A burn ban is in effect for the City of Ottawa, Ottawa Fire Services announced Sunday.

All open-air fires are prohibited, including fires on properties that already have a permit. The ban applies to agricultural and brush-pile burns, as well as campfires. 

For inquiries, call the city’s 24-hour service line at 311.

Ottawa Fire Services says no injuries were reported after a fire broke out in a commercial building along Bank Street in the Glebe Sunday morning.

Firefighters say they received multiple calls around 7:59 reporting black smoke coming from the top of a two-storey building located at 785 Bank St..

When crews arrived on scene, two minutes into the initial call, they found fire in the ceiling of the second floor. That was when they began opening up the ceiling to put the flames out. Crews reported significant fire in the attic of the structure at at 08:21, the fire department said.

The fire was declared under control at 10:03 a.m..

"A 'fire watch' has been set up to monitor for any flare ups," Ottawa fire said in a post on X.

Ottawa fire spokesperson Nick Defazio told CTV News Ottawa the fire was contained to the building.

However, smoke made its way into the grocery store at the back of the building, prompting crews to use high pressurized fans to ventilate it out.

Defazio said crews had asked Hydro Ottawa to cut the power to the building, as a precaution.

Firefighters asked people to avoid the area between Second and Third avenues while they were on scene.

The investigation into what led to the fire is ongoing.

Recognizing the growing threat, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is taking a new approach to raise awareness and educate individuals with the knowledge to steer clear of scams, using a unique and interactive escape room.

Patricia Doyle and her husband, Danny Boyle, have been scammed in the past, an experience they describe as unsettling. Now, they are testing themselves in the 'Be Smart Scam Escape Room' at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.

The interactive experience takes less then ten minutes and participants receive a score at the end, reflecting their ability to uncover fraudulent activities.

Later next month, the Be Smart Scam Escape Room will travel to Montreal, followed by Halifax, where is will make its way back across Canada, through the GTA, and to Vancouver.

A woman is in critical condition in hospital following a police-involved shooting in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood.

Statistics provided to CTV News Ottawa show 632 tickets were issued to Ottawa police, Ottawa Fire Service and the Ottawa Paramedic Service through the automated speed enforcement and red light camera programs in 2023 for speeding in community safety zones or running red lights.

A total of 262 tickets were issued through red light cameras, while 370 tickets were handed out for speeding through the photo radar program.

Of the 632 tickets issued to emergency services personnel, a total of 376 tickets were issued to police, fire and paramedic vehicles responding to an emergency at the time of the alleged offence, according to officials.

A new weekend event celebrating the art, culture and fandom of anime will take place in Ottawa for the first time this month.

Earlybird tickets for Anime Ottawa are $30 for a single day, or $60 for a weekend pass, with discounts for children aged 6-12 accompanied by an adult.

The report notes that residents in the capital should be making $129,320 per year -- as of February, 2024 -- to qualify for a mortgage to purchase the average priced home. The income needed to prequalify has risen by $480 from January to February.

The average price of a home in Ottawa was $621,600 in January and $628,500 in February – an increase of $6,900, reads the report.

The owners of planned Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre in Ottawa's east end have applied to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks for permission to accept residential waste at its landfill at the intersection of Highway 417 and Boundary Road.

The landfill is a joint venture of Taggart Investments Inc. and Miller Waste Systems and is currently an approved greenfield waste management facility for recycling and disposal of residual commercial and industrial waste.

The city of Ottawa's only municipally run landfill is the Trail Road Waste Facility on Trail Road, which is expected to run out of space in the next 13 to 15 years.

The city of Ottawa ended 2023 with a multi-million dollar budget surplus, despite a series of severe weather events that hit the capital in the spring and summer.

A report for the finance and corporate services committee shows the city's tax-supported services ended 2023 with a $14.858 million budget surplus […]

Staff say COVID-19 added $64 million in cost pressures to the city, including at OC Transpo and Ottawa Public Health.  Costs included enhanced cleaning, personal protective equipment, required retrofits and equipment and revenue reductions primarily for transit.

🤞

Niyondagara, who is Black, said he was shocked with a stun gun, pinned down, struck in the face and handcuffed before police realized their mistake.

...

After some discussion about the name [of an alleged murderer], the police officer left the cruiser and soon returned to explain "that there was a misunderstanding," Niyondagara said.

The cops then drove Niyondagara home.

I'd take either over Yasir Naqvi personally.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/17609258

Sri Lankan family slain in Ottawa to be remembered at funeral service today

Non-Paywall Article

An Ottawa surgeon has been ordered to take a remedial course on ethics and boundaries after sharing with several patients his controversial opinions about the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

The complaints panel heard evidence Matyas cast doubt on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, promoted the use of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug, and suggested that surgical masks were ineffective at preventing the disease’s transmission.

Matyas appealed that decision to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, arguing the college had no authority to investigate and punish him for expressing scientific opinions that challenged the “official narrative” on COVID-19.

According to the review board decision in the case, the college received complaints about Matyas from two patients, including a Carleton University microbiology professor. The professor, an infectious disease specialist, said Matyas spread “unsolicited propaganda” about COVID-19 vaccines during an appointment in September 2021 and described them as a useless, money-making venture for pharmaceutical companies.

Staff at the City of Ottawa are working on a fast-tracked feasibility study for an incinerator, set to return to council by mid-2025.

"No matter what, we're going to be generating waste, and as Ottawa continues to grow we need to make sure we have a means to deal with that," said Hoover-Bienasz.

There is also no getting around emissions, she said. Landfills create their own greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane.

Building an incinerator similar to the facility in Clarington would cost $450 to $500 million, according to the city's estimates, with annual operating costs of an additional $25 million.

Needle in a haystack I know, but if you happen to hear anything let me know if any clinics accepting patients!

On January 8, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) approved plans for a nuclear waste disposal facility at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) site at Chalk River. The near-surface facility located about 160 kilometres northwest of Ottawa would feature a mound holding up to a million cubic metres of low-level radioactive waste about one kilometre from the Ottawa River.

The site was chosen for its proximity to existing waste sites at Chalk River Laboratories, where the federal government once operated nuclear reactors and over eight decades of nuclear waste accumulated. A former senior manager said the waste proposed for this facility is “intermediate level” and requires underground storage in a facility planned to be as deep underground as the CN Tower is tall.

The site is bordered by wetlands that drain into the Ottawa River, the water source for millions downstream. Citizens are also concerned that the underlying bedrock is porous, with the groundwater table very close to the surface.

A report prepared for the City of Ottawa's Transit Commission says that OC Transpo's electric buses are performing as well as the existing diesel fleet, allaying concerns about the future transition to a fully electric fleet.

The buses are meeting their mileage targets and are performing as well as or better than the 60-foot diesel buses and the double decker buses.

Ottawa City Council approved a nearly $1-billion plan in 2021 to replace the full OC Transpo fleet with zero-emission buses by 2036. The city says each electric bus saves 25,000 litres of fuel per year.

Thousands of people in Ottawa have seen their credit score dip or outright plummet because of old tickets and fines. Some go back as far as 2003.

"In January, the City contracted a new private collections agencies (sic) through a competitive process. Financial Debt Recovery (FDR) is the final collection agency in the process and only collects debts that have already been at previous City-contracted collection agencies and remain unpaid," said Joseph Muhuni, deputy city treasurer revenue, in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

"FDR attempted to collect the debt and to date, has subsequently reported 103,000 unpaid Provincial Offences Act fines and 3,000 unpaid water bills to the credit bureau."

An Ottawa man found himself intercepting an investment scam Friday afternoon.

Tom St. Denis was on his lunch break at the Kanata Indian Supermarket when he happened to pass by an elderly woman being guided over the phone to use the store’s bitcoin ATM.

He got in his car to leave, but a bad feeling drove him back inside. When he asked the woman why she was using the machine, his bad feeling was justified…

Ottawa firefighters say five people crawled to safety through the roof hatch of an OC Transpo bus after a two-vehicle collision that caused the bus to flip and land in a ditch, according to Ottawa Fire Services.

While the passengers made their way to safety, firefighters crawled into the bus through the roof hatch to check on the driver before cutting through the windshield to rescue them about 10 minutes later.

Five passengers and the driver were assessed at the scene and refused to be taken to hospital, according to paramedics.

I am a petty man. Hell he probably just said it for the votes knowing what was coming. Either way it still makes me smile

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched on Parliament Hill on Saturday in one of the largest such rallies in Ottawa since the Israeli invasion of Gaza began in October.

Waving the ubiquitous green, red, white and black Palestinian flag and banging drums, the group demanded an arms embargo and political sanctions on Israel and an immediate reinstatement of funding to the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency.

Saturday’s March for Gaza on Parliament Hill was one of dozens of similar rallies around the world. The Ottawa march drew busloads of demonstrators from Montreal, Toronto and elsewhere. Police closed Wellington Street during the protest. Numerous fireworks were set off as well as red and green smoke grenades.

The Buddhist Congress of Canada is one of the co-ordinators of an online GoFundMe launched Friday to assist families of the victims of the mass killing of six people, including a mother and her four children, in Barrhaven late Wednesday.

“Our wish is to raise ($200,000),” organizers wrote on the post. The fund has raised about $20,000 as of Friday morning.

“The financial support for the victims’ families will be coordinated through the local Buddhist Temple (Buddhist Congress of Canada, 1481 Heron Road, Ottawa, Ontario. K1V 6A6).

Donations can be made at the site (below) or to the Buddhist Congress of Canada (BCC) by way of cash, cheques made out to BCC or by “e-transferring money to the temple’s email with a small note that it’s for this worthy cause, so that we can manually add it here.”

https://www.gofundme.com/f/an-unthinkable-tragedy-at-ottawa-mar-7?qid=28eddd4a82a424c6c14db70243c89f34