Dear Neighbour,
We've had a few updates from City staff this afternoon, so I'm sending them along.
This holiday weekend, please monitor my social media for more updates:
Laine Johnson (@laine_johnson1) / Twitter
Laine Johnson - College Ward | Ottawa ON | Facebook
Warm regards,
Laine
The City of Ottawa is opening the following facilities for the public's use to charge devices, use washrooms, or simply keep warm. Here are some in or close to Ward 8:
NEW: Bell Centennial Arena, 50 Cassidy Rd, Nepean. Opening Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Drinks and snacks will be available.
Trees, limbs and brush
Moving forward, Forestry’s work will be a primary focus. Forestry Services has received over 1,600 requests for service since Wednesday. Reports are coming in from all over the city, but mature neighbourhoods with larger trees appear to have been highly affected.
Staff are triaging calls and prioritizing work to address downed trees and broken or hanging limbs that are blocking streets or that may otherwise pose a hazard to residents or property. Staff are also out checking parks and play structures for trees that may pose a risk.
Once hazards and streets are cleared, staff and contractors will address broken limbs, non-hazardous removals, re-inspections, pruning and brush/wood cleanup.
By now, we know that this cleanup will be a multi-week effort requiring plenty of resources. We thank residents for their patience, and for staying safely away from precarious limbs and trees.
A reminder: Property owners do not need a permit to remove dead or hazardous trees on their private property where the tree is an immediate threat to public health and safety. Photos should be taken prior to removal of dead or hazardous trees in such cases to provide evidence of the condition of the tree and the reason for exemption.
Waste and tree debris collection/disposal
Just as we’re focused on trees, limbs and brush, we know residents are cleaning up, too. Tree cuttings, branches and brush may be placed at the curb for chipping or collection, separate from non-organic waste and tied with twine in bundles, if possible. Residents are reminded to not stack or lean branches, limbs or brush on trees, utility poles or other structures, and to keep curbside waste materials at least 1.5 metres away from fire hydrants to ensure access for our firefighters.
Again, residents are asked to be patient, as this chipping and/or collection by City crews and contracted services will take some time.
Starting tomorrow (Friday, April 7), tipping fees at the City’s landfill site at the Trail Waste Facility are being temporarily waived for residents with tree-cuttings, brush and branches due to the storm. The Trail Waste Facility is open Monday to Friday from 7 am to 6 pm. On Good Friday (Friday, April 7) and Easter Monday (Monday, April 10), it is open from 9 am to 5 pm, and it is also open on Saturday, April 15 from 8 am to 4 pm.
Due to the holiday, curbside waste collection continues today and Saturday. For those few streets where downed trees or wires prevent our safe passage, we ask that residents keep their garbage, recycling and green bins at the curb for pick up tomorrow.
We’re monitoring the risks of food spoilage due to prolonged power outages, and will advise of targeted collection if necessary. For now, residents are encouraged to use their green bin, and to consider public health guidance on food safety during an outage.
Traffic signals
We’re working closely with our utility partners to address traffic signals that remain without power. Thankfully, no signal poles are down or in need of replacement due to the weather event. Still, there are about 23 signals without power, and 30 being run on temporary generators in locations across the city.
Residents are reminded that a flashing or powerless traffic signal should be treated as a four-way stop.
Roads, sidewalks and the winter cycling network
Proactive measures and rising temperatures mean that our transportation network is in good condition today, and the Significant Weather Event (SWE) declaration is being lifted. Residents are reminded to continue exercising caution while using the transportation network due to fallen trees, branches and debris.
Regular road maintenance activities have resumed and concentrated street sweeping will proceed tomorrow, as scheduled. Crews continue to assist with fallen trees and debris that are blocking sidewalks, pathways and roads. Likewise, we continue to monitor areas that are prone to localized flooding and drainage issues.
Today, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved my motion to improve road safety across Ottawa. Here's my motion:WHEREAS speeding continues to be one of the most significant road‑safety concerns raised by residents across the City of Ottawa, particularly in residential neighbourhoods and school zones where vulnerable road users, including children, are at heightened risk; and
WHEREAS recent City data has shown a substantial increase in speeding in school zones, with compliance dropping from 87 percent to 41 percent within a 12‑week period following the removal of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras, and high‑end speeding increasing from 0.3 percent to over 4 percent during the same period; and
Whereas speed data is an important input in understanding risk related to more serious collisions; and
WHEREAS the city’s current approach to collecting speed data is limited and does not provide a full picture of speeds across the roadway network, and
WHEREAS other jurisdictions across Canada and internationally are increasingly incorporating innovative, technology‑enabled, and data‑driven approaches—including, predictive analytics, and AI‑supported monitoring systems—to inform their road safety programs; and
WHEREAS the City of Ottawa is currently undertaking work to update the Road Safety Action Plan, which will guide the road safety priorities for the next term of Council; and
WHEREAS this work presents an opportunity to modernize and strengthen the inputs used to make informed data-driven decisions about road safety;
THERFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff, through the update to the City’s Road Safety Action Plan, leverage advanced data analytics, predictive modelling, and AI‑supported technologies, where appropriate, to enhance the City’s ability to identify, monitor, and respond to speeding trends and inform road safety priorities
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff consider speed management as a focus area when developing the Road Safety Action Plan that will be presented to Council in 2027.
Read the Year Three Progress ReportDear Neighbours,
I am pleased to provide you with the College Ward Annual
Progress Report, showing the work that we did in 2025. I work hard every day to represent you on the
issues that are important to our neighbourhoods.
I hope this Progress Report is informative of the projects we
took on last year, and that it demonstrates my continuing
transparency and accountability to you. There is still more
always to do, and I list some future areas of interest.
Warm regards,
Laine
The news this week wasn’t good. Thousands of bus trips cancelled again in February. LRT down to one train for the foreseeable future. When it comes to Ottawa’s public transit, it seems there’s never good news.
Even the announcement of progress on the LRT East project was met with cynicism, given that the trains that Line 1 uses continue to have “spalling” issues with the wheel assembly.
When will it end? And what am I – one of the members of OC Transpo’s governance body – going to do about it?
Since 2022, I’ve been wrestling with myself over a feeling of powerlessness about OC Transpo, in conflict with my ability as a decision maker to affect change.
I have residents who are suffering immeasurably from a lack of service. Algonquin College students have the biggest uptake of the U-pass of all of Ottawa’s post-secondary institutions, but they can’t get to and from classes reliably. Bells Corners’ routes were cut during the pandemic, and the subsequent elimination of the 200 series through the New Ways to Bus changes have completely isolated that community from transit.
