Thankfully, after much work with city staff, and collaboration with other Councillors on a motion that revised the FEDCO report, we were able to remove the delegated authority for staff, ensure that public consultation would occur before discussions begin with OSEG and include an option to bring back a ‘no deal’ outcome. The motion passed at FEDCO and will be considered by city council on November 27. We are confident it will be passed there, too.
Thanks to all of you who supported this effort. Thanks to the community associations who helped organize the response and spread the word. And thanks to staff and Councillors who worked directly with our office to improve the report at FEDCO.
Of course, this is only the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll all have to keep working on this issue. Our office is dedicated to preserving public access and control at Lansdowne Park, and we will be working with residents, community associations and other affected organizations. This will include calling meetings of the Lansdowne Park Community Consultation Group, working to ensure the public has access to information about the current deal at Lansdowne and putting heads together with local communities to develop or strategy going forward.
But for now, this gives us some runway and was a good result.
Central Park West—Drainage Improvements Update
Work to fix the drainage at Central Park West continues. Construction will wind down soon. The last work for this year will be spreading topsoil and building an accessible ramp from Lyon Street.
Once the ground has hardened/frozen, crews will begin spreading topsoil and building the ramp. Once the topsoil is down, the contractor will remove the hoarding along Roseberry and open the pedestrian access at the three other entrances.
Work will resume in the spring, including the final path grading and seeding. We will let people know when the park will re-open for the winter and when it will close again in the spring to complete the project.
Isabella-Chamberlain Functional Design Improvements
The city is in the process a functional design study for Isabella Street, Chamberlain Avenue and Catherine Street. After a lot of work with city staff and a community stakeholders group, we can happily announce that the changes we requested to the designs have been implemented. We will now have a full MUP connecting Percy to Elgin, connecting many important pedestrian and bicycling routes.
The work won’t start for another eight to ten years, but it’s great that we’ll be looking forward to a safer, more inviting street for everyone.
You can learn more here.
City Budget Documents
Want to learn more about the upcoming 2020 budget and what it might mean for Capital Ward? You can visit our website to find the following documents.
- Your ward’s summary of investment
- Citywide investments
- News Release
- Key Messages
- Budget at a Glance
- Budget Backgrounder
Seneca Street, Aylmer Avenue and Fulton Avenue (etc.) Update
A lot of work has been going on around Seneca, Aylmer and Fulton. The mainline sewer and watermain work is complete and the watermains are in service. The city is now switching residents to the new watermain.
Road construction will continue once water is reconnected. The sidewalks and base course asphalt should be completed this month. Landscaping activities will progress (weather permitting) through to winter shut down, with outstanding landscaping completed next spring.
The Republic of Childhood: Imagining the Future of Children’s Rights
The Ottawa Writers Festival has announced the launch of The Republic of Childhood: Imagining the Future of Children’s Rights forum, connecting children and youth from Ottawa with local writers, researchers, policymakers, and community organizers from Canada, the United States and Germany.
The forum runs from November 20 to 22 at Dominion-Chalmers, 355 Cooper Street.
Learn more here: https://writersfestival.org/youth/about/roc
Register here: https://writersfestival.org/youth/registration
Let’s Talk About Sex Sexual Health Education Summit
Ottawa Youth Engagement Committee (OYEC) works to provide a youth perspective to city projects and to help the cities overall youth consultation process. OYEC has identified three main priorities for the year and one of them is addressing Sexual Health in Ottawa schools. Due to recent changes to the Ontario Health and Physical Education curricula, some teachers and students are unsure about receiving a comprehensive understanding of consent, sexual orientation, gender identity, cyber-sex and other pressing issues.
OYEC is planning to hold an inaugural Saving Sex Ed Forum on November 17, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at City Hall. There will be programming and keynotes throughout the day and a community information fair at lunch.
Learn more here: http://www.letstalkottawa.com/about-us/
Register here: http://www.letstalkottawa.com/tickets/
FoodRescue.ca—Be a Food Donor
Second Harvest and Parkdale Food Centre are launching FoodRescue.ca. This is a free and easy-to-use website that connects businesses or organizations who have surplus food with registered charities and non-profits that need food.
To learn more, visit the website or contact Kori Liversage, at [email protected] or 613-869-4466.
Defending Public Healthcare
The Ontario Health Coalition and the Ottawa Health Coalition are having a large regional public event to save our health care services from cuts, closures and mergers. There will be live music, speakers, noisemakers, visual presentations, hot chocolate, snacks and more!
The rally is on Saturday December 7 at 11:00 a.m. at the TD Place Arena in Lansdowne Park. Together, we can save the services that save us!
Stay on top of overnight parking bans this winter season!
The City of Ottawa’s winter overnight parking regulations are in effect between November 15 and April 1st.
Parking is not permitted on city streets between the hours of 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. when 7 cm of snow or more is forecast by Environment Canada in the Ottawa area and the City has enacted a parking ban.
Vehicles that remain parked on the street when an overnight parking ban is in effect are subject to being ticketed and towed.
If you have an on-street parking permit, your vehicle is exempt from winter overnight parking restrictions. However, your co-operation in finding alternate parking will help city crews clear the streets quickly and efficiently, which benefits all of us.
You can stay informed about overnight parking bans by signing up for an e-alert or by following the City’s official social media channels. The local media is also advised in the event overnight parking restrictions are in effect.
Enforcement of winter overnight parking restrictions will continue each evening until snow clearing is completed and the City issues a special advisory indicating that the overnight parking restriction has been lifted.
Final workshops: Inspire the Iconic Features and Finishing Touches for the new Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility
The new Ottawa Public Library-Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility offers residents a great opportunity to contribute to a once in a generation project. Add your voice to the thousands who have inspired this exciting city building project and join us for the last design workshops on this future landmark destination. To complete the design, we want to hear your thoughts on what makes a building iconic. Registration is now open for the fourth and final Inspire555 design workshop.
At this workshop, participants will be asked to provide inspiration into the facility’s iconic features and finishing touches, such as the choices of building materials inside and outside of the facility, and the ways in which this facility can become an inclusive destination for all. In keeping with their commitment to meaningful engagement, the architects will report back on what they heard throughout the Inspire555 process, and how public input has informed the development of an iconic design.
Date: Monday, November 18, 2019
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Place: Shenkman Arts Centre
Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Place: Nepean Sportsplex
Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Place: Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street
Canadians from coast to coast or anyone who cannot attend the workshops will be invited to provide input online at Inspire555.ca during the month of November.
The workshops and online engagement are part of a year-long local and national engagement process to inspire the design of an iconic facility destined to become an attraction for all visitors to the Capital and a community gathering place. Since February 2019, close to 3,000 people have taken part in online and in-person engagement on the new joint facility.
The Inspire555 engagement series includes design workshops, pop-up events, and online activities to inspire this new landmark destination. From Building Blocks, which focused on the site, to Spaces and Relationships, which focused on the interior, and Public Art and Landscape, which focused on the exterior, experience and sustainability, the architects have been inspired and influenced by the public’s thoughtful input. As a result, the architects are developing a design that will be truly representative of Canadian, Indigenous and local values.
Proposed Top Priorities for Term Tabled at Council
City Council today tabled the proposed priorities for the 2019-2022 Term of Council.
The draft Term of Council Priorities will be considered at Council’s Standing Committees and the Transit Commission over the next few weeks, together with the City’s Draft Budget 2020, then on to Council consideration with the budget on December 11. The report includes a summary of outcomes for the last Term of Council Priorities, from 2015 to 2018.
Tabled today with the Draft Budget 2020 were associated reports, including an analysis of the City’s staffing levels over the last five years and the City’s Fleet Services plan for vehicles and equipment purchases in 2020.
In addition to the draft operating and capital budgets, the proposed budgets for the Ottawa Board of Health, the Ottawa Police Services Board, the Ottawa Public Library and Crime Prevention Ottawa were tabled and will be considered at public meetings over the next few weeks.
Council received four follow-up audit reports that focus on improving management practices. Almost all of the recommendations from the Auditor General in these audits have been completed.
For more information on City programs and services, visit ottawa.ca or call 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401). You can also connect with us through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
In the last newsletter, I wrote about some proposed changes for Lansdowne Park. This proposal would have given authority to city staff to strike a deal to hand over control of operation, rent control and programming of the “city side” of the park to OSEG.
