Ottawa

Ottawa's vacant unit tax (VUT) is raking in millions more than expected, leaving some residents and one city councillor wondering whether it's a fix for the housing crisis or simply a cash grab.

The tax charges one per cent of the assessed value of homes left unoccupied for six months or more within one year. It's meant to push property owners to either put those units up for sale or rent them to address the city's housing shortage.

When council approved the tax two years ago, it was expected to bring in about $6.6 million per year. But city staff now say last year's revenue haul came to $11.5 million.

Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff, a longstanding critic of the tax, asked staff for that information through a formal inquiry. He didn't like what he heard.

"I don't think that this program is truly doing what it was meant to do, which is to free up rental units — not to become a new income source for the City of Ottawa," said Luloff.

Luloff said he hasn't seen a clear measure of whether the tax is actually getting vacant homes back on the market. He also asked staff for more detailed information about how the revenue is being spent.

Staff responded that all of the money goes to fund affordable housing initiatives, minus about $2.3 million spent to administer the program, though they promised to get Luloff additional details.

Spotted by the Rideau River near Brantwood Park, a known turtle nesting area..Please give them space and respect the turtles! 🐢♥️

Premier Doug Ford's government is scrapping Ontario's program for sampling wastewater to monitor the level of COVID-19 in the population.

The program measures how much of the virus that causes COVID-19 is circulating around the province and is run by a dozen universities and research sites, through funding from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

In a statement, a provincial official said the move will "avoid duplication" with a federal program.

"The federal government conducts wastewater surveillance across Canada and is moving to expand its sampling to additional sites in Ontario," said Environment Ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler in an email to CBC News.

"Ontario is working to support this expansion while winding down the provincial wastewater surveillance initiative," he said.

Public health officials are criticizing the move as short-sighted.

At a time when tick populations are increasing, the Ottawa area is becoming a hotspot for one of the lesser-known illnesses spread by black-legged ticks.

Anaplasmosis can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, chills and severe respiratory illness, among other symptoms. If not treated, it can be life-threatening, especially in people with compromised immune systems. It is less common than Lyme disease, also spread by black-legged ticks. Both are treated with antibiotics.

Those are two of the potentially severe illnesses spread by ticks that are now being closely monitored by public health officials in Ontario as disease-carrying ticks spread through the province. They also include babesiosis, a bacterial infection, and Powassan virus, a rare disease that causes encephalitis and severe illness.

The increased scrutiny comes as health officials are warning that Canadians are at increased risk of tick-borne diseases because of climate change. This week an Ottawa woman succumbed to complications from Powassan virus she has struggled with since she was infected by a tick near her home in Alta Vista in 2021.

Ottawa Public Health spokesperson Emily Morrison says people should take precautions to avoid being bitten by ticks. There are many health benefits from being active and outdoors during warm weather, said Morrison, who is program manager of environmental health at Ottawa Public Health, “however, if you will be in outdoor areas suitable for black-legged ticks, it is important to be aware of the risks of ticks and tick-related diseases, and how to protect oneself.” Tick habitats include wooded areas and areas with tall grasses.

A "frustrating" refusal by the province has not weakened the city's resolve to launch a taxis-as-ambulances pilot project, Ottawa's paramedic chief told reporters on Wednesday, explaining that an opportunity may be hiding in what the ministry didn't say.

The City of Ottawa proposed the pilot last autumn as a way to offset the hours paramedics are waiting at overcrowded emergency rooms. These delays lead to "code zero" events where no ambulance is available for calls.

The trial would have allowed paramedics to send patients with non-serious injuries to hospital in a taxi instead.

"That kind of creative solution is exactly what we need," said Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. "So, I was a little bit surprised by the fact that the province wasn't in agreement."

The suit seeks roughly $4.5 billion in total damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which operate the platforms Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively.

"The mix of public and Catholic school boards, and private schools in both urban and rural regions of Ontario demonstrate this is a universal issue that affects those from diverse cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds," the news release said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford publicly criticized the suit after it was filed, calling it "nonsense" and questioning the legal fees the boards could end up paying in a protracted court battle against some of the richest companies in the world.

Neinstein LLP, the Toronto-based firm representing the school boards and private schools, said in March they will not be responsible for any costs related to the suit unless a successful outcome is reached.

People in Gatineau like to brag about how good it is over there, but use all of Ottawa's services. You can't suck and blow at the same time.

Looks like more flights out of Ottawa!

Ottawa residents have four months to adjust their garbage disposal habits before a new three-garbage item limit is imposed on curbside waste this fall.

The City of Ottawa will implement the new three-item limit on Sept. 30, as part of a plan to reduce the amount of waste heading to the landfill and extend the life of the Trail Road Landfill.

"If changes aren’t made to waste disposal habits, the Trail Waste Facility Landfill could reach capacity between 2034 and 2035," staff say, noting a new landfill or waste-to-energy facility could cost between $350 and $500 million.

The city says a garbage item could be a garbage bag, a 140-litre container or a bulky item.

Ottawa's light rail trains will continue to skip St-Laurent station on Tuesday, as engineers complete repairs on delaminated ceiling tiles above the platform.

A memo to council sent Monday afternoon said trains will continue to run through the station, but will not stop.

The station has been closed to commuters since Friday morning after routine inspection found "a few of the suspended ceiling tiles above the platform were disrupted," according to Richard Holder, director of engineering services at OC Transpo.

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This is not the first time damage to the concrete has been found at the station. A freedom of information request obtained by CBC earlier this year showed inspectors found "severe" and in some cases, "very severe" damage to the concrete tiles in 2020.

CBC reported the city did not patch up some problem areas for years after the issues were observed in 2020.

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"The evidence establishes that the City knew that its failure to properly enforce the 2012 Bylaw would likely cause harm to the taxi industry.

"A multinational giant was invading Ottawa, and because of the City's unpreparedness and its lack of efforts to develop a plan to enforce the 2012 Bylaw, the City's enforcement efforts against Uber drivers were ineffective."

Northern lights are expected to illuminate Ottawa's sky Friday evening as a powerful geomagnetic storm ushers in the weekend.

On Thursday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a geomagnetic storm alert in anticipation of this rare event.

Geomagnetic storms are classed by severity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme). The upcoming storm is classified as a "severe" G4, according to the SWPC. It's the first G4-level alert declared by the agency since January 2005.

Robyn Fiori, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada, said the storm actually arrived in Ottawa around 1:30 p.m. Friday.

"I definitely think there's a chance that we'll still see some Aurora tonight, and it's also possible that activity will reduce during parts of the day and then maybe start up again [Saturday] night," Fiori said.

The sky over Ottawa is expected to start clearing around 7 p.m. and clear completely by 11 p.m., according to Environment Canada.

Fiori advises Ottawa residents interested in viewing the northern lights to get out of the city and find an area of clear sky with minimal light pollution.

"The Aurora is something you can actually see from quite far away. In some cases, you can see it when it's up to 3,000 kilometres away from you, so your exact location isn't quite as important as the sky just being clear and the light pollution being reduced," Fiori said.

Fiori said geomagnetic storms typically last from one to six hours, but based on observations, this particular storm is predicted to last longer.

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As the City of Ottawa looks to take over responsibility for parking ticket disputes next year, one councillor wants to look at a sliding scale of penalties that would give low-income drivers a break.

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard is asking city staff to examine options, like gearing fines to the driver's income or the value of their vehicle.

"The person that drives the Ferrari and parks at Lansdowne, they may be much more able to afford a parking ticket or may even take that on just knowing they might get a parking ticket there, than someone who's going to a protest for basic income," he said.

"We've had people in our office very upset and crying about going to a basic income protest and getting a ticket there. Their ability to pay was much less than that person in the Ferrari."

He made the proposal just after council's finance and corporate services committee voted in favour of a new penalty system that would take parking ticket challenges out of the courts.

City staff said the current system is "jammed up," and replacing justices of the peace with council-appointed adjudicators will mean faster disputes for residents. Menard also saw it as a chance to experiment.

He said the sliding-scale model is already used for speeding infractions in Finland. While basing fines on income could require co-operation with federal bodies, like the Canada Revenue Agency, Menard thinks there might be alternatives.

"There's other proxies, the blue book values of vehicles for example, that could be looked into," he said. "That's why we're asking staff to explore the options."

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A bit of Sunday rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of thousands of walkers and bikers who turned out for the CN Cycle for CHEO, raising a record-breaking $2.175 million for childhood cancer research and care.

“We didn’t just break the record, we smashed it,” Steven Read, president and CEO of the CHEO Foundation, said in an interview.

Now in its 17th year, the CN Cycle for CHEO features 15 km, 35 km or 70 km cycling routes, along with two km and five km walking routes for people of all ages.

Tamy Bell was the top individual fundraiser, raising more than $61,000. She’s the mother of Griffin Bell, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2018 at just 16 months old. He died in March, at the age of six, after a lengthy battle with the aggressive childhood cancer.

Bell was also part of Griff’s Gang, a 613-person team that raised a record-smashing $323,469.

“Last year, he was with us,” Bell said, her voice cracking with emotion as she addressed the large crowd, who stuck around for the speeches despite the rain that returned after a short pause during the event.

“He ran the whole five K.”

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I now have warm coffee. 😀

What happened: The federal government is set to mandate workers back in the office three days per week, Le Droit reported. The increase by one day per week to the current hybrid work schedule has come as a surprise to the federal unions, who said they were not consulted.

While it wouldn’t confirm that an announcement was imminent, the federal Treasury Board told CTV that it was “committed to hybrid work” and “continue to assess how hybrid work is implemented and optimized across the public service, adapting as necessary.”

Labour strife? The recent public service strike was largely fought over hybrid working policies for public servants. The Public Service Alliance of Canada said it had heard nothing from the government, and said any changes without consultation would be a betrayal of the agreement made just last year.

“If the Treasury Board does decide to move in this direction, then it completely flies in the face and goes against all the commitments they made at the bargaining table to work with the union to achieve flexible hybrid work arrangements for public service workers,” a PSAC spokesperson said to CTV.

Local reaction: Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the move by the federal government to adopt widespread hybrid working arrangements since the start of the pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the downtown. But, perhaps hoping not to anger a significant bloc of voters in the city, he has stopped short of calling outright for workers to return to the office five days a week.

“We need to work with the federal government on a solution, and many solutions to make sure that we have economic prosperity in the downtown core, that small businesses and restaurants and shop owners are protected, that our finances as a city are protected,” Sutcliffe said according to CTV.

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The public got its first look at Ottawa’s comprehensive zoning bylaw amendment Monday, a massive overhaul of building and development regulations that one councillor likened to a tsunami of change.

It is the largest overhaul of Ottawa’s zoning bylaws since amalgamation in 2001, and will forever change the way the city grows and develops. An early draft was delivered Monday to a joint meeting of the planning and housing committee and the agricultural and rural affairs committee.

Inside the 96-page draft are the answers to questions such as, how many units can a developer build on a single lot? How close can a building be to the property line — how high can it be? How much park space is required? How will the city’s tree canopy be protected in the face of a housing building boom? How many parking spaces must be provided at a new apartment? (The draft agreement recommends none. Doing away with parking minimums is seen as a way to use land more efficiently and encourage residents to use public transit or other methods of getting around instead of private cars.)

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Oh to see Sutcliffe's face when he gets the news!

The Ottawa Carleton District Schoolboard is winding up to drop early French immersion.

wtf

As the number of tenants being forced out of their homes soars, an Ottawa city councilor wants the city to do more to prevent bad-faith evictions.

The city has seen a significant increase in the number of N13 forms being used for evictions – which require a tenant to move out so a landlord can do major renovations and charge a higher rent.

According to a renoviction report by ACORN, the number of N13’s filed in Ottawa from 2021 to 2022 jumped 545 per cent.

Coun. Ariel Troster now wants the city to explore an anti-renoviction bylaw. Looking to Hamilton, the first city in the province who is requiring a renovation licence for landlords and allowing tenants to return to their units at the same rent.

"Our office has been absolutely inundated with calls," said Troster, who is putting forward a similar motion to the city's planning comittee.

“We have no provincial tenancy control right now, which means, in between tenants, a property owner can raise the rent as much as they want. Citywide, this is leading to a massive problem that's driving people into homelessness.”

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The convoy will pass through Mattawa, Ont., and other communities along the way. It will make both short stops and longer halts for rest, fuel, maintenance and training.

Members of the public are asked to take extra caution when approaching military vehicles.

By the end of the day after the solar eclipse, there were no signs of residents rushing to get treatment for eye damage, say spokespeople for Ottawa hospitals.

After Monday’s eclipse, “my eyes hurt” was trending on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting some people had damaged their eyes. But, if that was the case, there was no sign of it in Ottawa.

Spokespeople for CHEO, The Ottawa Hospital, Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton all said they had not seen cases of people with eye damage coming to the hospital as of Tuesday evening....

Under the Medical Priority Dispatch System, or MPDS, ambulances will be dispatched based on answers to detailed questions, and according to five colour-based levels based on the “acuity” of the situation.

Top-priority calls are now marked as “purple,” which indicates there are immediate life-threatening conditions, where time is critical. This accounts for about two per cent of calls.

Next on the priority list is “red,” which means emergent and potentially life-threatening, representing about 38 per cent of calls. Time is sensitive in these cases.

“Orange” is urgent and potentially life-threatening. Time may be a factor. This accounts for 17 per cent of calls.

“Yellow” is non-urgent, but potentially serious. Time is sensitive. It’s about 19 per cent of calls.

“Green” is non-urgent and not serious, with no immediate threat to life, and it may be deferred without detriment to the patient’s outcome. This is about 24 per cent of calls.

Friendly reminder never to stare at the sun during the eclipse or ever in general.

That’s the post. Happy viewing!

An Elgin Street apartment [sic] building is slated to be converted into a residential building, as Ottawa's downtown core continues its makeover coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colliers International senior managing director Warren Wilkinson says 200 Elgin Street joins 360 Laurier Avenue and 130 Slater Street as buildings being converted into housing.