Media Releases

What Ecology Ottawa will be watching for in today's Term of Council Priorities report.

In October Ottawa elected a new city council. At the time Ecology Ottawa approached councillors across the city and met with many of them. We told them clearly what our priorities were and offered to work with them.

Today the public gets its first look at the official document that defines the City of Ottawa’s priorities for the next four years. Will they reflect a priority for a city that’s healthy for citizens and the environment?

ANALYSIS Greenhouse gas emissions: How can Canada cut 30% by 2030? Eliminating all cars for a year would only put a dent in carbon emissions

Shutting down the entire oilsands wouldn't be enough to get to the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target set earlier this month by the federal government. (Mark Ralson/AFP/Getty Images)

When the federal government announced its plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, it gave little indication how it planned to do it, exactly.

Emotional Connections to Water

The unnamed candidate had a problem.

Though not against the idea of clean water—who would be?—he didn’t want to make it a priority in his election campaign.

But on the day before the 2014 Ottawa municipal election, he was frantically calling the Ecology Ottawa offices, trying to convince the organization to post his environmental positions on its website.

Depave Paradise 2015

Depave Greening Project

Depave Paradise is back!

Last year, we removed more than 100 square meters of asphalt from the Kitchissippi Church parking lot.

This year, with the help of the community, we're going to do the same for St. Anthony Catholic School.

Depave Paradise addresses the proliferation of hard surfaces in modern urban environments through the primal act of ripping up unused pavement and replacing it with soil and vegetation. Volunteers “liberate the soil,” using hand tools to pry up the pavement. Native plants, bushes and trees are then planted to act as filters and sponges for polluted stormwater runoff. The events attract media and political attention, and raise awareness of the issues surrounding the urban water cycle, while making measurable environmental impacts, reducing runoff and contamination and increasing green space.

Ecology Ottawa Hiring Outreach Organizer - Three Month Contract

Ecology Ottawa is looking for an Outreach Organizer to join a dynamic team on a three month contract. The Outreach Organizer will run a canvass in the City of Ottawa designed to raise awareness about the threats associated with the proposed Energy East oil pipeline. The goal is to educate people about the proposed pipeline, support a growing volunteer base, and help build a movement of people in the City of Ottawa that are active around the proposed Energy East pipeline. This position involves immersion in the tools and techniques of grassroots organizing, canvassing, volunteer management, data management and communications. This position involves substantial evening and weekend work.

Ottawa author details the healing power of walking

Dan Rubinstein has walked in northern Quebec, in inner-city Philadelphia, in the British Isles, and more, to research his just-released book Born to Walk. But it was right around the corner from his house that the Ottawa author encountered a pedestrian’s worst nightmare.

Rubinstein was walking his twin daughters, Maggie and Daisy, to school in their Alta Vista neighbourhood, as he does most mornings. Maggie was ahead of him on her bike. Daisy was behind. As he watched, a car turned directly into Maggie, crushing her bike. The car then swerved and ran over Rubinstein’s legs.

Two Book Events - David Suzuki and Jeff Rubin

Octopus Books is hosting two book events of interest in the coming weeks.

On Thursday June 4th Jeff Rubin will be at Centretown United Church at 507 Bank Street at 7pm to talk about his new book The Carbon Bubble.

For more information and tickets for the Jeff Rubin event please visit the event page at Octopus Books.

On Friday June 19th David Suzuki will be at Centretown United Church at 507 Bank Street at 7pm to talk about his new book Letters to My Grandchildren.

Terry Fox Park Planting - Come Plant Trees!

Terry Fox Park was once a park filled with luscious trees, but unfortunately the city was forced to clear cut trees due to the Emerald Ash Borer. This is why we need your help! Come out to the Terry Fox Planting on June 13th from 9am-12pm and help plant 2000 trees!

The trees will be provided along with water, snacks, and coffee. So bring clothes that you don't mind getting dirty and a shovel and let's work together to help make this park filled with beautiful trees like it once was! We can do it!

Promising Practice - Barbara Long

Barbara Long, a local real estate agent with Your Choice Realty Corp. and Accredited Green Agent, has developed her own energy retrofit program. The program will help her clients save money, reduce greenhouse gases, stimulate the local economy and make good on her promise to herself about making a meaningful contribution to reducing climate change.

Save Ottawa's trees, sign our Petition!

Invasive, aggressive and spreading, the Emerald Ash Borer is killing millions of trees every year in the nation's capital decimating the urban canopy and costing taxpayers millions of dollars as the city struggles to ensure parks and streets are safe from falling trees.

While politicians regularly commit to planting new trees when the cameras are rolling, city council hasn't approved a Forest Management Strategy since before 2003 when the last plan expired.

TransCanada Corp’s Energy East pipeline application should be suspended, groups tell federal regulator

Photography: The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

TORONTO — More than 60 organizations are calling on the National Energy Board to suspend TransCanada’s application for the Energy East pipeline.

Groups including Greenpeace Canada, the Council of Canadians and the David Suzuki Foundation said in a letter to the federal pipeline regulator that it should suspend the review process while waiting for new information from the company.

Environmental Assessments & Climate Change - Call for Papers

One of Ecology Ottawa's supporters has drawn our attention to the Ontario Association for Impact Assessment's annual conference this fall in Toronto at which the theme will be: Environmental Assessment - A Critical Tool For Tackling Climate Change.

In their call for papers they say:

Climate Change is here: in our cities, on our farms and in the remote corners of our vast province. If affects our economy, challenges our food security and threatens our health and well-being. Governments and agencies are sitting up and taking notice. Environmental Assessment can be a critical tool in tackling climate change.