City Council Update

Your guide to what happened at City Council
October 28, 2009

City Council Meeting Highlights

City surpasses corporate greenhouse gas emissions reduction target; Council sets new goal to 2012

City Council revised the City’s corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target to 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.The decision to set the bar higher comes after staff reported that the City had surpassed its initial emissions reduction target.

In the City’s 2005 Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan, corporate GHG emission reduction targets were set at 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2007. However, the 2007 inventory on GHG emissions, which was based on 2004 data, concluded that the City had already succeeded in cutting its emissions by 24 per cent.

As a corporate entity, the City emitted 75,131 tonnes of GHG in 2004, down from 98,886 tonnes in 1990. The largest sources of emissions came from operating City buildings (53 per cent) and running municipal vehicles (28 per cent). Initiatives that led to the reduction in emissions included using an alternative fuel mix of gasoline of 10 per cent ethanol for City vehicles, implementing energy efficiency measures in City buildings and facilities, and generating electricity using waste from the City’s Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre wastewater treatment plant.

The City’s new GHG emission reduction target will be achieved through the implementation of two major programs. The Energy Reduction Program, which aims to reduce energy use in City buildings through energy reduction measures, will result in an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 tonne reduction in emissions by 2012. The Green Municipal Fleet Plan, which introduces hybrid vehicles and other pollution reducing technologies into the City’s municipal fleet, will reduce GHG emissions by 3,000 tonnes.

The City will establish a longer-term corporate GHG emissions reduction target in its refreshed Environmental Strategy, which is expected to be completed in 2010.

Council receives paramedics’ annual report

Ottawa paramedics responded to over 94,000 serious or life-threatening (code 3 or 4) emergency calls in 2008, up over nine percent from 2007 for a total of 103,871 overall calls. The Ottawa Paramedic Service 2008 Annual Report and 2009 Performance Trends Report also indicated that, despite the increase in response volume, paramedics improved response times in the first half of 2009.

The Paramedic Service expects the increase in response volume to rise by another five percent in 2009, and the demand for service will continue to grow in future years as our community grows and the population ages. In order to maintain response times in future years, the report recommends hiring 63 new paramedics in 2010 as per the plan established and presented to council in 2008.

The trends report also showed that the off-load nurse (OLN) pilot project, intended to help reduce hospital emergency room wait times and allow paramedic units to return to service and respond to more calls, saved 2,387 paramedic unit hours between October, 2008 and June, 2009. Council also approved a direction to request that the province provide adequate and ongoing funding for the OLN staff at each of Ottawa’s four hospitals.

City to negotiate for parkland in Carp and Manotick

Council directed staff to negotiate the purchase of new parkland in Carp and Manotick in order to meet the growing needs of residents.

Staff will enter negotiations to purchase property in the heart of the village of Carp on Langstaff Drive. The Honeywell Lands, as they are known, are adjacent to City-owned lands and the Carp Fairgrounds. The acquisition is being sought to ensure the land is available for expanded recreational opportunities in the future and allows for greater flexibility of uses in co-operation with the Carp Fair Board. The purchase of this property was identified as a priority in the Village of Carp Community Design Plan, approved by Council in 2004. Money has already been put aside in the Parkland Reserve Fund.

The second space is a 32-acre site located next to St. Mark High School in Manotick. The land at 5650 Mitch Owens Drive currently includes two soccer fields and a parking lot. Plans call for the addition of four full-sized soccer fields and a field house.

The Manotick land is currently owned by Centaurus Partnership (CP), a private group affiliated with the Ottawa South United Soccer Club (OSU). Under the plan, the City will purchase the land at fair market value and then the OSU will use and maintain the two current fields for 15 years. The City will finish building four additional soccer fields for public use.

This land will collectively be known as the George Nelms Sports Park, once approved under the City’s Commemorative Naming Policy. Funds have been allocated in the 2009 Capital budget for the purchase.

Once negotiated, both land deals will return to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and City Council for final approval.

City adopts urban design guidelines for high-rise housing

City Council has adopted the Urban Design Guidelines for High-Rise Housing, which will be applied wherever high-rise residential and mixed-use buildings greater than 10 storeys are proposed.

The guidelines are part of the City’s multi-faceted approach to support creativity and better urban design in Ottawa, and have been prepared as a tool to guide architects, planners, developers, community groups and City staff involved in the development review process.

The objective of the guidelines is to highlight ways to:

• Address the compatibility and relationship between high-rise buildings and their existing or planned context
• Coordinate and integrate parking, services, utilities, and public transit into the design of the building and the site
• Encourage a mix of uses and open spaces that contribute to the amenities of urban living
• Create human-scaled, pedestrian-friendly streets, and attractive public spaces that contribute to liveable, safe and healthy communities
• Promote high-rise buildings that contribute to views of the skyline and enhance orientation and the image of the city
• Promote development that responds to the physical environment and microclimate through design.

The guidelines were developed in consultation with City departments, community associations, members of the development industry and interested stakeholders.

Reduced development fees for eligible organizations

Council approved a program for the reimbursement of development-related fees that will respond to requests from charities, non-profit organizations, hospitals and other non-profit health care facilities. The program provides City Council with a transparent and consistent approach to support qualified charitable and non-profit organizations undertaking development projects that benefit the City’s residents.

Organizations that meet certain criteria will be reimbursed 50 per cent of development-related application fees on eligible construction projects. Eligibility criteria requires that:

• Except for the requests from the Ottawa hospitals, requests for reimbursement be submitted within 12 months of the final occupancy permit being issued, and no later than 36 months after the building permit has been issued.
• Applicants must be either a Canadian registered charity, including non-profit hospitals, or an incorporated non-profit organization that is organized for the purpose of social welfare or civic improvement.
• Development projects must provide services that are classified under selected Ontario regulations as eligible for tax exemptions, the services must be provided publicly and the majority of the clientele must be Ottawa residents.
• Fees eligible for reimbursement include: building permit (construction and demolition), site plan application, Zoning By-law amendment, demolition control and cash-in-lieu of parking.
• Reimbursement will be limited to development-related application fees for qualifying construction projects that have not been reimbursed or subsidized by either the provincial or federal governments, or any other municipal program.
• The applicant must acknowledge the City’s contribution in some manner, such as signage or visible recognition on their website.

Council voted to set aside $1.2 million to be included in the 2010 budget, subject to review during the budget process. The amount will be revisited each year as part of the budget deliberations, and can be increased or decreased at Council’s discretion. This ensures funding is available on an annual basis.

For the Ottawa hospitals, the program will provide approximately $1 million relief on fees paid for infrastructure projects between April 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010.

Revised advertising standards approved

City Council approved a revised set of standards that will be applied to advertising placed on transit shelters, buses and property, as well as integrated street furniture such as City garbage cans and recycling bins.

Council requested revisions to the City’s advertising standards to ensure that they conform to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The revised and updated standards are consistent with the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards and take into account a recent Supreme Court of Canada case concerning political advertising on buses.

In addition, the City and its advertising contractors will now have several key factors to consider when advertising is being approved, including:

• Is the proposed ad consistent with Council's goals of providing a safe and welcoming transit system, and of increasing use of transit for travel in Ottawa?
• Is the proposed ad offensive in the sense that it is intended to be insulting or disgusting or meant to give offence or cause insult to what the prevailing sense of what is decent or moral? Is the ad likely to be offensive to a contemporary Canadian community, rather than to a few individuals?
• Would a refusal to place the ad be reasonable based on all relevant factors, including past advertising, public feedback, and the nature of the transit-using population, including its religious and cultural makeup?

Although the City’s advertising contractors will be tasked with using and applying these new standards, the City will continue to have final say on the placement of ads on its property.

Other items of interest

Diabetes Awareness Month

Mayor O'Brien declared November as Diabetes Awareness Month in the City of Ottawa and presented Ms. Jacquelyn Wright, Regional Director of the Canadian Diabetes Association with a framed proclamation.

Presentation - "My Neighbourhood, My Voice" Photovoice Project

Mayor O'Brien recognized representatives from the My Neighbourgood, My Voice Photovoice Project, an initiative of the Coalition of Community Health and Resources Centres (CHRC) with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Success by 6, the Community Foundation of Ottawa, the University of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa. The coalition has published a hard cover book that includes 180 resident photos with their matching captions. Each member of City Council was given a complimentary copy of the book.

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