Dovercourt Outdoor Rink

Please see the attached poster seeking volunteers for the Dovercourt outdoor rink.

dovercourt volunteers flyer 2017-2018

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Candle Lighting on Thursday at Westboro Bus Station

Hello fellow community members:

The Westboro Community Association is going to light a candle and lay flowers to commemorate those who lost their lives in the horrific bus crash on Jan. 11.  We invite you to join us on the platform on Thursday, Jan. 17 at 7:00 p.m. and do the same.  There is no ceremony or event; just the community together lighting a candle, laying flowers… whatever you think would be appropriate.  See you then.

Westboro Community Association

 

City of Ottawa Courses: Planning Primer

From the city of Ottawa:

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Planning Primer

Registration for the Planning Primer I: Legislative Background and Policy Documents

 

January 26 and 28, 2019 (Offered in English)

Location:    

City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West

Colonel By Boardroom, Second Floor

8:30 a.m. to noon

 

January 27, 2019 (Offered in French)

 

Location:

City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West

Colonel By Boardroom, Second Floor

9 a.m. to noon

 

You can register for the course online until January 25, 2019. Seating is limited to 40 residents per session.

The Planning, Infrastructure and Economic Development Department offers the Planning Primer Program to help residents become more aware of, and more involved in, the land-use planning process.  The program is a series of half-day courses.  Please see our schedule for other Primer courses.The content of these Primer courses is the same as those offered in previous years.

 

Please send your questions to primer@ottawa.ca.

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper: Pre-Budget Consultation on January 10

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper:

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January 10 pre-budget consultation

Councillor Kavanagh and I will be co-hosting a pre-budget consultation meeting on January 10 at the Ron Kolbus Centre (102 Greenview Avenue) at Brittania. I’ll be there to hear what you’d like to see in the budget and along with staff look at how the budget will be crafted.

Neighbourhood Meeting: Ashcroft – Phase 2A application (entry & egress concerns)

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper:

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I hope this finds you all well after the holidays and happy new year! As you know, we have held meetings separately with the residents of Shannon and Leighton, discussing concerns with Ashcroft’s current application (Phase 2A), as well as entry and egress concerns related to the entire site (Phase 2A & Phase 2B).

During those meetings, we indicated that in the future we wanted to hold a meeting with both the residents of Shannon and Leighton together, alongside members of the Hampton Iona Community Association and the Westboro Community Association.

We will also have in attendance City of Ottawa staff representing the Planning department, Transportation Services, Parks, and Infrastructure.

Meeting details:

Wednesday, February 20 at 6:00pm

Van Lang Field House (29 Van Lang Pvt)

Please invite your neighbours on Shannon and Leighton. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our office in the meantime with any questions or comments.

cbc.ca: Mayor’s committee picks challenged

Mayor’s committee picks challenged

9 councillors vote against list that’s usually rubber stamped

Joanne Chianello · CBC News · Posted: Dec 12, 2018 12:09 PM ET | Last Updated: 42 minutes ago

For the first time since he was elected in 2010, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson’s personal choices for committee membership have undergone a serious challenge.

Nine councillors voted against the committee nominations Wednesday, throwing a wrench into a process that’s normally rubber-stamped by city council.

Their main concern: representatives of urban wards have been largely shut out of key committees, especially planning and finance.

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper is the only representative from the city’s core appointed to the planning committee, even though many of the most contentious rezoning files, including infill and highrise developments, take place downtown.

He moved to add Capital Coun. Shawn Menard and River Coun. Riley Brockington to planning, as both councillors had ranked the committee as their No. 1 choice when asked where they wanted to serve.

Watson recommended against the change, however, and the motion failed 9 to 15.

The mayor did support adding Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais to planning — the east-end councillor’s second choice — because Blais had apparently been left off the committee by accident.

Shawn Menard@ShawnMenard1

I voted against and dissented on this Council’s picks for our standing committees, transit commission and FEDCO for one reason: This was not about the City of Ottawa, it was about one man and power. #ottvote #ottnews #ottawa

Some councillors were also upset that the finance and economic development committee, which decides on major budget items and acts like Watson’s cabinet, includes no urban councillors, but all the rural ones. Also, only three of the 12 members of the committee are women, two of whom are new councillors.

Catherine McKenney

✔@cmckenney

I voted against the recommendations for Standing Committees, Transit Commission, & Sub-Committees because it does not represent the diversity & unique needs of the city. It is about power and not real representation. #ottcity

Nine councillors voted against Watson’s report on committee nominations, including:

• Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney.
• Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury.
• Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum.
• Capital Coun. Shawn Menard.
• Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper.
• River Coun. Riley Brockington.
• Bay Coun. Theresa Kavanagh.
• College Coun. Rick Chiarelli.
• Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/mayor-jim-watson-picks-challenged-1.4942702

cbc.ca: Secretive process leaves urban councillors on sidelines

Secretive process leaves urban councillors on sidelines

Mayor Watson’s picks for committees and chairs excludes downtown

Joanne Chianello · CBC News · Posted: Dec 12, 2018 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago

You might think the nominating committee of Ottawa city council would be responsible for nominating people to various standing committees and boards, and helping to choose the chairs for these important bodies.

That’s what Coun. Theresa Kavanagh thought. But like the new Bay ward councillor, you’d be wrong.

“I found it a little strange … that as a member of the nominating committee that I’m not part of the selection, I’m not part of the decision-making,” Kavanagh said after being presented with a list of Mayor Jim Watson’s choices.

“It’s done in a different room, then it comes here at the very last minute I’m asked to approve something.”

Welcome to Watsonville, Coun. Kavanagh.

Mayor picks the chairs

The process for selecting committee members is straightforward but secretive.

Councillors are asked what committees and boards they are interested in.

The clerk’s office organizes the entries by taking into account what people want, as well as geographic and gender diversity.

• Watson’s picks for chairs, including Diane Deans for police board

But it’s Mayor Jim Watson who makes the final recommendation on the make-up — and chairs — of the committees and boards.

Before 2010, committee members used to choose their own chair at their first meetings, but Watson changed that when he was elected.

Ostensibly, the current process requires the nominations to be approved by all of council, so councillors who aren’t happy with the mayor’s choices could vote against them.

That has never happened.

Deans and Tierney winners

The big news from the nominating committee is Coun. Diane Deans being tapped as the new chair of the Ottawa Police Services board.

Amazingly, she will be the first woman ever to hold this role.

The mayor is automatically on the Ottawa Police Services board, but he’s always assigned his seat to another councillor. This term, he’s giving his spot to Deans.

In theory, he could always choose to take that spot back from Deans, with whom he does not always get along.

Another winner? Coun. Tim Tierney.

The Beacon Hill-Cyrville councillor has been re-appointed as chair of the Ottawa Public Library board.

Watson hand-picked Tierney as the “councillor-at-large” member of the finance and economic development committee (FEDCO), a powerful body that deals with the city’s biggest money issues and acts as Watson’s de facto cabinet.

Tierney’s also pegged to be the vice-chair of planning and to be Ottawa’s representative on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

He is also the same councillor who’s appearing in provincial court later this week to answer to OPP charges of bribery in the most recent municipal election.

Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, but you might have expected Tierney to have a bit of a lower profile until his legal troubles were resolved.

The mayor has apparently made a different choice.

Watson shuts out urban councillors

If there are losers among Watson’s choices, it’s the urban councillors who represent the five inner-city wards.

Not a single urban councillor is on the 12-member FEDCO — remember, it’s council’s most important committee — but all of the rural councillors are on it somehow.

There are also only three women on it, two of whom are new councillors.

In what way does this fairly represent the city’s vast geography and diverse needs?

No urban councillors are on either the library or police boards. Only a single urban councillor — Somerset ward’s Catherine McKenney — is on the transit commission.

The membership of the planning committee is truly eyebrow-raising.

Watson has tapped Coun. Jan Harder to be the chair for a second term, even though the same developers who come to her committee for rezoning approvals threw a campaign fundraiser for her this fall and every year raise tens of thousands of dollars for Harder’s favourite charity at a golf tournament in Barrhaven.

And while there are massive planning issues in the suburbs, some of the most contentious files — the ones that bring out members of the public — are in the centre of the city.

And yet, Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper is the lone urban councillor named to the planning committee.

First-time Capital Coun. Shawn Menard, who made development one of his key election issues, ranked planning committee as his first priority.

He was shut out of the committee.

Yet Coun. Laura Dudas, the new representative for Innes, was named to planning, even though she ranked the committee eighth on her priority list.

What was behind this and many other committee decisions? How did a councillor facing corruption charges get more opportunities than any of the councillors representing the downtown?

You’d have to ask the mayor.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-council-committee-assignments-rules-1.4941296