Attendees:
John Sankey collected memberships.
Marilyn Koch: You don't have to be a member to attend the meetings.
John Sankey: But you do to vote or propose motions.
John Sankey: He presented the agenda and asked for approval.
Motion: To approve the April 2014 minutes. Moved by Christine Johnson, seconded by Peter Foulger, carried.
146 bus schedule
Bernie Geiger: The 146 bus used to come every 10 minutes but now it comes every 15 minutes. On his way home he cannot time his transfer and could have to wait 15 minutes. OC Transpo has put the bigger articulated buses on the route. Since they aren't full, OC Transpo sees no need for more buses.
Councillor's Report
Kamal Ubhi presented the Councillor's Report.
Christine Johnson: On the subject of Spring Tree Planting: What kind of trees does the City plant?
John Sankey: There is a list of approved trees. It rarely plants fruit trees or nut-bearing trees because many people object to the mess.
Christine Johnson: There was a presentation of the Area Traffic Management Study on Paul Anka. The presentation was held in the Community Centre. She would like to have known about it because it impacts her directly. She attended a civics bootcamp given by the Citizens Academy.
One item of interest was the cash-in-lieu payments that developers can make. Developers are required to create landscaped areas as part of their development. They can however make a cash-in-lieu payment which the City uses to make capital improvements to parks. She discovered that Ward 16 (our Ward) had $5000 from cash-in-lieu payments but $8000 was actually spent. Can we find out where the money was spent?
John Sankey: No. We could have input but nothing more.
Peter Brimacombe: He attended the Special Waste Collection held at the Rideau Carleton Raceway. There were hundreds of cars and it was well organized. He would be interested to see statistics from the day.
Christine Johnson: On the subject of the municipal elections - will we have an all-candidates meeting?
John Sankey: Last time we organized it and it was held in the Community Centre. Only candidates for Mayor and for Councillor were invited because it was too much work to include candidates for the school boards.
Kamal Ubhi: The cutoff for nominations is August 22.
David McGuinty, Member of Parliament
John Sankey: Welcomed David McGuinty, Member of Parliament for Ottawa South.
David McGuinty: He introduced his assistant Jackie Grace. Jackie is from Calgary. She is keenly interested in the political process. David McGuinty likes to welcome young people to Parliament Hill. Building democracies around the world is one of his chief interests. He went to the Ukraine to help build democracy there. He is here today to present Christine Johnson with a Volunteer Recognition Certificate. There was a short ceremony where David McGuinty presented the Certificate to Christine and she accepted. Everyone applauded.
Al Gullon: He spoke about Bill C23, the Fair Elections Act. Despite its name, it has strong elements that contradict justice and the right to vote.
David McGuinty: On matters concerning the right to vote, the House normally votes unanimously. At the very least the Bill should be met with wide-spread support. Top experts have said that Bill C23 is wrong.
Bernie Geiger: He is extremely concerned about the move to abolish the Senate. It should be preserved. The House should have to earn the support of the Senate.
Chris Elie: He spoke about the West-East Pipeline. What can be done to oppose it?
David McGuinty: Opposition has been made more difficult. The number of groups that can present has been reduced. Cabinet can now reverse the Canada Energy Board. The Liberal Transportation Critique has said that even if all the proposed pipelines were built it would not be enough to transport the oil.
John Sankey: CPAC broadcasts sessions of the House in either English or French. If one speaker speaks English and the next speaks French then you can hear both in English or both in French. The CRTC forbids us to hear both in the language spoken.
Treasurer's Report
Peter Foulger: He presented the Treasurer's Report. The chief item was the term deposit of $8600 at the Alterna Bank which has come due. With it was $212.66 in interest. The money should be deposited in a savings account at the TD Bank.
Motion: To direct the Treasurer and the President to open a TD Savings Account where the bulk of the money would be deposited to earn interest. Moved by Peter Foulger, seconded by Christine Johnson, carried.
Clean Up
Peter Foulger: Organized the clean-up of Paul Landry Park. He thanked Marilyn Koch, Christine Johnson and John Sankey for their help. The clean-up crew was faced with a daunting task - there were broken beer bottles and a great deal of litter. Someone is dumping old trees and other lawn waste . There's an old dog kennel that's too heavy to lift. The City needs to send a crew to pick it and the downed trees up. There are 27 bundles of flyers. It looks like the delivery boy just dumped them. There was an appalling amount of debris from Shearwater Court.
Motion: Request the City to remove the heavy debris including the dog kennel from Paul Landry Park. Moved by Peter Foulger, seconded by Sylva Baroody, carried.
Motion: Request Ottawa Community Housing to remove the garbage the contractor and the residents have dumped in Paul Landry Park. Moved by Peter Foulger, seconded by Christine Johnson, carried.
Motion: To request Bylaw Enforcement to take acton against those who have dumped flyers in Paul Landry Park. Moved by Peter Foulger, seconded by John Sankey, carried.
Peter Brimacombe: Liz Russell has done a tremendous job cleaning up McCarthy Road, Owl Park and Plante Drive. Sylva Baroody has organized the Optimist Junior Ottawa South which is a group of young people. They have cleaned up McCarthy Park and McCarthy Woods.
Request to post notices
Christine Johnson: She would like permission to post Help Needed Posters in the Community Centre. The help is needed to distribute the newsletter Hunt Club My Community.
John Sankey: Go ahead. Old notices are taken down after a month, so repost them as needed.
Next meeting: Monday June 2 at 19:00