Hydro Ottawa: adapting to change

Hydro Ottawa: After the derecho, adapting to change. A report for College Ward 8

A year before I was elected, the derecho changed everything. Thousands of trees downed, telephone poles and wires destroyed, and days without electricity for many residents. And then, after I was elected, we had an ice storm that again took down branches and took out hydro.

For a while, it seemed like we couldn't go a month without brown-outs and black-outs. And I raised questions to Ottawa Hydro. Why hasn't tree trimming been done? Why isn't the Bells Corners Substation complete and online? What can we do to make our electricity supply more reliable?

Hydro Ottawa answered. The Bells Corners substation was completed and is now online, helping with reliability for thousands of homes. Tree trimming has become a regular activity. And the number of blackouts in College Ward has been sharply reduced. Hydro Ottawa recently provided me with a slide deck to show what's changed. I hope you'll take a look.

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The transition to monitoring operations does not signal the end of the City’s recovery efforts. The ECC has established an integrated task force to maintain situational awareness and coordinate access to recovery programs and services. The task force will support consistent, accessible, and equitable personalized support for affected residents throughout the recovery period.

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I’m hearing from a lot of residents who want answers about why flooding happened, and how we can prevent it from happening again. I certainly want those answers as well.

 

There won’t be a simple fix. 25 neighbourhoods have been dramatically affected and each had their own particular contexts. The City needs to examine the different local factors that may have contributed to flooding.

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