What Ottawa is Talking About News

WOITA 170424

💰 Federal Budget

The Federal budget announced yesterday has some ramifications for Federal public employees and for the City at large. 

•  Around 5,000 Federal public employee positions will be removed through attrition.
•  The National Arts Centre will receive $45 million over three years. 
•  The Ottawa Police Service will receive $50 million, over five years, to enhance policing in the Parliamentary precinct.
•  As part of a general plan to offload unneeded office space, the Federal government plans to convert the National Defence Medical Centre near Ottawa’s General Hospital into civilian housing.
•  Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has some ideas for the to-be-vacated Federal properties: ‘Maybe we can have a new park downtown, maybe we can have other attractions downtown and, maybe, we can have a conversation about a downtown arena’.

🐡 Grand Theft Fish

•  Thousands of dollars of tropical fish were stolen from a restaurant in Beachburg, an hour northwest of Ottawa. The owner of the Beachburg Family Restaurant believes the thief was seeking a valuable discus fish – Symphysodon in the common parlance of ichthyologists – which she once kept but no longer has. Instead, the thief took the remaining fish, valued in the thousands, plus fish food and cash. (Joseph Tunney at CBC)

❄️ The Name Again is Mr Plow

•  Rideau-Jock ward councillor David Brown is proposing the City partner with private operators for rural snow plowing. Brown argues that rural roads are plowed much later by City crews. Brown is expected to bring it up at today’s City Council meeting. (CBC)