Media Releases

Ecology Ottawa Applauds the City of Ottawa for Holding the Greenhouse Gas Roundtable

Awaits refreshed action plan to fight climate change at both the ‘community’ and ‘corporate’ levels

March 20, 2013 / Ottawa, ON — Ecology Ottawa’s executive director, Graham Saul, will be speaking as a panelist at the City of Ottawa’s Greenhouse Gas Roundtable scheduled for March 23, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Ottawa City Hall.

Mr. Saul is available to speak with the media about this important event and is pleased to provide the community’s perspective on the City’s efforts related to climate change.

Update on the City of Ottawa’s Greenhouse Gas Roundtable

Roundtable Sold Out – Although invitations to the March 23^rd GHG Roundtable were only sent in the late evening on Thursday, February 28, and no information posted on the City’s website, by the afternoon of Friday, March 8 the city had begun sending “we have reached our maximum capacity” autoreplies to people interested in RSVPing. This strong show of community interest underlines the concern citizens of Ottawa feel for this issue and the growing recognition that while federal commitment fizzles, local initiative becomes all the more important. If you were unable to RSVP to attend the Roundtable, we will be trying to live tweet what happens there, follow us on Twitter @EcologyOttawa with the hashtag #ottghg.

Update on Ecology Ottawa’s Climate Change Campaign & the City’s GHG Roundtable

The following email was recently sent to Ecology Ottawa supporters who'd expressed interest in our climate change campaign. To add your address and recieve similar emails in the run up to the City of Ottawa's greenhouse gas roundtable SIGNUP HERE.

The Contents of this E-mail:

1. Please Register for the City’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Roundtable

Council Watch on Downtown Moves and Transportation Committee March 4th

By Aya Helal

The Transportation Committee meeting held on March 4^th was kicked off by new chair Councillor Keith Egli. The hot topic of the month was the Downtown Moves study. Downtown Moves is an Urban Design and Transportation Study that aims to create a street environment that is more pedestrian, cycling and transit friendly by finding a balance among street users and by improving the streetscape.

Urgent Invitation: Your Chance to Put the City Back on Track

We’ve worked for months to get the City of Ottawa back on track to do its fair share in the fight against climate change and we’re writing to let you know that there’s a critical meeting coming up and you’re invited!

The City of Ottawa has officially announced that they are holding a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Roundtable on Saturday, March 23rd from 9am to 2pm at City Hall and they are extending an open invitation to anyone interested in this important issue.

Council Watch Monthly Digest- February 2013

Environment Committee (February 19): Councillors of the Environment Committee approved city staff’s recommendation to impose a 7% increase in 2013 water/sewer rates. Ecology Ottawa congratulates the Environment Committee on approving this motion, especially in light of the fact that office holders are normally under pressure to avoid rate increases, but hiking rates and adopting a user-pay approach ultimately encourages water conservation and discourages waste.

Council Watch on Seven Percent Increase in Water/Sewer Rates

By Jesse Baker

The Environment Committee meeting held on February 19 primarily served as a discussion of the proposed seven percent increase in 2013 water and sewer rates. The meeting began with a presentation of the city’s proposed 2013 and 2014 Water and Wastewater Operating and Capital Budgets and featured two delegations from the public. The Committee unanimously approved the 2013 rate increase and supported the plan to invest the revenues in underground infrastructure projects.

[VIDEO] Call For Renewed City of Ottawa Climate Change Strategy

Ecology Ottawa wants people to call their city councillor to ask that the upcoming greenhouse gas roundtable be used as a starting point for the city to revisit its climate change strategy. Here's why:

You can help by

calling your councillor
registering with Ecology Ottawa so we can keep count
ask others to call their councillor (email [email protected] and we'll give you tools & info)

Council Watch Monthly Digest- January 2013

Environment Committee (January 15): January saw the first Environment Committee of the year 2013, during which the Environment Committee dropped a bomb-shell that could have lead to a step backward in the city’s commitment to promoting and implementing green building practices. The Environment Committee passed an abrupt motion to abandon the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation process.

Environment Committee weirdness regarding LEED certification of city-owned buildings

By Aya Helal

The first Environment Committee meeting of 2013 dropped a bomb-shell that could lead to a step backward in the City’s commitment to promoting and implementing green building practices. City Councillor Diane Holmes submitted a motion, after the idea was first suggested by Councillor David Chernushenko, to abandon the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) accreditation process administered by the Canada Green Building Council (CGBC).

GHG Roundtable – Getting Traction – What’s Next

Yesterday Jim Watson, in an online town hall, responded to popular pressure and promised that the greenhouse gas roundtable would be held before the end of March. Now we have to ensure the roundtable is effective in starting a process toward a renewed city climate change strategy.

Mayor Watson had been put in a tough position because the Chair of Environment Committee, Councillor Maria McRae, had claimed authority over running the roundtable but because she is not enthusiastic about global warming leadership, no work had been done. Requests to attend the roundtable had begun to pour in from interested community and professional groups, also individual concerned citizens had begun to phone their city councillors asking what the delay was plus asking the mayor to take a prominent role at the event. On top of this, a twitter conversation had broken out, making the lack of progress more visible to the public.

Where’s that progress City Council agreed to?

In 2005 the City of Ottawa was making fair progress on the issue of climate change. That stagnated during O’Brien’s Mayorship and since Councillor Maria McRae became Chair of Ottawa’s Environment Committee has actually slid backward.

Concerned citizens and groups worked together with supportive councillors to change this. We were successful in having City Council approve a motion to host a roundtable to engage the community in greenhouse gas reduction. Maria McRae claimed chairmanship of the roundtable and for six months has done nothing to organize it.