"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.

...

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."

...

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.”

...

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.

...

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.)

...

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.”

...

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.

Paramedics confirmed they were called to a crash Thursday morning when an OC Transpo double-decker bus slid off Frank Kenny Road in the Navan area. One man was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Police have urged caution for the morning commute, with most roads continue to be slippery.

Ottawa is home to nearly 200 Shawarma restaurants, serving up the Middle Eastern meal featuring marinated meat, garlic sauce and other toppings.

Now, council will weigh in on whether Canada's capital is also the 'Shawarma Capital of Canada.'

Coun. Laura Dudas will introduce a motion at today's council meeting to officially recognize Ottawa as the 'Shawarma Capital of Canada,' saying the Shawarma industry is a "major employer and economic driver."

Ottawa motorists will be paying three cents a litre more to fill up the gas tank on Monday, when the federal carbon tax hike kicks in.

As of April 1, the federal government is increasing the price on carbon pollution by $15 per tonne to $80. The federal carbon tax will be 17.71 cents a litre on gas in Ontario.

Canadians for Affordable Energy President Dan McTeague says the average price of regular gasoline in Ottawa will increase three cents from 159.9 cents a litre to 162.9 cents a litre on Monday.

Motorists will also see a 3 cent a litre hike in Kingston and across eastern Ontario.

...

Ontario's premier called on the federal government to require public servants to work in the office more frequently to revitalize the city's downtown — but neither the government department responsible for public servants nor one of its main unions appeared moved by the request.

"They have to get people back to work," Premier Doug Ford said during a press conference on Thursday in Ottawa, standing next to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.

"It sounds crazy. I'm begging people to go to work for three days — not that they aren't working at home, but it really affects the downtown."

Ford popped by Sutcliffe's monthly city hall breakfast Thursday where he served up a wide-ranging funding plan for the capital over the next decade — one that would also require significant federal investment. The "new deal for Ottawa" offers up to $543 million over 10 years from the province for housing, travel, public safety and other areas.

Up to $20 million is on offer for economic recovery and downtown revitalization.

What are your plans for the long weekend?

Premier Doug Ford announced a new $543 million agreement between the Ontario government and the city of Ottawa, which includes Ontario taking over responsibility of Ottawa Road 174.

"When we upload the roads, really the biggest issue on roads and highways is the maintenance so we're providing $9 million in immediate funding for maintenance […]”

Ownership of Hwy. 174 has been a debate in Ottawa and at Queen's Park since the Progressive Conservative Government of former Premier Mike Harris downloaded the road to the city of Ottawa in 1997.

The City of Ottawa is asking people to give their insight into where to plant more trees.

If you have a place in mind, the city wants you to complete its survey.

The survey will remain open until April 15.

The province is funding a new Barrhaven interchange along Highway 416 to meet the needs of booming subdivisions in the area — one of Ottawa's few capital projects in the 2024-2025 Ontario budget.

Barrhaven has only one exit off the 416 at Fallowfield Road. A second exit at Bankfield Road further south predominantly serves Manotick.

Barnsdale is in the roughly 10-kilometre gap between the two, offering an easy connection with Greenbank Road.

Ottawa parkgoers eager to partake in an alcoholic beverage while they're there will likely have to wait until 2025 before they can imbibe legally.

"A pilot project for alcohol in parks requires a thorough evaluation of safety considerations," reads the response by Dan Chenier, the parks department's general manager.

Chenier said it also requires public input, consultation with communities near any of the sites included in the pilot, and the development of rules and signs.