Holding the urban boundary and other council debates

Yesterday (Feb 24) council voted not to revisit their earlier compromise decision to accommodate a 222 hectare change in the urban boundary rather than by the 842 hectares originally recommended by city staff. The vote was quite decisive 17 for and 3 against. Dissenting votes were registered by Mayor O’Brien and Councillors Hunter and Thompson.

Unfortunately I confused local residents in my community last evening when passing on details of the decision. During the CBC NEWS: OTTAWA 6:00 pm TV news broadcast Hannah Thibedeau reporting live from City Hall, identified councillor Peter Hume as one of the three dissenting votes. This was very disturbing as Hume had previously indicated to residents that he and other councillors were working not to revisit the decision. Also it was Councillor Hume’s motion to defend council’s orignal decision. There was considerable relief when the situation was clarified.

The Hold the Line rally outside city hall at noon was well attended, especially considering the weather. There were some excellent speakers. Special thanks to members of Our Ottawa and Ecology Ottawa for organizing this event. I noted a couple of councillors in the audience. It is disappointing that more members of city council did not take the time to hear the opinions of citizens of Ottawa on this issue. It will be a subject of much further discussion once OMB becomes involved.

During the morning session of council various motions to audit or review OC Transpo’s operations, organization and projects were debated. They eventually supported a motion by Councillor Eli El-Chantiry that the American Public Transit Association (APTA) conduct a peer review of OC Transpo's bus programs and strategies, including areas such as bus operations, customer service, staffing, training and recruitment. Auditor general Alain Lalonde will examine the review panel's work and assess its recommendations.

I was disappointed by Coucillor Alex Cullen’s comments on the OC Transpo issue. He went to some lengths detailing various individual audits of particular projects, services and operations that have taken place over the past few years. However, it is many years since a full audit of this operation has taken place and we are right to expect excellence in service and operations from them. I do not understand why as chair of Transit Committee he finds it necessary to defend OC Transpo.

Chair and past chair of Planning and Environment Committee oppose flood relief grant

It is disappointing to read that the present chair (Councillor Hume) and past chair (Councillor Hunter) of the City’s Planning and Environment Committee were the only people to vote in opposition to the motion to pay a small grant to residents in Kanata who have been affected by three flooding occurrences over the past 15 years (Committee passes flood relief grant, Jennifer Burden, Kanata Kourier-Standard, November 18, 2009).

The proposed motion to go before city council is already considered by many affected residents to be too lean and restrictive. Surely being affected by only a single incident of flooding should be sufficient to justify some payment and the amount of compensation should be cumulative, on a per occurrence say? The flooding results from bad development decisions in the first place. It is not the fault of residents. The expenditures involved are peanuts when compared with some of the obscene spending decisions that this city council makes.

Of course, if the Hume/Hunter duo opposed the motion because they think the city should pay more, then I’ll eat my words!

Flooding follow-up

Kathleen Petty interviewed Councillor Peter Hume on CBC Ottawa Morning today (Aug 10, 2009). The key issue was insurance industry concern over the large increase in claims due to storm related flooding. Hume did not really have anything new to say, but instead used the interview as an opportunity to attack Jim Watson. He agreed with most of Kathleen Petty’s observations and acknowledged that the Fernbank development might require rethinking. But no evidence of any real plans was offered.

Councillor Gord Hunter is also weighing in on this issue; suggesting that home buyers likely could not afford increased home prices that would result if builders were required to install sewage/storm drainage pipes and infrastructure that would handle the types of flooding that has occurred recently. Really! Does this mean that we can look forward to continuing construction of homes and subdivisions without adequate drainage infrastructure? And what about all the existing homes that are susceptible to flooding? Again, no talk of real plans!

The term “hundred year storm” has been used many times recently in connection with recent flooding events. This term is clearly misused in the context of changing weather patterns resulting from climate change. Neither the City of Ottawa, nor City Council, has the required skills or the necessary resources to mange this issue alone. Long term solutions are needed and this needs cooperation from all levels of government.