What Ottawa is Talking About News

WOITA 190424

🏗️ Housing

•  Landlord of inexpensive apartment building is evicting residents before redevelopment approval. The owner of the buildings on the east side of Bank Street between Nepean and Lisgar wants to redevelop the block with 263 apartments and ground floor retail and has offered tenants money worth 12 months of rent. Some of the apartments are currently renting for around $500. (Guy Quenneville at CBC)

📈 Ottawa City Hall

•  City manager Wendy Stephanson has restructured the staff chart with a new Strategic Initiatives department. The new department will oversee the existing Economic Development Services, Housing Solutions and Investment Services, and Climate Change and Resiliency Services department. Stephanson says no new positions will be created with the reshuffling. The aim seems to be having fewer managers overseeing more departments. (Blair Crawford in the Ottawa Citizen) 
  
  ➕ Related ‘This is the first time ever that the sitting prime minister of Canada has come to Ottawa City Hall for a meeting with the mayor’ said Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on receiving New Edinburgh resident Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss things like transit funding and the need for a refugee reception centre.
  
  We were going to make a crack about how previous prime ministers couldn’t bother to make the walk but it’s actually a 45 minute trek between 24 Sussex Drive and City Hall. 

⚕️Ottawa Public Health

•  Ottawa Public Health says monkeypox is on the rise. Newly renamed to mpox, Public Health notes that four of Ontarios 26 cases in 2024 were in Ottawa. Public Health recommends a two-step vaccination for a) men who have sex with two or more male partners, b) males and females involved in sex work, and c) those living in the households of a or b persons who are immunocompromised or pregnant. (Isabel Harder at CBC) (Ottawa Public Heath mpox page)

💥 Highway 417

•  A driver going the wrong way on Highway 417 was killed in a collision yesterday. The driver was heading eastbound in the westbound lane at around 3:30 am near Aviation Parkway. The two people in the second vehicle were taken to hospital with serious injuries. (Ottawa Citizen)

🐈🐕🐖🦎 Ottawa Humane Society

•  Today is the Ottawa Humane Society’s double Day of Giving. An anonymous donor has promised up to $120,000 in matching funds for donations received today. (Andrea Bennett at CityNews) (Donate)

🚲 Online Bike Route Map

•  Up in the Number section above, Neil Saravanamuttoo mentions an online bike route map that he had created. It's no-frills but it looks pretty comphrehensive and it works on mobile phones. (Ottawa Bike Map)