Media Releases

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.

Promising Practices: Eastern Ontario Leads Province In Executed FIT Contracts

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Promising Practices: Municipalities - Toronto Green Roof By-law

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Promising Practices: Energy Cooperatives - Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative

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Promising Practices: Businesses - Vert Design (Passive House in Ottawa)

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Promising Practices: Non-Profits - Christ Church Cathedral

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Ecology Ottawa Turns Trash into Treasure with the Great Glebe GREEN Garage Sale

5th annual event to raise funds for local environmental group and The Ottawa Food Bank

May 9, 2012, Ottawa—The national capital’s leading local environmental group, Ecology Ottawa, will be hosting its most exciting event of the year, the 5th annual Great Glebe GREEN Garage Sale, on Saturday, May 26 at 680 & 690 Bank Street (at Glebe Avenue, in the Rogers Plus and Kunstadt Sports parking lots).

Community Associations, Ecology Ottawa ask Ottawa-area MPs to ‘Cut the Crap, Fund the Plan!’

Environmental organization says it is not fair to ask the city to choose between public transit and clean water

March 7, 2012 (Ottawa) – At a press conference this morning at Britannia Beach, Ecology Ottawa and Community Associations called on the federal government to help the nation’s capital clean up its rivers, and asked that it stop calling on the city to choose between public transit and clean water.

Environment Committee to Discuss Bold New Vision (or Total waste of Taxpayers’ Money)

City Council to decide the fate of “Choosing Our Future” For more information, contact Graham Saul, Chair of Ecology Ottawa, at 613-558-3368

Feb. 21, 2012 (Ottawa) — The City of Ottawa’s Environment Committee is set to discuss three plans today that fall under the heading of Choosing our Future. These plans are the result of a four-year planning process and, if fully embraced, they would save Ottawa residents billions of dollars a year in energy costs, increase support for local farmers, help protect our parks and rivers, promote high-tech businesses, and build a world class public transportation system, among many other things. However, the staff report to be approved at Committee today does not commit the city to do much more than “receive” the plans.

Ottawans Voice Support for the Federal Funding of the Ottawa River Action Plan Ecology Ottawa Disappointed in Lack of Response from area Conservative MPs

Feb. 14, 2012 (Ottawa) – More than 500 people across the city have written to Ottawa-area Members of Parliament (MPs) in recent days urging them to include funding for the Ottawa River Action Plan in the 2012 federal budget, but Conservative MPs have not yet responded.

While responses have been received from local NDP and Liberal MPs (see below), the signatories have not yet had the courtesy of an answer from the Government of Canada representatives— Hon. John Baird, Royal Galipeau, Gordon O’Connor, Pierre Poilievre and Pierre Lemieux.

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