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Thursday, November 2 2023

Today

☁️ Broken clouds
High 7° Low -4°
🌞 7:42 am🌛5:49 pm

Tomorrow

🌧️ Light rain
High 9° Low 2°
🌞 7:44 am🌛5:48 pm

 

HELLO OTTAWA

We hate to do it but we must remove an entry from our ultra-comphrehensive Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Beer map.

Les Brasseurs du Temps, one of the old-school craft brewers and serving Hull for 15 years, has closed. One of the owners blames a perfect storm of pandemic closures and the inability to meet the wages now required of restaurant staff.

The final day of Les Brasseurs du Temps was last Saturday.



Mailbag

Reader Andrea writes on the firing of Sens general manager Pierre Dorion: ‘If [the NHL] had a central repository where information on trades was stored, things like this wouldn’t happen.  But Vegas also should have done their due diligence when examining the contract when they first accepted the trade. Anaheim also could’ve asked. And the player could’ve spoken up as soon as he had an inkling he was being traded.  I’m not a huge Pierre Dorion fan, but it’s unfair to fire him for this.’ 

Reader Andrea (a completely different Andrea) points out ‘Cans not bought in Québec get spat out by the deposit return machines. There is a mark that the machine reads to prevent people from trying (the Kramer) trick’.

Tomorrow is the final day to vote in the ottawan’s Best of Ottawa Awards 2023. Now or never.

Please take some time to vote

– Martha and Darren

TODAY’S LINE UP

  •  Ottawa Stats
  •  City Hall Agenda
  •  What Ottawa is Talking About
  •  Events
  •  Deals of the Day

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OTTAWA STATS

    Number 

    • 3 million 
    • – The amount, in square feet, of self-storage units in Ottawa. Self-storage space has grown 11 per cent in Ontario since 2020, possibly as the size of new residential spaces get smaller. (Koyuki Hayashi in Capital Current)

    Ottawan of the Day

    • David Sinclair
    • – The Distinguished Research Professor at Carleton University will be awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science this Saturday in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of experimental sub-atomic physics and for his leading role as founding director of SNOLAB. (Carleton University)

    Quote 

    • This is a true testament to the dedication, composure and resilience of our staff

    • – Spokesperson Rebecca Abelson as the Ottawa Hospital General Campus returns to normal operations after Friday’s transformer fire. (William Eltherington at CTV)

     

    CITY HALL AGENDA

    What’s going on at City Hall.
     

    No more meetings this week.

    WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

    💸  Lansdowne 2.0

    With any luck, you’ve received today’s newsletter while the joint finance and planning committee is meeting to discuss Lansdowne 2.0.

    •   You can view the meeting on the City’s YouTube channel here.
    •  The CBC has a round-up of the issues here.
    •  A last minute proposal has been given to City Council to return the third residential tower, which had been removed in the most recent proposal.
    •  Former Ottawa Citizen reporter Pauline Comeau has questions for Alta Vista Councillor Marty Carr (slightly edited by us):

      • Why is the City going ahead with this approval process before the release of the Auditor General’s audit report on Lansdowne 1.0?

      • Did you, and all / any other elected City Hall officials who will vote on this issue this week and next, have access to the full version of the financial due diligence assessment provided by Ernst & Young?

      • Have you read these documents/seen any related details?

           a) The Retail Mortgage Appraisal reports from 2014 and 2022 (referenced by OSEG at the May 2nd Finance Committee)?

           b) The financial model detailing how the Lansdowne site is expected to make over $1 billion in retail leasing profits and $150M in Redblacks profits?

           c) The risk matrix with clear documentation of the risks and contingencies the City is being asked to assume, as well as responsibility for mitigation strategies, with approval of this redevelopment plan?

      • If you have seen all these documents/information, are you still confident moving forward with Lansdowne 2.0/2.1 as it is, without any changes?

      • If you have not seen any or all of this information, are you OK with a vote on this project?

      • If Council moves to approve Lansdowne 2.0/2.1 ... would you be open to proposing that any approval be explicitly conditional on the findings of the anticipated Auditor General’s audit report?

      • Do you disagree with the consultants who concluded that the current stadium would be good for another 40 years at a cost of about $1million/yr in maintenance and repairs?

      • The due diligence consultant, Ernst & Young, called the City’s projections for the future returns from this project investment to be ‘optimistic’. Do you disagree with the ‘optimistic’ conclusion?

      • The City’s goal is to attract even more (possibly millions) of people to this location for sporting and other events, retail, and high-rise residency. Why is this site the only one being considered, considering the lack of any nearby LRT service?

      • Do you have reasons to disagree with concerns (expressed by locals and others) that if this development succeeds as proposed that it will cause serious traffic issues on Bank St and surrounding streets?

      • And Wednesday night, just hours before the joint committee will vote on Lansdowne 2.0 — news broke that a third tower is now back in the plan. Is this last minute change, just hours before a committee vote, enough time for the implications of the change to be clearly understood before a vote?
    •  The Ottawa Citizen is liveblogging the meeting.

    🏌️‍♀️ Kanata Lakes Golf and Country Club

    •   The City of Ottawa will appeal the decision that allows Clublink to develop the golf course at Kanata Lakes into 1,500 homes. A supreme court judge rules that the various 80s and 90s agreements between the City and the golf course does not bar developing the course into housing. The City’s appeal will not be about public green space but that the golf course was and is a significant part of stormwater management. (Gord Holder in the Ottawa Citizen)

      ➕ Related The City's planning and housing committee approved cutting fees to developers on office-to-residential conversions. It also voted to for a two year trial period in Somerset Ward, in which it gives two per cent of the fee earmarked for parks back to developers. The decisions now go to Council for approval November 8.

    🌊 Ottawa River

    •  Communities along the Ottawa River are wary of unusally high water levels. In Pembroke, the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board says the river is 83 cm higher than the median for this time of year, but expects the level to drop over the next few weeks. (Dylan Dysan at CTV)

    🛻 Convoy Trial

    Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are on trial for their actions in the Convoy siege.

    • During cross-examination, Ottawa Police acting sergeant Jordan Blonde testified that none of the people he spoke with told him they came to Ottawa because of Tamara Lich or Chris Barber. (David Fraser at CBC)
       
    • The CBC story did not describe the clothing that Blonde was wearing during his testimony.

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    MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

    EVENTS

    The event submission form seems to be broken. Email your events to us at ‘events@theottawan.com’ while we fix it.

     

    Today


    Tomorrow

    Saturday

    Just Announced / Now Booking

    DEALS OF THE DAY

    Select Ottawa-made skincare products by Zoë’s Corner are on sale until the end of today, to mark the 32nd birthday of Zoë herself. Use the code happybirthday to receive the discount (which does not apply to advent calendars or workshops).

    Holiday Mystery Boxes from another Ottawa brand, Tease, are available for 50% off the usual price, but only for a limited time. Choose from Cozy Girl Season, Revitalized Girl Season, and Chill Girl Season, each with a different level of caffeine.

    Prairie Soap Shack from Flagstaff, Alberta is offering a free caramel from fellow Albertan brand Salted with the first 50 orders of its new Winter Collection of soap, body butter and lip balm.

    Montréal’s BKIND is offering a sweet deal on vegan nail polishes: Get 50% off polishes and sets when you purchase 4 or more. There’s no code; the discount will be applied when you place at least four polishes in your cart.

    BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

    Luke LeBrun in PressProgress has a twisty story on a farmer outside Ottawa and the Save the Children Convoy organizers.

    Despite the name, Save the Children Convoy are not the same group as the Convoy that besieged downtown, although they are not opposed to them. 

    Neither are they one of various groups across Canada who believe that parents not schools are the decision makers of their children’s medical and mental health decisions, although, again, they aren’t opposed to that either.

    Anyway, the Save the Children Convoy raised money and support on the basis that they were building a permanent community in Saint Isidore on donated farm land. Chet Wiggins, the farmer, believed that the kindly people were there to help him fix his barn.

    RAPID RESPONSE QUALITY CONTROL

     

    What did you think of today’s ottawan?

    THE END

    the ottawan is written and edited every work day by Martha and Darren.

    Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment. 

    We’ll see you tomorrow.


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