Ice storm update #3

I love our community! Over the past couple of days, I have travelled back and forth across College Ward, knocking on doors to check how people are doing, following up on safety concerns, and helping to get people warm food and shelter. Check out the photos below!

Dear Neighbour,

And I'm very thankful for the amazing generosity from individuals, businesses, and organizations that we've seen this week.

Just today, Scotty's Corner Diner and FreshCo in Bells Corners teamed up to supply hot soup and buns to residents who visited Bell Arena. And the Ottawa Food Bank and The Mission provided hot meals to the Harmer House seniors residence.

At the same time, managers at IKEA came in on their own time to make 400 hot meals to distribute at Pinecrest Rec Centre and Howard Darwin Arena.

I was grateful to be joined by Mayor Sutcliffe and Councillors Tierney, Dudas, Devine, and Leiper to help distribute food and to perform wellness checks in affected neighbourhoods.

My other big job for the past two days has been to communicate with Hydro Ottawa and let them know how urgently we've needed clearer, up to date information and action.

I truly appreciate the efforts of Hydro workers, who have been out 24 hours/day to restore power - they are all heroes.

Just a reminder that 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

Update from Hydro Ottawa

Hydro Ottawa expects that power will be restored to all customers by end of day, Saturday, April 8. Please note, this situation remains dynamic and fluid.

While the outage map is constantly updated, the estimated times for restoration have proven to be a challenge. In a number of cases yesterday, as restoration work was completed and power was restored, the circuit failed again, resulting in additional efforts on the part of the crews and missed timelines.

Given the damage to the tree canopy and the impact on our infrastructure, this is not an unusual circumstance.

Saturday will focus on any residual outage clean-up, and transition to individual homes and businesses, including those with damage to their personal electrical equipment which may require Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) permitting and additional work.

In some cases, the storm may have caused damage to resident’s home electrical equipment, such as the meter mast and wires connecting directly to the house. If this is the case, then you may need to make repairs (with a qualified electrical contractor) to the equipment before Hydro Ottawa is able to reconnect power.

City facilities available for power, washrooms, warmth

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:

Pinecrest Recreation Centre until 8pm
Meridian Theatre at Centrepointe
Nepean Sportsplex
Howard Darwin Centennial Arena until 8pm
J.A. Dulude Arena
Bell Centennial Arena, 50 Cassidy Rd.

Pictures from our neighbourhoods

Serving soup at Bell arena

Crestview youth helping to clear brush from the road

Looking at a storm-damaged tree

Ikea staff donating their time and food for residents

The IKEA team with me, Mayor Sutcliffe, and Councillors Tierney, Dudas, Devine, and Leiper. I'm so grateful for everyone's support.

Thank you Autoedge for providing coffee and a warm place to recharge devices

Scott from Scotty's!

Todd from FreshCo!

Mayor Sutcliffe and I checking on Rossland Ave residents

Latest posts

Nazi symbols ban

On March 26, 2025, I will table a motion at Council which calls on the federal government to ban Nazi symbols.

College Ward is home to Ottawa’s largest Jewish community and we have seen a sharp rise in antisemitism here. Groups and individuals now brashly displaying this terrible symbol of hate on their vehicles, clothing, and signs.

18 countries have banned this symbol and I believe it is time for Canadians to do so as well.

I have been working with B'nai Brith Canada, who currently have a campaign to encourage the federal government to ban Nazi symbols such as the Nazi hooked cross (Hakenkreuz). It is sometimes called a swastika, which is a Sanskrit word we're not using out of respect to the Hindu community, where this has been an ancient holy symbol for hundreds of years.

My motion, which Mayor Sutcliffe has kindly seconded, calls on Council to write to the federal government in support of B'nai Brith Canada's campaign. It also calls on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (where I'm a member of the National Board of Directors) to consider a similar motion.

I expect the motion to be debated and voted on at the following Council meeting on April 16, 2025.

Motion to ban Nazi symbols

Press release

Countries where Nazi symbols are banned

Non-governmental organizations that support the ban

Canadian jurisdictions that have endorsed the B’nai Brith Canada campaign to ban Nazi symbols

Province of Saskatchewan

Region of Durham

City of Pickering

Town of Whitby

X and Public Engagement: who should control the City’s relationship with our residents?

Today, the Finance and Corporate Services Committee voted down Councillor Dudas’ motion to move away from social media platform X as a City communications tool (you can read the motion here). I am grateful to Councillor Dudas for her leadership on this.

The prevailing argument against the motion was that since the City had over 250, 000 followers on X (how many active accounts, how many live people, how many residents of the City, not known or questioned) it would be unwise to pivot to a different platform and risk losing contact.

Another argument that was given suggested that, with the evolution of X as an unsafe place for civic discourse, any new platform could evolve in kind, meaning the City might be always in a state of trying to find the new best place to share its updates.

Priorities! Priorities! Priorities! The tradeoffs that we're facing today

I’ve been reflecting about the next chapter of my serving College Ward as your Councillor.

My aim was, for the first year or two, to prioritize the relationship with residents. I wanted people to know that they could find me, they could count on me to listen, and they could have confidence that I was always serving them with honesty and integrity.

Although that journey is never complete, residents’ familiarity with me at this year’s Skating Party and your response to our Annual Progress Report have done a great deal to confirm that we in the College Ward office have been on the right track. It’s meaningful to me, after 3 years, to recognize familiar faces and to remember details about residents’ families, their stories, and to share memories.

Moving into the latter half of my term, I am considering some of the big-ticket policy items, both in terms of finances but also residential impact. Without question, I will continue to communicate regularly, have annual events, and be present in the ward. My interests lay more on some tradeoffs that I think we are facing as a city, ones that I think aren’t being positioned in a clear enough way for residents to weigh in. I’ll offer up a few.