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Ottawa paramedics say they took a two-year-old girl to the region's children's hospital Saturday after she was found with a needle inside her mouth.

The call came in at approximately 11:30 a.m. from the little girl's mother, who reported finding drug paraphernalia at Princess Margriet Park on Fairmont Avenue, paramedics said.

Paul Morneau, operations commander for the Ottawa Paramedic Service, said first responders assessed the girl, who was in stable condition.

She was taken to CHEO "as a precaution and for a follow-up," Morneau said.

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Last week, the city’s planning and housing committee approved a rezoning to Theberge Homes to allow the construction of towers of 32 and 24 storeys at 780 Baseline Rd., near the southeast corner of the farm. A third tower of 24 storeys facing Fisher Avenue had received rezoning approval in the fall.

In a letter to the city last November, Agriculture Canada said the shadows from the towers would affect crop research, although Theberge countered that claim with a study by a U.S. engineering firm that found the shadow effect would be minimal.

Big fan of this over-all except this part:

Since then, city staff have worked with the applicant to reduce the size of the replacement duplex, Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King told council last week. King is also chair of the city’s heritage committee. City council signed off on a new plan that reduces the building’s footprint to cover about one-third of the lot, increasing the “soft landscaping” on the property.

As if the workers at the hospital didn't have enough to deal with.

The city of Ottawa is proceeding with Lansdowne 2.0, the $419 million second phase of the partnership with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group.

After four days of delegations and debate, Council voted 16 to 9 in favour of the Lansdowne 2.0 plan, which includes a new 5,500-seat event centre, a new north-side stands at TD Place Stadium and two residential towers.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and councillors Catherine Kitts, Matthew Luloff, Allan Hubley, Wilson Lo, David Brown, Steve Desroches, Marty Carr, George Darouze, Clarke Kelly, Cathy Curry, Stephanie Plante, Laura Dudas and Tim Tierney voted to support of the plan.

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Menard and councillors Ariel Troster, Theresa Kavanagh, Sean Devine, Jeff Leiper, Rawlson King, Riley Brockington, Laine Johnson and Jessica Bradley voted against the proposal.

OC Transpo officials still won't provide a firm launch date next spring for the new north-south light-rail transit line, as construction continues on the line between Bayview Station and Riverside South.

"Spring 2024, but I won't give any month," Renee Amilcar, OC Transpo general manager, told the light-rail transit subcommittee on Friday.

Councillors were told that final construction, testing and commissioning of the system is underway, with work on the stations almost complete. As of this week, eight of nine trains are participating in testing on the transit system.

A presentation for the committee showed a possible launch of the Trillium Line between March and June.

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Glad to see the Ottawa changes were on the list.

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."

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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...

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."

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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