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HELLO OTTAWA

We run this same piece every year before the Tulip festival as a reminder to get your tulip bulb request in and to again enjoy the helpful emails.

Reader Anne-Marie wrote:

I remember when I was a kid after the tulip season the NCC would sell the old bulbs. Do they still do this? I was talking to one of the gardeners who works for one of the companies that the NCC hires to do the work and he said they just throw them out, which would be an incredible waste. I live across the street from a city park and it would be great to get some of the used tulip bulbs and plant them in our park.
 

Would love to read about this in the newsletter!

We first asked the Canadian Tulip festival. Their response?

The tulips belong to the NCC, you would have to contact them.

Okay, we asked the National Capital Commission. They said:

At the end of the blooming period, the NCC donates tulip bulbs recuperated from its gardens to non-profit organizations only, such as schools, hospitals, churches, municipalities, horticultural societies, etc. The bulbs must be for use in the property gardens of the organization. Bulbs are not available for personal use or for fundraising purposes.

Okay, so what do you do if you are a school, hospital, church, municipality, horticultural society, or an etc? We wrote again. They said.

Non-profit organizations who would have liked to receive tulip bulbs this spring could send us an official request by email, with information such as the name of the non-profit organization, the reason for the request, the contact information and the quantity of bulbs requested. This year, the deadline to send a request was ... etc etc 

So, if you are a school, hospital, church, municipality, horticultural society, or an etc. and would like some bulbs, request them from the National Capital Commission now. After the Tulip festival, it's too late. This year’s Tulip festival is May 12 to 22.

Email nccinfo@ncc-ccn.ca

– Martha and Darren

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HISTORIC LOGO SHIRTS

🪧 Federal Civil Servants Strike

Stats – Strike Edition

Weather: Frozen

Number: $615. The amount of the fine when Ottawa ByLaw tickets picketers for placing tents and hot dog stands on the sidewalk. Insert your own Convoy comment here. (Josh Pringle at CTV)

Participant of the Day:  Jason Komendat. The owner of bike shop and café Retro-Rides on Sparks Street has seen his sales go up 500 per cent. ‘The strike is the best thing that’s ever happened to the café’. (Catriona Koenig and Reanna Julien in the Globe & Mail)

Quote: ‘I think it's in the best interest of all Canadians that if we can work from home, that we continue to do so. It's better for the environment, it's better for our mental health and so many issues’ – Picketer Angela Bilmer.

•  Day 10, The Treasury Board says remote work and wages are the sticking points, the Public Service Alliance of Canada says it has adjusted its wage request. (The Canadian Press)
•  More than 90 per cent of non-essential workers took strike action last week according to Federal government figures. That’s an average of 71,000 people. (Kate McKenna at CBC)
•  Kathryn May in The Functionary explains a few things:
  
  🔹 There are rumours that some civil servants do their picket line duty in the morning, then check in with their manager and work online from home. Others picket Monday, work at the virtual office on Tuesday.
  
  🔹 The other 17 Federal unions don’t go on strike because they leave the hard bargaining to the Alliance, then they negotiate.
  
  🔹 In previous years, striking Federal servants did get full pay while on strike because it was such a pain to switch it off. After the strike, pay would be deducted. But we have computers now, even if one is the Phoenix pay system.
  
  🔹 Anyone who is off for five days in a row will have their pay stopped until manually started again. Those who picket one day, then work the next will not have their pay stopped as long as they are not off five days in a row.
  
  🔹 While the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives says civil servant pay has regressed to 2007 levels, that argument works only if private sector salaries increased over the public sector’s. Which they have not. 

🚊 The O Train between Hurdman and Lyon stations will be closed this weekend

•  Lees, uOttawa, and Rideau stations will all be closed as the system tries to deal with water leakage in the Rideau Station tunnel. A replacement bus service will run between Hurdman and Lyon stations. All of this will be repeated next weekend as well. (Josh Pringle at CTV)

🪵 Please Take the City’s Woodchips

•  The City is still chipping trees felled by the ice storm, this week working in Osgoode, Alta Vista, Overbrook, Carlington, and the Central Park area. Now the City has so many woodchips that it has created three new pick-up locations: Jim Durrell Recreation Centre, 1265 Walkley Road; Osgoode Arena, 5660 Osgoode Main Street;
  and Larry Robinson Arena, 2785 8th Line Road, Metcalfe. Just show up with bags and shovels and take away as much as you would like. (City of Ottawa) (All Nine Woodchip Locations)

🛻 Convoy News

•  Convoy leader James Bauder is annoyed that the Alberta premier says she doesn’t know who he is. Danielle Smith was photographed with Bauder at an event for her party. Smith later said that she takes photos with hundreds of people – she doesn’t know them all. Bauder disagrees and says she knows him. Bauder is the author the Memorandum of Understanding, which demanded the Convoy, the Governor General, and the Senate unite in a committee to run Canada. Bauder’s trial will be held in June. (Stephen Magusiak in Press Progress)

🎓 Carleton University

•  Teaching assistants and contract instructors at Carleton University in Ottawa have approved their new contract. After a nine day strike, contract instructors won a 14 per cent pay increase, which is closer but not equal to the University of Ottawa, and recognition of their intellectural property rights. Teaching assistants won pay increases of 9 per cent and undergraduate TAs will get 13.5 per cent. Everyone gets improved parental leave and a new paid gender affirmation leave. (Ottawa Citizen)

🏒 Reynolds team may bid $1 billion for the Sens

•  The Remington Group, led by Ryan Reynolds, is expected to offer $1 billion to buy the Ottawa Senators. The group also plans to build a new arena downtown and redevelop the Canadian Tire Centre lands. The New York-based banker Galatioto Sports Partners, which is handling the sale, has set May 15 as the deadline for final offers. (Bruce Garrioch in the Ottawa Sun)
  
  ➕ Related In the same article, Garrioch has also included a round-up of the rest of the bidders. The final one made us laugh – we have no idea what Garrioch has against Graeme Roustan, owner of The Hockey News.
  
  • Michael Andlauer, the owner of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs and a minority owner of the Montreal Canadiens.
  
  • Jeffrey and Michael Kimel, who own the Harlo Capital Group and recently sold their share in the Pittsburgh Penguins.
  
  • Toronto billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos, who made a $6 billion bid to purchase the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
  
  • Los Angeles-based producer Neko Sparks was reportedly the highest bidder in the first round at more than $900 million.
  
  • Vivek Ranadivé, the owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, who made a surprise visit here 10 days ago.
  
  • The owner of a hockey publication has also made a bid.

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THE OTTAWAN SHIRTS

Andrew King, he of Ottawa Rewind, has a great four map story of whatever could be happening at Rideau Station. The 1845 map shows the land where Rideau Station was built was then a giant swamp. Later, a sluice was built ‘under Rideau Street, through the ByWard Market, and then along what is now King Edward Street, emptying in the Rideau River’ to drain the swamp and excess canal water. In 1872 the sluice was covered up and forgotten. In the 2000s, an O Train station was built there.

We will see you Monday  – Martha and Darren
 

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