The Draft Operating and Capital Budgets will be tabled at City Council on November 9,
2005 and will be available on the City's website at www.ottawa.ca following this date.
Please see the details below for my River Ward Budget Consultation Meeting:
Monday, November 21, 2005
6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. - Meet-and-Greet
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. - Meeting
Ellwood Room - Jim Durrell Recreation Centre
1265 Walkley Road
The City Manager, and City of Ottawa Finance, Bylaw, Public Works and Services, Corporate Services, Traffic and Police Services staff have been invited to attend to listen to your concerns and answer your questions.
Last year, I joined with several City Councillors (Taxfighters Team) to create the community Budget Advisory Team (cBAT), an independent advisory body made up of a diverse group of community members from across the City, to provide advice and input on the City budget and create a direct link between residents and elected officials.
cBAT's mission is to put democracy back into Ottawa's budget process and provide residents, businesses, the community, and Ottawa's political leaders with feedback on the complex process of municipal budget decision-making. cBAT looks at alternatives - re-engineering city processes; raising revenues without tax increases; increasing partnerships and private sector participation; and increasing community involvement in City decision-making.
I have joined the Taxfighters Team again this year and look forward to working with community representatives on the 2006 City of Ottawa budget.
Approximately 130 spirited seniors attended my first Autumn Tea on the afternoon of October 28 at the Hunt Club Riverside Community Centre. This celebration in thanksgiving, to reflect on the gift of friendships we have formed over the years, and to celebrate a caring and beautiful Ward was a truly lively event. The gym was abuzz with lively conversation and filled with laughter. We also enjoyed great music, dancing, and the warmth and charm of the celebrity servers. My guests completed a survey wherein they provided me with sage advice on many issues. They also brought concerns to my attention, which I have since addressed with City staff.
City Council met at a Special Meeting on Friday, November 4 to discuss the Amalgamated Transit Union contract talks. A further offer is being brought to the union negotiating team. I hope agreement can be reached because I don't want to see a strike. The impact on those who depend on transit service is immense. Details will be provided in a future report.
The Integrated Road Safety Program was launched in 2004 with the objective of
reducing collisions on Ottawa's roads and to raise public awareness of road safety issues.
The goal of this program is to reduce traffic fatalities or serious injuries by 30% by the
year 2010. As part of the strategy, a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) was
initiated where, on a monthly basis, two initiatives were launched that target specific
traffic offences. Over the past year, the STEP focussed on the following campaigns:
January Improper lane changing and following too close
February Red light running and speeding
March Unsafe vehicles and stop sign violations
April Vehicle restraints and red light running
May Following too close and speeding
June Improper use of reserved transit lanes and impaired driving
July Cycling on sidewalks and improper lane changing
August Pedestrian safety and following too close
September Failing to stop for school buses and red light running
October Failing to buckle up or use child car seats and speeding
I have reported on each of the above-noted integrated road safety initiatives in my monthly reports to the Board. Following is information on the October initiative and statistics on the September blitz.
"To show particular support for the Province's "Fall Seatbelt Campaign", the Ottawa Police and Ottawa Public Health nurses will be setting up spot-checks at various locations throughout the city, the week of October 17-21, to check that seatbelts are being used and child car seats are being used properly. In Ottawa, over the past five years, 29 people were killed and 60 others suffered life-threatening injuries as a result of not wearing seatbelts. And, of these 89 victims, 80% were male. Also shockingly, in 2004 alone, 3,470 reportable collisions occurred on Ottawa roads as a result of drivers exceeding the speed limit or driving too fast for conditions. These collisions resulted in 1,092 injuries, 51 of which were life threatening, and 14 deaths.
Last month, the targeted traffic enforcement themes were: failing to stop for school bus controls and failing to stop for red lights. This initiative resulted in 5 charges of failing to stop for school bus controls and 422 charges of red light running. Drivers that fail to stop for a school bus with its overhead lights flashing face fines up to $2,000 and six demerit points for a first offence, and fines up to $4,000 and six demerit points with possible imprisonment up to six months, for subsequent offences. And, as of September 1, 2005, registered owners of vehicles failing to stop for a school bus will be subject to the same fines that drivers are. A registered owner who is not driving the vehicle, however, will not accumulate any demerit points. Last month, the Ottawa Police Service received 34 complaints of vehicles failing to stop for a school bus."
November's STEP campaign is focussing on Stop Sign Violations and Red Light Running Statistics on the October campaign will be provided in my next report.
Speeding continues to be a community concern and Sergeant Tom Murray does a terrific job of enforcement follow-up whenever I send in requests. I have always had a serious concern regarding speeding and aggressive driving on the Airport Parkway. The Police responded to my requests for enforcement. My own personal observations as a daily user of this roadway are that speeding is a serious issue, many drivers disregard the provisions of the Highway Traffic Act and yet others show no courtesy to other drivers. There have been two recent accidents with fatalities on the Parkway, which indicate a need for proactive enforcement. I keep in constant contact with Superintendent Bordeleau of East Division in regard to enforcement.
Waste Reduction Week, which ran from October 17-23, 2005, allows City residents and employees to reflect on the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The three Rs can be put into practice in everyday life at home and at work. Reducing the amount of waste produced is the most efficient way of conserving resources and protecting the environment. When we avoid making waste in the first place, there is no need to reuse or recycle it later. Here are some interesting facts about waste:
With the next round of collection contracts to begin in June 2006, City council has endorsed the option of including source-separated organics for collection to begin city-wide in 2008. Recognizing that collection of a separate stream of material will increase costs of the total solid waste program, staff have been evaluating ways of minimizing the cost impact of collecting source separated organics. Since collection costs represent the largest component of the solid waste budget, minimizing the trucks required to perform the service is an essential part of controlling the collection costs.
In support of this, I agreed to participate in a bi-weekly garbage collection pilot, known as "Spare a Week & Win". The purpose of this pilot is to demonstrate that if organic material (food waste, including meat and dairy) is collected weekly in an organics program, then collection of the remaining garbage on a bi-weekly basis should not represent a challenge. This is because there should be nothing left to cause significant odour problems, nor should there be a significant volume of garbage material remaining, as organics makes up over half of what most people dispose of as garbage.
Though my household is not a part of the organics collection pilot known as "Compost Plus", I believed so strongly in this waste diversion initiative that my household volunteered to try bi-weekly garbage collection even though that meant hanging on to all my garbage, including organics for bi-weekly collection. I found that I could easily manage bi-weekly garbage collection with my organics collected weekly.
Should the program become city-wide in 2008, it will make our landfill space last to 2038, or 2040, rather than just until 2018 (if we don't increase waste diversion). I believe in minimizing my ecological footprint for the sake of future generations, even though it may mean learning some new waste management "tricks". I also believe in responsible long term fiscal management and that is also why I supported the underlying idea of "Spare a Week & Win".
City Council endorsed a bid for Ottawa to become the host of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Committee was granted a commitment of $75 million of support between now and 2014 from the City of Ottawa to add to substantial contributions that will be required from the federal and provincial governments, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, and corporate sponsors.
The Bid Committee's co-chairs Abby Hoffman, four-time Olympian, Commonwealth Games gold medallist, former Director of Sport Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada, and John Kelly, Chairman of Nexlnnovations and principal of Reid-Eddison Inc., made presentations to City Council. The Bid Committee is a community-wide initiative. Its members also include Cyril Leeder, Chief Operating Officer of the Ottawa Senators and the Corel Centre; Gilles Patry, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa; David Atkinson, President and Vice-Chancellor of Carleton University; and a number of other prominent members of the Ottawa business and sport communities.
The Commonwealth Games would bring over 6,000 athletes, coaches and team officials from 71 countries to Ottawa during the 2014 summer event, along with thousands of tourists and media from around the world. Preparations for hosting the Games will include building or enhancing world-class sporting facilities, which would remain in the community to benefit residents long after the Games are over. Other host cities have experienced significant and sustained economic benefits to local businesses, the city's tourism and hospitality industries, and the community at large.
The first stage of the bidding process is a domestic competition with Halifax, Hamilton and the Regional Municipality of York to determine which city will represent Canada in the international site selection process. The domestic bid must be submitted to Commonwealth Games Canada by November 1, 2005, and a decision will be announced on December 15, 2005 in Toronto.
If Ottawa is selected as the Canadian bid city, it will then compete with Scotland and Nigeria in the international bid phase for the right to host the 2014 Games. Canada has hosted the Commonwealth Games four times since its inception in 1930 (Hamilton, 1930; Vancouver, 1954; Edmonton, 1978; Victoria, 1994). The international Commonwealth Games Federation is expected to announce the location for the 2014 games in October 2007.
The City of Ottawa is introducing the Yellow Bag Program, starting January 2006, that enables qualifying small non-residential establishments to have convenient weekly curbside garbage pickup and free blue/black box recycling on regular residential collection days. Small non-residential establishments - such as small retailers, places of worship, and daycares - can purchase specially designed yellow bags for three dollars each. The bags will be available at any Home Hardware store in packets of four, which is also the limit for each collection.
To be eligible for the Yellow Bag Program, a registration form must be completed. To qualify, the non-residential establishment must meet all of the following criteria: