Our Eco Awards are back! To celebrate Earth Week 2025, we’re again highlighting the people, places, plants, trees, and animals of Ottawa that inspire us, bring the community together, and enrich our ecosystem. Make a nomination today!
Last week, City Council's Planning and Housing Committee and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee held a joint meeting to vote on Draft 2 of Ottawa's new Zoning By-law. Most provisions have been carried over from Draft 1, but we delegated to speak against the high commercial parking maximums for shopping centres.
We were at Public Works and Infrastructure Committee to oppose the recoupling of the Airport Parkway project components. These components—active transportation improvements and a widening of the Parkway—were wisely decoupled in 2023, and now a motion was presented to recouple them. Please read our delegation below, or watch it in the meeting.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has called an election for April 28. Elections are a key moment in the advocacy cycle: they offer an opportunity to not only elect thoughtful decision makers, but also to set the agenda for the upcoming term. This federal election is no exception—particularly with the last decade recently being declared the hottest on record and extreme weather intensifying, but also with looming economic uncertainty.
Ecology Ottawa delegated at City Council's Environment and Climate Change Committee today to support Councillor King's motion calling for a review of the City's Salt Management practices. Our Executive Director William van Geest drew heavily from water sampling conducted by our partners Ottawa Riverkeeper over 5 years to show that such a review is necessary. Read our delegation below.
Councillor King is bringing a motion to City Council's Environment and Climate Change Committee to call for a long overdue review of the City's salting practices and the environmental effects of these practices. Salt is toxic to aquatic life, soil, and vegetation, and it persists year-round in our waterways. Find out more and take action!
The recent threat of tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States has many concerned. Tariffs would have significant negative effects across our economy and communities. Elected officials at all levels of government must strengthen resilience within their jurisdiction. But such efforts must also embed justice, equity, and climate change preparedness.
One of our EcoYouth Council members, Maggie Hanna, submitted a letter to the City concerning a quarry expansion proposed in the Stittsville area. As Maggie outlines, there are a number of serious environmental concerns associated with this proposal. We hope that these concerns are resolved before any further action is taken on this proposal.
You may have seen our recent content about misinformation in advertising. We’re glad you noticed! So here’s the deal: the information we led with was completely false. No, the earth isn’t flat, and 2+2 doesn't equal 5. Thing is, the City’s advertising policy currently allows you to say these things.
We’ve been getting lots of messages this winter about OC Transpo applying salt excessively in its facilities. So a couple weeks ago, we asked the community to send us photo evidence. And the responses confirmed what we’d heard.
The upcoming Ontario election on February 27, 2025 offers an opportunity—an opportunity for concrete ecological action in Ottawa and our province more generally. We’ve prepared ten ecological demands for this election. We encourage candidates to adopt these planks wholesale into their platforms. We also encourage voters to ask candidates about these planks, and will be distributing aids for this in coming days.