RIVER WARD CITY
COUNCILLOR MARIA McRAE’S REPORT TO
HUNT CLUB COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
JUNE 5, 2006
I look forward to meeting new friends and seeing old acquaintances at my upcoming Annual Strawberry Social for Seniors. Here are the details:
River Ward City
Councillor Maria McRae
cordially invites you
and all Seniors of River Ward to
Annual
Strawberry Social for Seniors
Friday,
June 23, 2006 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Hunt Club Riverside Community Centre
3320
Paul Anka Drive (at McCarthy)
• Entertainment by Dominic D’Arcy
“Ottawa’s
Singing Policeman”
• Door Prizes
Please call 580-2486 to
reserve your FREE ticket(s)
Following a walk
through McCarthy Woods on Sunday, May 21, 2006, I contacted the NCC and
requested a clean-up of the garbage and litter in this treasured
greenspace. The NCC hired a contractor
and the woods were cleaned up.
The birding study area
is defined by McCarthy Road to the east, the hydro corridor to the south,
Riverside Drive to the west and the existing residences to the north. The field surveys started mid May and will
continue during the month of June. I
will provide an update as soon as information becomes available.
I have held
several on-site meetings at various parks throughout the Ward to proactively
deal with problems and to ensure that the progress we made last year to address
problems of vandalism, graffiti, alcohol and drugs continues and to manage any
new problems that may emerge.
I’m continuing to organize on-site meetings at parks throughout the Ward on an hoc basis.
The swings were pulled because of
safety concerns related to the frames.
Replacement of swings throughout the City started today.
At my request, City of Ottawa staff carried out field inspections of Rivergate Way (Old Riverside Drive) on the north and south side of the tracks. The following remedial actions are being taken.
• Garbage and litter will be picked up on the cul de sac on both sides.
•A “No Littering” sign is being added on the south side of the tracks.
•Police
enforcement.
The City of Ottawa is investing $1.2 million in upgrades for the Airport Parkway Bridge at Hunt Club Road. The proposed work is structure related. The rehabilitation of the Airport Parkway Bridge will be co-ordinated with the Light Rail Transit construction in 2007.
The City of Ottawa is starting construction for the rehabilitation of the Michael Sheflin Bridge on Hunt Club Road between Riverside Drive and Prince of Wales Drive. Underground Services (1983) Ltd. was hired to complete the work. Construction will likely last from June to October 2006.
Underground Services (1983) Ltd. is assuming full responsibility for the construction work. They will take every precaution to minimize interruptions to your daily life, but there will be some inconvenience to you during the course of the work. Traffic through the construction zone will be maintained at two lanes in each direction during peak hours, but reduced to one lane in each direction during off-peak hours. Weekend and night work will be carried out with one lane of traffic in each direction. A pedestrian passage will be maintained at all time. To avoid congestion, motorists are advised to take alternate routes during construction and/or use public transit.
Should you require any information or assistance related to the construction, please call the office of Underground Services (1983) Ltd. at 1-800-363-7580.
Hunt Club Plaza Tenants Safety and Security Committee
On October 27, 2004, following a series of criminal activities in the Hunt Club community, I sent a personal letter to all business tenants at the Hunt Club Plaza to join me at a meeting to discuss their concerns and to work in partnership to address occurrences of theft and vandalism. This was the first of many successful Town Hall meetings on Community Safety and Crime Prevention. Following the Town Hall meeting on November 3, 2004, I asked the Ottawa Police Service to convene a meeting to work with the Hunt Club Plaza tenants to address problems. The Police had a Business Watch Inspection carried out, which led to recommendations to the individual businesses. Police also provided all stores with the business Crime Prevention Program package. These actions ultimately led to the establishment of the Hunt Club Plaza Tenants Safety and Security Committee, which still meets on a regular basis to discuss concerns as well as proactive approaches to curtail criminal activity.
As reported in my Spring 2006 Report to
River Ward residents, I hosted two free seminars, on May 18 and May 23, 2006,
on caring for your lawn using organic methods.
I am pleased to report that these were successful in terms of
attendance, discussion and questions. I
received favourable comments about the value of these seminars.
City Council carried the Joint Transportation Committee and Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee recommendation to approve the Bowesville site as the location for the LRT Maintenance and Storage Facility.
South Central
District Library
The new South Central District Library, adjacent to the Greenboro Community Centre, 363 Lorry Greenberg Drive, opens June 7, 2006. The new, 29,000 square foot, two-story library will be a neighbourhood library for local residents while providing district library service for approximately 150,000 people.
Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday from 1p.m. to 5 p.m. (starting September 10)
The South Central District Library features wireless Internet, convenient self-checkout, a drive-thru book return, a teen room, a comfortable reading area, and a quiet study room.
The opening ceremonies will be held on
Tuesday June 20, 2006 from 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Ottawa Fire Services
recently launched their Spring Wake Up! Get a working smoke alarm
door-to-door awareness campaign, which informs residents about the value and legal
responsibility of having working smoke alarms.
During the Fall 2005
campaign, Ottawa Fire Services knocked on approximately 12,000 doors. Of the 8,000 residents that were reached,
more than 3,000 or 39% did not have a working smoke alarm.
According to Ontario
Fire Statistics, out of 47,842 residential fires that occurred between 1995 and
2003, smoke alarms operated only 47 per cent of the time. Smoke alarms did not operate in 22 per cent
of fires, in 21 per cent there were no smoke alarms present and in 10 per cent
the operation of the smoke alarm was unknown.
Ottawa Fire Services
are continuing the program by targeting areas of the city that have had the
greatest number of fire related incidents.
They are also heading into neighbourhoods that have a high number of new
Canadians to ensure that people who do not speak English or French also have
access to this life saving information.
Firefighters will check smoke alarms in homes to make sure they work
properly, provide new batteries, and may install a smoke alarm or provide
residents with a manufacturer coupon for the purchase of additional smoke
alarms.
The campaign profiles
rules set under the Ontario Fire Code, such as a new regulation that began
March 1, 2006, which requires residents to install a smoke alarm outside every
sleeping area and on every level of the home.
The Wake Up! Get a
working smoke alarm campaign is expected to continue twice a year for the
next few years due in part to sponsorship from CTV Ottawa, the Ottawa Senators
Hockey Club, the Ottawa Senators Foundation, Duracell, the Fire Marshall’s
Public Fire Safety Council and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.
Spring Cleaning the Capital 2006
Thank you to all organizations, schools and
individuals in Hunt Club who participated in the City’s 13th annual
Spring Cleaning the Capital campaign.
As is my custom, I participated in several clean-up campaigns throughout River Ward. It was my pleasure to meet new residents and work together with them to clean up our neighbourhoods. Thank you to everyone who joined to lend a hand.
City-wide, in 2006, there were 750 registrations, and over 55,000 participants in the Spring Cleaning the Capital campaign.
The City’s new environmental website was launched on Earth Day, April 22, 2006. The focus of the new Web site is on educating individuals and businesses about easy steps they can take to have a positive environmental impact. The website address is ottawa.ca/environment. Please check it out.
June 4 to 10 is National Environment Week. This year, the main focus for the week will be the City’s Waste
Diversion campaign. Following are some
of the activities that the City has planned to highlight achievements from our different programs and departments. I invite Hunt Club residents to take part in
some of National Environment Week events.
Monday, June 5: Environment Week Launch
Mayor Bob Chiarelli launched Environment Week by unveiling a strategy designed to challenge Ottawa residents to increase their levels of waste diversion in order to bring them in line with other major Canadian cities. The event featured the percussion stylings of S.C.R.A.P., a band that plays with instruments made from salvaged household items.
Tuesday , June 6: Recycling Announcement
with Loeb
This event, also in support of the week’s waste diversion theme, will see the City of Ottawa, Loeb and the United Way announce a partnership that will help divert waste from landfills and give back to the community at the same time.
June 6: Bike-to-Work Day
At 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 6, as part of Bike-to-Work Day and in conjunction with Commuter Challenge activities around the city, a bike safety and theft prevention information session will be held at the Ottawa River Pathway (near the Canadian War Museum). The public is invited to join Councillor Janet Stavinga, Transportation Committee Chair and Constable Tim Senack of Ottawa Police Service for this event.
Wednesday, June 7: Clean Air Day
June 7 is two-for-one public transit day across the City - when you pay the transit fare, the person accompanying you can ride the bus or take the O-Train for free!
Commuter Challenge
The Commuter Challenge is taking place during Environment Week. This one-week event encourages commuters to use sustainable modes of transportation such as walking, cycling, running, public transit and carpooling to get to and from work. During this week, participants will record their mileage from commuting using these transportation modes.
The Commuter Challenge is a friendly competition between Canadian communities and workplaces encouraging Canadians to use sustainable modes of transportation to get to and from work during Clean Air Day (June 7, 2006) and Canadian Environment Week (June 4-10, 2006).
To register, go to commuterchallenge.ca http://www.commuterchallenge.ca/ and follow these steps:
· Click on the register button
· Fill in the requested information
· Choose option 2 - register with a workplace
· Select City of Ottawa
· Select department
Note that at this point, you can only register for the Challenge; you will be able to enter data on how you commuted beginning June 4.
As noted above, Mayor Chiarelli launched Environment Week today, June 5, 2006, by unveiling a strategy designed to challenge Ottawa residents to increase their levels of waste diversion.
This new campaign by the City of Ottawa is encouraging all residents to Rethink Garbage — from how much we generate to our choices of disposal. That’s because, despite some 25 years of recycling, we continue to send more than 2/3 of our household waste to landfill.
Along with other Ontario municipalities, Ottawa is working towards the provincial waste diversion target of 60 per cent by 2008. That means we have less than two years to double the amount of household garbage that we currently keep out of our landfills.
The Rethink Garbage campaign will encourage residents to examine how they can reduce their day-to-day waste and take full advantage of the City’s diversion programs — including Blue and Black boxes, backyard composting, Take it Back!, and household hazardous waste depots.
We can all generate less household waste. To
start, we need to think about garbage before we generate it. The less we
bring home, the less we need to throw out. Resisting disposable products and
unnecessary packaging could dramatically reduce what ends up in the trash. And
rethinking what we consider to be garbage, by reusing and recycling will ensure
valuable materials are kept out of Ottawa’s landfills.
Ottawa places a large amount of waste in its
landfills each year. In fact, 213,000 tonnes of our waste ended up in landfill
in 2005. If you loaded that much waste on transport trucks you would end up
with a convoy of 25,000 vehicles. In that same year, the City received nearly
$13 million from revenue and funding from recycling. But more than $1 million
in possible recyclables lay in waste in landfills.
For example, valuable items that belong in the Black Box — including milk cartons, computer and household paper, and juice boxes — end up in our garbage bags each year. In addition, aluminum foil and trays that can go in the Blue Box only had a five percent conversion rate.
Waste diversion is a true community effort. Businesses and local organizations also continue to support our city’s waste diversion effort — by allowing you the opportunity to Take it Back! The City’s Take it Back! program involves more than 500 businesses and institutions that will take back the household items for reuse or disposal – including tires, batteries, motor oil, medication and toners.
For example, Loeb is part of this program as the first grocery chain in Ottawa to take back and recycle plastic grocery bags into new bags. This Loeb initiative not only prevents the bags filling up our landfills, but part of the proceeds goes to United Way/Centraide Ottawa.
Phase 1 of the Rethink Garbage
campaign aims to increase resident
participation in the City’s existing
waste diversion programs to achieve a 40% diversion rate. Key messages
will promote the original 3Rs of waste diversion — reducing, reusing and recycling — as well as encouraging two
new strategies — resisting and rethinking to make a new 5Rs for the
City’s ongoing campaign.
Phase 2 will begin in 2007. While it will continue to build on the 5Rs messaging, its primary focus will be to introduce, promote and educate residents about the City’s new organics program. Full participation in a city-[ITS1]wide organics program is expected to achieve a 60% diversion rate.
Integrated Road Safety Program
As you know, since it inception in 2003, I have strongly supported this annual campaign which aims to reduce traffic fatalities or serious injuries by 30% by the year 2010 and to raise awareness on road safety. As you know, every month two areas are targeted for concentrated enforcement. In May 2006, the Selected Traffic Enforcement Program focussed on Stop Sign Violations and Speeding. I will report the statistics to the community association once they are available.
In June, Ottawa Police will be targeting Improper Use of Reserved Transit Lanes and Impaired Driving.
Ottawa residents have identified
the issue of traffic safety as a top priority.
The City of Ottawa is committed to using available resources to further
reduce aggressive driving and achieve reductions in traffic fatalities and
serious injuries.
As I reported last month, a supplementary campaign, “Speeding Costs You”, targeting speeding on arterial roads commenced in May and continues until the end of July 2006. A zero-tolerance
enforcement approach is being taken on certain roads, such as Hunt Club, Bronson, Carling, Baseline, throughout the City. Temporary signs indicating “Speeding? Zero Tolerance!” and radar trailers are being put in place on these roads the week prior to the scheduled enforcement.
Hunt Club Road was the clear winner in the on-line poll for “worst road for speeding” in the City of Ottawa. I joined Police Chief Vince Bevan and City of Ottawa Safety and Traffic Services staff on Hunt Club Road on May 18, 2006 to help launch the “Speeding Costs You” campaign. The launch included a live demonstration of speed monitoring and enforcement.
I encourage all Hunt Club residents to observe posted speed limits. Remember that the speed limit on unposted roadways, such as our local residential streets, is 50KM/H.
On May 29, 2006, Ottawa Police released the 2006 Public Survey on Policing Services Highlights Report. The 2006 survey was the fourth such survey since 1995. It allows for comparisons and identification of trends. Key findings include:
• While citizens are somewhat more likely to perceive that crime has increased across Ottawa as compared to 2002, citizens continue to perceive that crime has not increased in their own neighbourhoods. In fact, the majority of citizens continue to believe that their neighbourhood has
less crime as compared to other neighbourhoods.
• Citizens continue to have the most concerns about property offences and traffic violations in their neighbourhood. The top five neighbourhood issues identified in the 2006 Public Survey of Ottawa residents are:
1. Speeding cars
2. Break and enter
3. Vandalism to property
4. Theft from vehicles
5. Theft of bicycles
• Overall satisfaction with respect to quality of service has increased significantly since 2002 - about 84 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the quality of police service, representing a 12 percent increase in satisfaction ratings.
• As compared to the 2002 results, citizens continue to place priority on apprehending criminals, responding to disorderly youth/youth crime and preventing crime. In 2006, citizens placed additional priority on investigating crime and solving crime; treating people fairly; and working with neighbourhoods to address local concerns and crime.
• Most citizens are aware of the Ottawa Police crime prevention programs such as Neighbourhood Watch and Crime Stoppers, but they are less aware of other valuable programs such as Business Crime Prevention and Home Security Inspection. The overall level of participation in crime prevention programs has not changed appreciably since 2002.
The Police Services Board, the Ottawa Police Service and all its sections will carefully consider all survey findings. The information will be used in a variety of ways, including as a major input to help determine the organization’s priorities for the next three-year business planning cycle (2007 to 2009).
The 2006 survey was conducted by mail from February 3 to February 24, 2006 with a random sample of 7,500 households. The questionnaire consisted of 53 close-ended questions and
10 open-ended questions. A total of 2,813 completed surveys were returned (out of 7,185 valid addresses), resulting in a response rate of 39 percent. Given the sample size, the survey results are accurate to plus or minus 1.8 percentage points, 95 percent of the time.
The 2006 Public Survey on Policing Services Highlights Report is available on the Ottawa Police Web site at ottawapolice.ca. The City of Ottawa invites the public to attend Open Houses to review information and comment on the proposal submission for the North-South Light Rail Transit (LRT) Project as received from The Siemens-PCL/Dufferin Team, the recommended preferred Proponent for the project.
City staff and The Siemens-PCL/Dufferin Team will be available to listen to comments from the public and respond to questions. Input received at Open Houses will be used to identify public concerns/issues associated with the project and help in refining mitigation measures to address those concerns.
The Open House locations are as follows:
|
Wednesday, June 7, 2006 2:30 to 8 p.m. Ottawa City Hall Jean Pigott Hall 110 Laurier Avenue West Thursday, June 8, 2006 4:30 to 8 p.m. Kanata Recreation Complex Upper Concourse 100 Walter Baker Place Monday, June 12, 2006 4:30 to 8 p.m. Walter Baker Sports Centre Food Court, 2nd Floor 100 Malvern Drive |
Tuesday, June 13, 2006 4:30 to 8 p.m. Rideauview Community Centre Gymnasium 4310 Shoreline Drive Wednesday, June 14, 2006 4:30 to 8 p.m. Fallingbrook Elementary School Cafeteria 679 Deancourt Crescent Thursday, June 15, 2006 4:30 to 8 p.m. Jim Durrell Sports Centre Ellwood Hall 1265 Walkley Road |
Emergency Preparedness
Program – Are you ready?
In recognition of National Emergency Preparedness Week, May 7 to 13, 2006, the City of Ottawa shared emergency tips to encourage residents to be ready in case of an emergency and celebrated the City’s successes and accomplishments in emergency management.
Are you ready? is one project in the City’s ongoing emergency management program, which is enhancing the response capabilities to the top potential hazards or threats to Ottawa. These threats include an infectious disease outbreak (pandemic), an earthquake, a radiological emergency, hazardous material spill, water contamination, an act of terrorism, an explosion, infrastructure failure, and a violent demonstration or riot. The Are you ready? program intends to make more of Ottawa’s residents and businesses better able to take care of themselves during the first part of an emergency so authorities and emergency crews can focus their efforts on managing and securing essential services.
The Are you ready? program focuses on simple emergency preparedness using everyday items for homes and businesses – ranging from storing the right amount of bottled water, food and prescription and regularly used over-the-counter medication to having extra batteries for radios and lights. It outlines special considerations if you live in a rural area, a high-rise building or if you are a senior. It encourages getting answers to questions such as: Do you know your child’s school emergency plan? Does your business have a continuity plan? What should you do if you have a gas leak?
Community Network
An integral component of the Are you ready? program is the establishment of a grassroots network of community agencies and community leaders that will help deliver workshops and raise awareness about the easy steps individuals and businesses can take to prepare themselves.
The grassroots network is based on a peer-to-peer train-the-trainer
approach. City specialists train members of the network so they, in turn, can
train members of their community.
Since 2005, the City has distributed
33,000 Are you ready? information kits and trained 38 community trainers
including representatives from the Federal government, church organizations and
community associations. The City has four internal trainers that conduct
training sessions to residents and businesses. During Emergency Preparedness
Week, City staff will train 20 additional community members.
Resource materials for Are you ready? have been developed in five different languages (English, French, Mandarin, Somali and Arabic) to support Ottawa’s diverse community. An influenza pandemic preparedness module has also been developed to help Ottawa residents prepare in the case of an infectious disease outbreak (pandemic). The most up-to-date and detailed source of information will always be on the City’s Web site. More general emergency preparedness information and resources are also available in the Red Pages of the local telephone directory.
Detailed printed resources and presentation kits are available for workshop trainers and participants including power point presentations, checklists, fact sheets, and quick tips on topics such as safe water, food safety, use of generators, hypothermia, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Similar material has been developed in English and French for businesses, including emergency preparedness checklists, basic first aid and business continuity planning. Additional material has also been developed for school children including quizzes and games to help them and their families learn about how to be better prepared.
In addition, the City of Ottawa is encouraging the public to add an entry in their cell under ICE (In Case of Emergency), with the name and phone number of the person that emergency services should call on their behalf during an emergency. By adding the ICE contact to their cell phone, residents will help emergency responders save time and ensure their emergency contact is notified quickly.
One of the difficulties long faced by emergency services personnel is how to promptly reach a family member or emergency contact of someone who is injured. Even if the person is
carrying one or more forms of identification such as a driver's license, those items do not necessarily provide information about where and how an emergency contact can be reached.
Enter more than one contact name and label them with the following
ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.
This will help the City’s paramedics, police officers, firefighters, and hospital emergency room staff notify your contact person quickly and easily. With the touch of a button, vital information can be accessed in seconds.
After receiving public input on the City’s eight 2005
audit reports, Auditor General Alain Lalonde recently submitted his final
report to Council on the findings and recommendations resulting from the
audits. The studies covered eight areas of City responsibility: Drinking Water
Services, Management Control Framework, Procurement Process, Real Estate
Management, Emergency Management Program, By-law Enforcement and Inspection,
Internet Usage and Controls, and Overtime.
The report contains specific findings and
recommendations from the Auditor General, as well as City Management’s
responses to each recommendation. It identifies areas where the Auditor General
feels the City is already performing well, like acknowledging the high quality
of Ottawa’s municipal drinking water and commending the City’s proactive
approach to enhancing its emergency response capabilities, and identifies where
he has concerns, as in the monitoring and budgeting of overtime, the weighting
of the pricing component of engineering contracts, and Internet controls.
While City management has already taken many actions
to respond to the Auditor General’s recommendations Council decided the
following:
• establish
a special committee to ensure that Council-approved audit recommendations are
implemented.
▪ ensure
the comprehensive overtime review report include complete information on
overtime budgets and actual spending, and that for the remainder of 2006, the
quarterly Operating Status and Forecast Report provide Council with a detailed
accounting of compensation, including actual allocations for overtime, salary
and benefits;
o the
total value of amendments to the scope of work of any contact should not exceed
50% of the original contracted amount without the approval of the Deputy City
Managers;
o the pricing component in Requests for
Proposals of professional services is immediately standardized at a minimum of
20%;
o a reasonable number of firms are eventually
awarded Standing Offers, using price as a significant component (a minimum of
20%) in the evaluation process;
o all purchasing activity of more than $25,000
is included in an annual report to Council; and
o ensure payments without reference to a Purchase Order are adequately monitored, in order to identify and include cases of non-compliance in regular reports to Council and the City Manager, in order to minimize their occurrence;
▪ the Chief Corporate Planning and Performance Reporting Officer introduce integrated risk management within the City, as part of the planning and performance management cycle; and
The
Auditor General is a key part of the City’s accountability agenda,
complementing the City’s accountability processes which include undertaking a
comprehensive review of all systems and services every six years, instituting
performance measures, and improving the frequency and readability of financial
reports.
The Auditor General’s report is available for review online at http://ottawa.ca/city_hall/mayor_council/auditor_general/detailed_reports_en.html
Ottawa’s economy is resilient and gaining momentum according the City of Ottawa’s 2005 Annual Development Report. The City recently released its yearly development report, which provides updates and analysis on economic indicators and demographic statistics and summarizes development activity in Ottawa.
In addition, the report tracks and compares key indicators for five other large Canadian cities (Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver) to assess Ottawa’s competitive position.
Some of the report highlights include: