Thursday July 8, 2021
What Ottawa is talking about
▪️The City’s auditor will look at the nearly $1 billion electric bus project at Council's request. Nathalie Gougeon will review whether the buses are appropriate for Ottawa, looking at such things as weather, battery life, and maintenance costs. OC Transpo wants to have the 450 electric buses by 2027. City Council seems to have remembered that the new O Train line was not tested in Ottawa weather with resulting problems. [Ottawa Citizen]
▪️The Prince of Wales bridge has officially been renamed the Chief William Commanda Bridge, in honour of the Algonquin elder and spiritual leader. The City also approved $8.9 million of Federal municipal funds to top off the $22 million cost of converting the derelict railway bridge into a pedestrian and cyclist crossing to Gatineau. One per cent of the budget will also be earmarked for Indigenous art. [CBC]
▪️Ottawa Humane Society is calling for a 24-hour per day cat curfew. The Society says that roaming cats are regularly killed by predators and traffic, not to mention the carnage the cats themselves do to bird life. The Society says that cats could go outside in an enclosed 'catio' or on a leash. [CTV]
▪️Ottawa Riverkeeper is looking to the public to monitor watershed health. The environmental group wants people to map and photograph the river’s edge to monitor for changes and the river’s health. [Capital Current]
▪️Mel Gibson will star in a movie about Ottawa Valley flying bandit Robert Whiteman. Whiteman, whose real name was Gilbert Galvan Jr., was a US prison escapee who set up a new life and family in 1980s Pembroke. Periodically, he'd fly out on ‘business trips’ to rob banks. The film is based on the book by local publisher Burnstown Publishing House. Gibson filmed the terrible Christmas movie, Fatman, in the Ottawa area last year. [Pembroke Observer] [IMDB]
