and rainwater into the river—that is the equivalent of almost 166 Olympic-sized pools full of sewage!

City council would like to move forward with the next phase of the Ottawa River Action Plan—the construction of major combined sewage overflow (CSO) storage facilities. CSO storage facilities will lower the amount of contaminants released to the Ottawa River, improving the water quality and possibly reducing the number of beach closures.

According to Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown, who has endorsed this letter-writing campaign, it is imperative that the city move ahead with the Ottawa River Action Plan, with or without federal support. “But,” says Brown, “the Ottawa River is a key feature of the National Capital Region. The federal government should be doing everything it can to stop the dumping of untreated sewage in the river that runs through the nation’s capital.”

The province has indicated its willingness to contribute one-third of the cost, but the federal government has not yet made a similar commitment. We want to urge the federal government to commit to its third of the funding in the federal 2012 Budget. This is why we are asking you to write to your local Member of Parliament today.

Please send a quick letter now to all Ottawa area MPs urging them to ensure that funding for the Ottawa River Action Plan is included in the federal 2012 Budget.

The health of our rivers depends on you demanding action from our elected officials today.

Sincerely,

Graham Saul
Chair, Ecology Ottawa

p.s. — We recognize that the Ottawa River Action Plan is reactive, rather than proactive, so we will continue to encourage the city to prevent stormwater runoff by making green roofs and permeable surfaces the norm city-wide. Help us be more effective in this work by making a donation to Ecology Ottawa today and please consider volunteering.

Community group hopes to make further progress with city hall in 2012

PRESS RELEASE – For immediate release

November 30, 2011 (Ottawa, ON) – Mayor Jim Watson and Ottawa’s city councillors were congratulated today by Ecology Ottawa for passing a fairly good budget, from an environmental perspective.

“This is the greenest budget in years, but unfortunately it lacks a clear vision on the greatest challenge facing the world today: climate change,” said Trevor Haché, policy coordinator of Ecology Ottawa.

However, the local environmental organization was impressed by the investments made in cycling (70 kilometres of paved shoulders, an additional $12.1 million of funding for cycling infrastructure over three years) and pedestrian infrastructure, and the commitment to establish a “Green Express Lane,” for those builders who strive to be more energy efficient and who set the bar high on water conservation, incorporate reused materials, minimize waste from construction and demolition, and work to reduce strain on our roadways by being close to transit.

As Mayor Jim Watson said in his budget speech:

“We will examine and pre-approve the new Better Build techniques we want to give priority to and we will support them. Builders and homeowners who include these Better Build techniques such as solar hot water heaters, photovoltaic systems, storm and gray water re-use systems will not face barriers, they will instead get express lane service.”

Ecology Ottawa has been calling for such an express lane since at least March 2009 and we look forward to working with staff and elected representatives at city hall to ensure that bar is set high with regard to which projects will qualify for this expedited service.[1]

“We are also glad to see money ($1.4 million) dedicated toward the Environmentally Sensitive Land Fund created last year,” said Haché.

There were, however, numerous things in the budget that Ecology Ottawa was opposed to, including:

• another 2.5% fare increase to OC Transpo, we already have some of the most expensive fares in the country, if not the most expensive
• a decision to increase the cost of the U-Pass to $180 per semester, which could lead to the program being voted down in students’ referendums in 2012
• despite some $5 million in targeted investments to reduce congestion and over-crowding, the $22 million cut earlier this year in annual funding from OC Transpo’s operating budget was not restored
• millions of dollars committed to widening roads
• millions of dollars committed to building new roads

“Ultimately, the city needs to move in the direction of having the services used by personal vehicular users paid for by those drivers,” said Haché. “Parking is currently the only user fee of this sort. Why are there not fees for the use of roads, when fees exist for almost every other service the city provides? In the case of transit, users are expected to cover 50% of the cost of service directly through fares. Something along the lines of road tolls, a municipal gas tax, a vehicle tax, and increases in parking rates are clearly needed if the city is to balance its budgets in a way that is equitable and consistent across service areas.”

Ecology Ottawa sent a letter to the Mayor’s Online Pre-budget Public Consultation and made a presentation on the draft budget to the Environment Committee, asking for city council’s support for three programs (Municipal Financing of Energy Retrofits, Community Owned Solar Power Systems on City Facilities, and a Low Income Energy Efficiency Assistance Strategy), none of which had funding dedicated toward them in Budget 2012.[2]

We hope to work with city staff, the mayor and city councillors to find funding in the existing envelopes to make progress on these issues in 2012. And, if no progress can be made with the existing funding, we will be back when the 2013 Budget is being discussed to ask for them again.

“Overall, this budget is a good first step in charting a new course of action for the city of Ottawa, environmentally speaking,” Haché said. “We hope the nation’s capital will soon become a nationwide leader in taking action on climate change, by doing more to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency, and building a world-class, affordable public transportation system. We also want to see progress on waste diversion, as Ottawa can do a better job at reducing, reusing and recycling, and should be involved in pushing for individual producer responsibility, i.e., make individual producers fully responsible for meeting waste diversion requirements for both residential and IC&I waste.”[3]

With the city’s Environmental Strategy, Choosing Our Future, and Phase 2 of Ottawa’s Waste Plan all scheduled to be released in 2012, Ecology Ottawa looks forward to working with the mayor, all city councillors and staff to build on the environmental successes of this year’s budget.

- 30 -

For more information, please contact:

Trevor Haché
Policy Coordinator
Ecology Ottawa
(613) 860-5353

[1] Ecology Ottawa. “Building Ottawa’s Energy Revolution: How the City of Ottawa Can Encourage Greener Building Practices.” March 2009. Available on-line: www.ecologyottawa.ca/webyep-system/program/download.php?FILENAME=88-17-at-PDF_File_Upload_2.pdf&ORG_FILENAME=Building_Ottawa%27s_Energy_Revolution-march-2009.pdf

[2] Ecology Ottawa. “Ecology Ottawa 2012 Budget Recommendations on Greening Ottawa’s Homes and Buildings.” Letter to Mayor Jim Watson’s Online Pre-budget Public Consultation. October 5, 2011. Available on-line: http://bit.ly/r32yTQ

[3] Association of Municipalities of Ontario. “Waste Diversion should be among the Province’s Top Environmental Priorities States Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner‘s Annual Report.” AMO Breaking News. Website text. 29 November 2011. www.amo.on.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=163932

Ecology Ottawa, on behalf of the Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario, is engaged in province-wide research on emerging promising practices related to energy efficiency and renewable energy.

As we widely disseminate the information, it is hoped that Network members will learn about what other institutions across Ontario are doing to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. Leaders at these institutions will be inspired and encouraged to adopt emerging promising practices themselves.

When the promising initiatives become more widely known and implemented, Eastern Ontario will become a leader in driving demand for the goods and services that create jobs in the clean energy economy.

If you know of a promising practice that you feel deserves some attention, please e-mail your ideas to trevor.hache [@] ecologyottawa.ca or phone (613) 860-5353.

A map of the Promising Practices we have written about so far is available here.

Please click on the links below to read all about these good news stories.

Municipalities

Blind River, Ontario

Ottawa

Utilities/local distributors

(Coming soon)

Individuals

Bob & Suzanne Gregory, Paul & Fritz Klaesi, and Mike Gerbis

Institutions (schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, etc)

University of Ottawa

The Ottawa Hospital

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

Algonquin College

Employment & Education Centre (Brockville)

Businesses

Courtyard Restaurant

Westin Ottawa

Bullfrog Power

Brookstreet Hotel

Terryland Farms Inc.

Non-profits (faith-based organizations, cooperative housing, etc)

Ottawa Bluesfest

Bethany Community Church

Ottawa Community Housing

Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation

Ottawa Folk Festival

Huron Early Learning Centre

Energy Cooperatives

Sustainable Ottawa

Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative

Pukwis Energy Co-operative

Real Estate Developers / Building Owners / Property Managers

Towcon Holdings

BOMA BESt

British Columbia Investment Management Corporation / GWL Realty Advisors

Bentall Kennedy (World Exchange Plaza, Ottawa)

First Nations

Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation (see Pukwis Energy Co-op above)

M’Chigeeng First Nation

Grassroots Initiatives on Energy Efficiency

Neighbour-to-Neighbour Energy Conservation Project

Other

(Coming Soon)

As a founding member of the Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario, Ecology Ottawa is helping people in Eastern Ontario have an increased ability to access training, mentorships and the good green-collar job opportunities being provided by the clean energy economy.

Please find information below on the following subjects:

1. Green job postings (on-line)
2. Job and Career Centres
3. Apprenticeships and Mentorships
4. Training opportunities
5. Education opportunities

It is hoped that this information will result in individuals and employers being better suited to meet the growing demand for green services and green jobs. Should you have information about other opportunities in Eastern Ontario that are not included in the lists below, please forward them to Trevor Haché, policy coordinator, Ecology Ottawa, at trevor.hache@ecologyottawa.ca.

1. Green job postings (on-line)

Good Work Canada – Green job listings in a variety of relevant fields.

CanSIA – The Canadian Solar Industries Association is a national trade association that represents approximately 650 solar energy companies throughout Canada. Their job board lists opportunities related to solar energy.

CanGEA – The Canadian Geothermal Energy Association’s career postings website lists job opportunities in the geothermal industry.

CanWEA – The Canadian Wind Energy Association website lists a number of employment opportunities in the wind energy sector.

Green Collar Careers –  This initiative is a pilot program in partnership with the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative and the Toronto District School Board. The website includes information for job seekers, students, teachers and industry partners.

CharityVillage.com – job listings for the non-profit sector.

WorkCabin.ca – This environmental job website includes information for job seekers looking for entry level to senior level career-track jobs and internships.

Stop Dodo! – portal for environmental jobs, in Canada, as well as the rest of the world.

ECO Canada – contains occupational profiles, a guide to different environmental university/college programs, scholarships/awards, a job board, information for employers, professionals, educators, students and many more resources.

EnviroJobs.ca – limited job board (but growing)

idealist.org – includes non-profit job listings.

2. Job and Career Centres

Employment Resource Centres in Eastern Ontario
Ecology Ottawa has compiled this information on behalf of the Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario, which is encouraging the uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives. It is hoped the information contained in this document will help job seekers connect with those who have jobs to offer, and that Eastern Ontario will become a leader in driving demand for the goods and services that create jobs in the emerging clean energy economy.

3. Apprenticeships and Mentorships

Career Mentoring in the Renewable Energy Sector
The Community Energy Network of Eastern Ontario and the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization are partnering to offer career mentoring to new Canadians seeking employment in the renewable energy sector. The partnership will provide an opportunity for internationally educated professionals to partner with mentors working in the renewable energy sector. Mentees will engage in a comprehensive employment search while developing an understanding of the Canadian workplace culture and practices within their profession.
Why be a mentor?

- Enhance your leadership skills and cross-cultural competencies in a real-life setting
- Share your experience and enjoy the satisfaction of helping a newcomer get established in Canada
- Receive professional development training

To become a mentor, please contact Hedieh Azad, hazad@ociso.org or 613.725.5671 x225.

Building Greener Futures Together
This is a community economic development initiative (by the Social Planning Council of Ottawa) to create opportunities for young adults (aged under 24 with a high school education or less) to access work transition and learning opportunities in the green housing renovation sector. The secondary goal is to build the capacity of Ottawa’s renovation sector to utilize green technologies. This is a development stage project which enhances existing partnerships between the alternative schools in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, youth interested in the trades, and the renovation sector.

4. Training opportunities

The Kortright Centre for Conservation offers a series of one-day to one-week workshops for individuals, organizations and companies looking for introductory education and training in various renewable energy technologies. Options include Professional Training, Installation Workshops, Technology Workshops, and Introductory Seminars. Learn more here.

5. Education opportunities

This list of education opportunities is for individuals seeking green collar jobs. The programs listed are related to green building techniques, or how they integrate green energy into traditional disciplines. Programs fully focused on green energy are also included. University and college programs as well as courses/programs offered by other institutions/organizations are included. Learn more here.

The work of the Community Energy Network is supported by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.