Media Clips
Excerpts from and links to news stories about Ottawa and our environment, from external publications.
South March Highlands takes lead in online voting for Canada’s great public spaces
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
February 21, 2012
OTTAWA — Is Kanata’s South March Highlands one of Canada’s great public spaces? If online voting in the annual Great Places in Canada competition is any guide, the answer is a resounding yes.
With barely a week of voting remaining, the highlands has attracted 14,000 votes — more than double the support for the much higher profile Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver, its nearest competitor in the “public space” category.
The Vancouver garden attracts upwards of 100,000 visitors a year. By contrast, most Ottawans have never heard of the South March Highlands, and fewer still have spent any time there.
Letter campaign targets Ottawa River cleanup
By Lasia Kretzel, Ottawa Sun
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Local environmentalists are using the power of the people to pressure the feds to clean up the Ottawa River. Ecology Ottawa is asking Ottawa residents to write to their MPs and urge the government to include federal funding for the Ottawa River Action Plan in the 2012 budget. “I think members of Parliament owe it to their constituents to provide a clear response on where they stand on the issues,” said Ecology Ottawa chairman Graham Saul.
Province moves to help settle dispute over hazardous waste disposal funding
New regulation places onus on industry to pay for diversion programs
By Neco Cockburn, Ottawa Citizen
February 14, 2012
The province says it is implementing a plan to ensure that cities “are not burdened with extra costs for diverting (hazardous household) wastes from the environment.” Environment Minister Jim Bradley has announced a new regulation enabling industry funded Stewardship Ontario to recover from industry the “full costs” of running a municipal hazardous or special waste program.
Canada dropping the ozone ball, scientists warn
CBC News, February 13, 2012
Leading atmospheric scientists are warning that Canada’s cuts to its ozone monitoring program are already having effects on the world’s ability to monitor air quality and ozone depletion.
Five scientists from high-profile U.S. universities and NASA say in a recently-released paper that Canada is jeopardizing the scientific community’s ability to monitor for holes in the ozone, especially over the Arctic. They point out that monitoring has already stopped in five locations in Canada and the website that distributed the information has been pulled down.
“Canada is a bellwether for environmental change, not only for Arctic ozone depletion but also for pollutants that stream to North America from other continents,” Anne Thompson, a professor of meteorology at Penn State University, said in a release. “It’s unthinkable that data collection is beginning to shut down in this vast country.”
MEC planning major expansion in Westboro
By Maria Cook, The Ottawa Citizen
February 13, 2012
OTTAWA — The Mountain Equipment Co-op store in Westboro, a pioneer of green design and construction in Ottawa, has donated several trees and its climbing wall as it prepares to build a two-storey addition.
Construction of a 10,000-square-foot extension in the west parking lot is set to start at the end of February. Completion is expected in September.
“We’ve been bulging at the seams for a number of years,” says store manager Colleen Mooney. “Since we built this store, we’re now carrying a broad selection of bicycles and running shoes and we can’t fit it all in anymore.”
Algonquin land claim deal near, lawyer says
Pact of significance to Ottawa Valley
By Mohammed Adam, Ottawa Citizen
February 14, 2012
As the federal government grapples with festering aboriginal discontent, the chief negotiator for the Algonquins of Ontario says the group is on the cusp of a historic land deal that will have enormous significance for the Ottawa Valley and the country.
Toronto lawyer Robert Potts says an agreement-in-principle with federal and provincial governments on the Algonquin claim over 36,000 square kilometres of territory, including Eastern Ontario, will be ready for a vote within a year.
Joanne Chianello: Growing pains will make us great: It’s official: Ottawa’s big. Now we must embrace change.
By Joanne Chianello, The Ottawa Citizen
February 9, 2012
OTTAWA — For those who are clinging to the delusion that their neighbourhood won’t change, who are looking for free on-street parking or a seat on a rush-hour bus, the census has a message for you: Move. In case there’s still anyone who hasn’t figured it out, what with the traffic and overtaxed transit system and the highrise condo towers, the nation’s official counters have put us on notice that we’re becoming a big city.
Green Bins on the Canal
By Josh Pringle
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
There is a little green along the Rideau Canal skateway.
The City of Ottawa and the NCC have teamed up to place Green Bins around the confectionary rest areas. Skaters can put their food scraps, napkins and paper cups in the bins to help divert compostable waste from the landfill.
Winterlude without winter unthinkable, festival goers say
By Katia Dmitrieva, The Ottawa Citizen
February 6, 2012
Ontario’s power glut means possible nuclear plant shutdowns
By Ian MacLeod, Ottawa Citizen
February 5, 2012
OTTAWA — For at least eight hours Monday, Ontario is once again forecast to produce more electricity than it consumes, and the recurring glut has one top energy executive warning of temporary nuclear power plant shutdowns.
“We have largely been able to avoid nuclear shutdowns to deal with the (surplus) conditions but this may not be the case in the near future,” Paul Murphy, head of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), recently told an industry gathering.
His comment is raising questions about Ontario’s plans to boost nuclear power as the province’s chief source of energy.
Retrofit program loss stuns homeowners
Funding exhausted two months early, government says
By CBC News
January 31, 2012
The abrupt cancellation of the federal government’s popular energy retrofit program has stunned homeowners who thought they still had two months to take advantage of the incentive.
In a news release issued on Sunday, the Conservative government cancelled the ecoEnergy program, which provided grants of up to $5,000 to replace windows, insulation and furnaces.
The government said it closed down the program two months ahead of schedule because it had reached its limit of 250,000 applicants.
For people like Lou DiCarlo, the announcement shelved his plan to replace the windows in his Brampton, Ont., home.
Ontario open to NCC’s Greenbelt plan, Chiarelli says: Province owns large tracts of land in proposal
By Mohammed Adam, Ottawa Citizen January 27, 2012
Read more here.
Ottawa Environmental Group urges Residents to take Action
By Connie Jensen, CKCU radio (Midweek)
January 25, 2012
Connie Jensen (of the CKCU radio program Midweek) interviews Trevor Haché, policy coordinator at Ecology Ottawa, on the campaign to encourage Ottawa residents to voice their support for federal funding of the Ottawa River Action Plan.
To learn more about the Ecology Ottawa campaign to protect our rivers from raw sewage, please visit http://ecologyottawa.ca/take-action/
To listen to the radio interview, please click here.
Gatineau commits to cutting greenhouse gas emissions
By Chloé Fedio, The Ottawa Citizen
January 25, 2012
OTTAWA — The City of Gatineau announced Tuesday is has committed to reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions, including those produced by municipal buildings, motorized equipment and water treatment, by 20 per cent by 2020.
It plans to reduce city-wide emissions, which includes pollution caused by motorists and public transportation, by 6 per cent in the same period. The more modest goal in the second category is to compensate for municipal growth, which is expected to rise by 11 per cent between 2009 and 2020, according to the City of Gatineau.
The reductions are based on 2009 emission levels.