Ottawa

Glad to see the Ottawa changes were on the list.

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSTgr4kqoPA

Xpost from [email protected]

It's taken three years of work and 17,000 cubic metres of concrete, but Frank Santostefano is seeing an idea become reality on LeBreton Flats.

"I've been here since day one, when it was just a parking lot, so it's fun to see all the hard work and the planning, the design, coming to fruition," he said.

"You can really start to appreciate the unique shape of the building."

...

The timeline for Ādisōke has been pushed back once before, but Sutcliffe said the project is still set to finish in 2026.

In 2021, the budget almost doubled from $175 million to $334 million. Sutcliffe said he's heard nothing to indicate it will grow further.

They just allowed triplexes last weds as the the provincial bill - apparently fourplexes are too far?

It's a housing crisis guys...

Fucken great!

An incoming program in Ottawa that would serve as an alternate to 911 for calls about mental health issues will first be rolled out in the neighbourhood of Centretown, following the recommendation of a panel of mental health experts.

The program, which will create a new phone number for people in crisis and include a triaging and dispatch system, was approved in late June by city councillors.

However the decision of where to first roll out the program was left to a committee of local mental health experts.

That committee's decision to launch the program in the area bound by Bronson Avenue, Elgin Street, Parliament Hill and Highway 417, is being applauded by front-line health workers in the neighbourhood.

"We've been asking for it for a long time and we are thrilled with it," said Michelle Hurtubise, executive director of the Centretown Community Health Centre (CCHC) on Cooper Street.

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According to data from Brown's department, city staff have responded to 375 encampments so far this year. That's way up from 343 during all of last year and 248 in 2021. In 2020, the first year with comparable data, there were just 65.

Brown said no one has to sleep outside because there's always space at one of the city's emergency shelters, on an overflow mat or in an arena used as a physical distancing centre.

But there are all sorts of reasons that might push someone to prefer a tent in a forest clearing or near an old train track, Brown said, such as addiction, mental health issues, trauma or just the search for tranquillity and a bit of space to breathe.

"Really it comes down to their personal preference of where they feel safe, what their kind of prior experience is," he said. "A lot of them have past trauma."

Previous title: Boy critically injured after falling from apartment window

There will be a transit rally at City Hall this coming Tuesday starting at 11:30am.

OC Transpo is stuck in a transit death spiral. Poor service leads has lead to poor ridership which leads to lower income which leads to poor service and this will continue.

The only way out is investment in the system, more busses, more drivers, more bus lanes, more bus priority signals.

Bit annoying that it's during work hours, but that's when city employees will be there. Hopefully there will be more rallys and protests. Come by if you can.

Don't expect change over night, the fight for a better city happens every day!

It’s the dawn of a new era for the Ottawa Senators.

Ten months after the Senators were officially put up for sale by the estate of late Eugene Melnyk, Toronto healthcare billionaire Michael Andlauer and his group were expected to sign on the dotted line Thursday to purchase the club for $950 million (all figures U.S.).

That’s the highest price ever paid for a National Hockey League team.

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The National Capital Commission (NCC) is formally interested in establishing a national urban park in Ottawa, CBC News has learned.

Exactly where is not yet clear. In documents obtained by CBC this week under access to information legislation, all references to a specific possible location have been redacted.

In a statement Thursday, the NCC would say only that it's in Ottawa.

Land currently owned or controlled and managed by the NCC in Ottawa includes the Greenbelt encircling the inner urban area, much of the Ottawa River shoreline from Britannia to Orléans, lands along the Rideau Canal, and smaller green spaces like McCarthy Woods, Hampton Woods, Vincent Massey Park and Confederation Park downtown.

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In its own statement issued Friday, Parks Canada wrote it has "engaged in preliminary, exploratory conversations regarding the possibility of a national urban park in Ottawa."

"This has been an initial exploration and not a formal discussion. No other organizations, including the City of Ottawa and Indigenous partners, have been formally approached about this potential idea. No decisions have been made at this time," the statement continues.

If a park on NCC land goes ahead, it would be the first federal property to become a national urban park, the released documents show.

Bylaw Services removed 787 listings from Airbnb in the first year of Ottawa's short-term rental bylaw, which only allows property owners to rent out their primary homes.

A new report for the Emergency and Protective Services Committee says the city has issued just over 800 short-term permits for properties in Ottawa, while Airbnb registered at least 12 property management firms or individual managers.

The memo, written by Bylaw Services Director Roger Chapman, says the city refused permits to 46 applicants for various reasons during the first year, "most often because the property is not the applicant's primary residence or because it is not zoned accordingly."

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The city implemented the Short-Term Rental Bylaw in June 2022, with staff saying the regulations would help manage community nuisance issues arising from short-term rental activity and "protect housing inventory for residential use." The bylaw requires property owners to obtain a permit, which costs $110 for two years, if they planned on renting out their principal residence or part of a residential unit for a period of less than 30 days.

"Although there are over 1,300 Airbnb listings, it is important to note that there is not a one-to-one relationship between hosts and listings," Chapman says.

"A rogue sign spotted on the fence of a Centretown park this week is the talk of social media, but no one seems to know what it means.

Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster posted a photo on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, saying , "A friend of mine spotted this sign in St. Luke's Park on Elgin Street and asked me what it is supposed to be preventing?"

The sign shows an individual in a squat position with their arms extended, and the prohibition sign over the image." ...

Shawn Menard sees parallels between Greenbelt land swap in GTA and a 2022 urban boundary expansion in Ottawa

"Barely a week after Ontario's housing minister resigned in the fallout of a report into the Greenbelt land swap in the GTA, a city councillor wants the province's auditor general to look into another controversial land decision the same minister made in Ottawa.

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The auditor general's report found the land swaps benefited certain developers. Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard sees parallels with Clark's 2022 decision to expand Ottawa's urban boundary by 654 hectares, overriding a previous city decision and concerns development there would be costly for taxpayers."

What is wrong with people?

The cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment surpassed $2,000 a month in Ottawa in August, as the average asking rent reached a record high across Canada.

New statistics from Rentals.ca show the average rent new tenants were asked to pay for a one-bedroom apartment in Ottawa last month was $2,063 a month, up 11.5 per cent from one year ago. The average asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment increased from $1,979 in July and $1,925 in May.

The average cost to rent an apartment was $2,226 a month in Ottawa in August, up 11.9 per cent from August 2022.