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Covid-19 updates
Late week saw a flurry of vaccination news that is worth a quick re-cap here.
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Residents are 80+ who do not yet have a second vaccine appointment will be contacted by Ottawa Public Health for a guaranteed appointment within the 16-week window.
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Residents who are 70+ (or who received their first dose of Pfizer or Moderna on or before April 18, 2021) will be able to book an accelerated second appointment starting tomorrow through the Provincial booking system or pharmacy. More information on that can be found here.
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The City's vaccination clinics, bookings for which were paused due to a problem with the Provincial booking system, resumed taking appointments on Friday.
The caution I'd offer this morning is that there are still residents of all ages seeking first appointments, and the change in eligibility for accelerated second doses to include 70+ residents ahead of schedule means that appointments may not be immediately available when you go to book. If the City again pauses bookings, it will announce that in all the usual channels. The good news is that deliveries of vaccine continue to accelerate, and I know our Mayor is in close touch with the Premier to ensure that Ottawa is allocated an
appropriate share of those.
Find all the latest news about the pandemic, including special statements by Dr. Vera Etches and other officials here, and sign up for the vaccination newsletter offered by the City here.
Pop-up office hours June 8
My next pop-up office hours will be Tuesday, June 8 from 10 am - 12 pm. Send me an email for the link to join us one-on-one with no appointment during those hours to chat about whatever's on your mind.
Committee of Adjustment June 16
The Committee of Adjustment will hear three applications in our ward on June 2, in addition to the resumption of one adjourned hearing. Find the details of those here.
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At 1960 Scott and 315/317 McRae, the tower at the former Trailhead and the buildings already on the Farm Boy site, the owners are seeking to permit a reciprocal agreement for access through the connected parking garages so vehicles of all buildings can enter/exit to Scott.
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At 86 Hamilton, the owner is seeking to sub-divide her property into two separate parcels of land to create a new lot for a proposed two-storey long semi and the existing two-storey detached which is to remain. They're seeking a conveyance to provide parking for the new semi behind the single. They're seeking variances for lot width and area as well as a reduced northerly side-yard setback on the semi (0.05m instead of 0.6), and permission for that non-accessory parking use.
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At 147 & 159 Forward the owner Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corp. is seeking to demolish the existing two-unit, three-storey building to construct a 49-unit, four-storey low-rise apartment buiding with seven surface parking spaces and 27 bike parking spaces. They're seeking multiple variances.
18-storey Parkdale/Wellington open house June 17
I'm hosting a pre-application meeting for residents to get more information about a proposal for a mixed-use, 18-storey tower at the corner of Parkdale and Wellington that would replace the Rexall and Apostolic Church in the former Elmdale Theatre. Visit here for more details.
Rosemount Library (virtual) re-opening
The Rosemount Library will have a virtual re-opening on Tuesday, June 8 at 4:00 including a special video tour of the renovated space. Get more details here.
Parks and asset management plans consultations
The City is engaged in two key planning processes now open for consultation. I apologize for having missed this in my last newsletter but the engagement process for the water, wastewater, stormwater and transportation asset management plans is now open here. Consultations are also now beginning on the draft Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan. There are several consultation sessions planned this week as well as a survey. Read more on that here.
More on drinking water
At our virtual ward forum last week, City water engineer Ian Douglas provided a fascinating overview of Ottawa's drinking water system. If you missed it, take a look at our archive of the forum here (the link will take you directly to Ian's presentation). He followed up with us the following day to point out this 19467 National Film Board gem, Let's Look At Water which features a relatively new Lemieux Island plant. The tour beings at roughly 5:40 in the
video here.
Re-naming the SJAM parkway
Last week, Councillors Catherine McKenney, Theresa Kavanagh and I wrote to the Prime Minister to ask that, in light of the discovery in Kamloops of a mass grave of children at the residential school there and Sir John A. Macdonald's unique role as an architect of the residential school system, the SJAM parkway be re-named after an Indigenous-led consultation. Many of you have asked if there is a petition that you can sign, and I'm happy to say that there is: found here. Read the call by we
three here for the re-naming.
Join my Run For Women team!
I'm really pleased to join the annual Run For Women 5k/10k event, this year as a team captain. Consider joining my 5k run/walk team, WalkABitRunABit, here or making a donation. The proceeds will go directly to The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre's women's mental health program that is doing such critical work across the city right here in our ward. The event, of course, is virtual and participants will take part any time between July 4-11. Thank you to everyone who has made generous
donations to the effort so far!
Tree giveaway
Ecology Ottawa and Colonnade Bridgeport have partnered to do a tree giveaway with a distanced event at Dows Lake Court on June 13 from 10 am - 1 pm. Each person can received up to 25 trees for planting on private property. A list of the species available is here, and recipients are asked to register here. Get more info here.
At City Hall
Built Heritage Sub-Committee
On Tuesday, June 8, the Built Heritage Sub-Committee meets with an agenda of demolitions and applications in the Rockliffe Park and Briarcliffe Heritage Conservation Districts, as well as and application to alter and partially demolish St-Marc's Church on Elgin Street. The sub-committee will also receive an information memo on the future of the Alexandra Bridge. See the full agenda here.
City Council
On Wednesday, June 9, City Council meets with an agenda that will likely mostly approve the recommendations of various committees. The re-zoning to allow the Jewish Youth Library to re-locate into the heritage property at 166 Huron, as well as the re-zoning to allow the development of 29 townhomes at 316-332 Clifton Road will come forward with Planning Committee's recommendation to approve those. I supported both at committee. A speed reduction from 50 km/h to 40 km/h on Sherbourne Ave. originally brought forward at Transportation
Committee by Councillor Kavanagh should receive final approval. One item of note for me was a line I saw in the routine budget adjustments brought to the Finance and Economic Development Committee (FEDCO) that $400,000 in new road degradation fees be added to the City's road re-surfacing budget. Those fees were something I worked to achieve in the last term of Council as a charge on road cuts to offset the damage those do in wards like ours that are undergoing significant intensification. At FEDCO, I asked about those fees and urged the City to ensure a connection between the geography in which those are charged and how the funds are used. That discussion is still to come, and I'll support the
allocation at Council, but don't want to lose sight of the damage infill-related road cuts are doing to our streets. The full Council agenda is available here.
Planning Committee
On Thursday, June 10, Planning Committee meets with a significant agenda of re-zonings including for a 27-storey mixed use building at 180 Metcalfe Street and nine-storey mixed-use building at Beechwood Avenue and Barette Street. There are also applications on Trim Road and Spratt Road. See the full agenda here.
Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee
Also on June 10, the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee will receive a verbal update on tree planting, and a presentation by City staff on the new draft Official Plan and what feedback the City has received on it - the "As We Heard It" report. I believe that may be the first public airing for that report. See the agenda here.
Information Technology Sub-Committee
The Information Technology Sub-Committeee meets on Monday, June 14 with an agenda that includes an update on the 2021 work plan progress. We'll move in camera for a portion of that meeting related to the security and digital risk program.
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