Glebe Community Association Minutes of the Board Meeting Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018

Present: Board Members: Anthony Carricato, Josh VanNoppen, Vaughn Guy, Sylvie Legros, Alex Nobert, Christine McAllister, Angela Keller-Herzog, Carol MacLeod (Elizabeth Ballard), Jennifer Humphries, Bill Price, Dan Chook Reid, Sue Stefko (GACA), Sam Harris, Carolyn Mackenzie, Sarah Viehbeck, Dan Chook Reid, Matthew Meagher, Bob Brocklebank, Laura Smith, Rochelle Handelman, Johanna Persohn.

Guest: Yasir Naqvi

Others (some names may be misspelled due to difficulty to read signatures): Michael Reid, Baneet Braich, Pat Steenberg, Regan Brown, Clare Duncan, Katharine Sherwood, Kasey Virwup(?), Adenieke Lewis-Gibbs, Wesley Petite, Isla Paterson, Marcia George, Sarah Young, Chelsea Battel, Carolyn Crook, Lauren Hills, Edward Ocampo- Gooding, Ali Ramezani, Jamie Smith, Peter Hook, June Creelman.

Regrets: Nini Pal

Approval of the Agenda The agenda was approved with the change to move Motion 4 on top of other motions. The meeting was focused on two major items: the redevelopment at 99Fifth Ave and the meeting with Yasir Naqvi. (Sylvie Legros/Carol MacLeod) Carried

Approval of the Minutes The minutes of the meeting of November 28th, 2017 were approved. (Sylvie Legros/Angela Keller-Herzog) Carried

PRESIDENT REPORT

1 – President Update (Anthony Carricato / Josh VanNoppen)

 Fifth Avenue Footbridge. Anthony provided an update on the project to name the new bridge under construction at Fifth Avenue. Looking to set up a committee of local residents to provide suggestions and to vote on a name. A resident present at the meeting suggested that the bridge be named for as he worked hard to promote the construction of a bridge at that location.  Stag Shop. Josh met with the owner of the shop to negotiate some concessions on the window display. The owner did not agree to cover the window as it looks like the shop is closed but offered to try to keep it respectful. The owner asked that residents refrain from walking in the shop to give a hard time to the staff. They should contact him directly instead. Josh has the coordinates of the owner/manager COUNCILLOR’S REPORT

Councillor was absent.

COMMENTS / ISSUES FROM THE COMMUNITY

No issue.

MOTIONS - (4 motions)

Motion 1 – Planning Committee (Carolyn Mackenzie)

Whereas Minto has submitted an application for an eight (8) storey residential building at 99 Fifth Avenue (Fifth Avenue Court at ) that would require relief from a number of zoning bylaws,

And whereas the GCA’s Planning Committee has reviewed the development application in some detail,

And whereas,

 Significant concerns were raised by residents and tenants of the current building at a Public meeting held on January 16, 2018.  Greater heights and massing proposed do not provide appropriate transition as per the City’s Official Plan  The project falls far short in meeting some key objectives of the City’s Traditional Mainstreet policies, as well as a number of the important underpinning guidelines  Whereas the GCA has been provided verbal assurance by the City that a Community Design Plan and resulting Secondary Plan will be undertaken in 2019, during the next term of Council, given the very clear development interest on Bank Street and current lack of a plan that would clarify the City’s vision for development beyond current zoning.

MOTION:

The GCA Planning Committee seeks the approval of the GCA Board to request that the City secure modifications to this proposal, as follows:

 The building height should be restricted to the current 15 m cap in keeping with the character of the current and planned future of the neighbourhood.  Any new building should include a significant two story podium along 4th and 5th Avenue, as recommended by the City’s Urban Design Review Panel in January 2018. The building should be stepped back sufficiently to establish a strong podium that reflects the scale of the existing pedestrian realm exhibited by the “heritage brick row” facing Bank Street, as well as the homes/built form along the Avenues.  The materiality of the building exterior should more strongly reflect/align with the character of the neighbourhood.  Further, the GCA strongly supports the intent of the TM zone to recognise BIAs as primary business or shopping areas, thus, the GCA strongly supports the inclusion of ground floor commercial in the proposed building to accommodate existing businesses.

Further, the GCA requests that the City make a commitment to undertaking a CDP and Secondary Plan for Bank Street as soon as possible, but not later than 2019, so that the vision for Bank Street can be clarified. In the interim, and until such a Secondary Plan is in place, the City should agree not to give permission to additional height or massing above that found in the current TM zoning for Bank Street.

Discussion. There was a long discussion among board members, residents and Carolyn on the impact of this project and how to proceed with the issue:  Carolyn has contacted some current tenants of the building and one asked to include some parkings for current tenants as part of the project. Carolyn will amend the motion on this;  The Heritage Committee suggested to add a sentence in the motion to state that the designation of the current building as a heritage building is being considered. There were some discussion on that and it was decided that although a sentence can be added, the issue of Heritage designation should be addressed through a separate motion and the Planning Committee should remain focused on the by- laws violation of the project;  There were concerns expressed about the parking and the traffic at the Fifth and Bank intersection that will be amplified with the project and how this can be addressed;  Environment Committee suggested to re-balance the parking space with more green space as the current design doesn’t appear to provide for any tree or green consideration (or very little apart from a small tree line by the building);  A resident suggested that the Planning Committee should strongly focus on the building height and other major elements that violate the by-laws and have a major impact on the neighbourhood and nearby residents rather than trying to get small concessions that are easy to give and just make the developer looks good in the negotiations while it does little to mitigate the real negative impact of the project;  A board member clarified to those present that the real issue to consider here is to give the Planning Committee a strong mandate to oppose the project as it is and give Carolyn the power to pursue this issue and have the developer respects the by-laws. The focus should only be on this part of the issue.  Finally, a board member also suggested that perhaps we should explore a final resolution of the overall issue of developers changing the face of the neighbourhood by perhaps working with the City to develop an overall development plan rather than fighting all these individual projects.

The vote was carried on giving Carolyn the authority to pursue while acknowledging that she may have to change some parts of the motion along the way.

(Carolyn Mackenzie / Dan Chook Reid) Carried

Motion 2 – Environment Committee (Angela Keller-Herzog) – Background in Annex A

Whereas the mandate of the Environment Committee calls on us to think globally and act locally,

Whereas the Glebe Community Centre is an iconic building at the heart of the community and is well suited as a demonstration site for building improve,

Whereas the Environment Committee has an opportunity to undertake an Energy Retrofit and Carbon Reduction Project for the Glebe Community Centre with support from the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities group (GNAG) and in partnership with the City of Building Engineering and Energy Management Group (BEEM) as described in the appended draft Project Concept Note.

MOTION

Be it Resolved That the Environment Committee develop and pursue this project on behalf of the GCA, using an approach where, - a representative of the Heritage Committee participate on the Project Team; - the project works with BEEM group of City, GNAG and (TBC) St. James Tennis Club - the project will seek to significantly leverage GCA’s own resources by seeking grants, work contributions and sponsorships from partners and donors such as BEEM, GNAG, Bullforg Power, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Algonquin College, Carleton and UofO relevant departments - the project team keeps the GCA Board and membership informed of progress, - the project takes an iterative approach to project definition and comes back to the GCA Board or Executive at appropriate decision points - that specific financial contribution requests will be made to the GCA Board once more detailed costed proposals for project components are available, where the resources required exceed the environmentally earmarked funds available to the Environment Committee.

Discussion. Angela stated that the goal of the motion is to help meet the City 80% carbon reduction by 2020 and this is an initiative that the Committee is overtaking along with the Old Home Hearth Day event which will be on April 21sth this year. By increasing the GCC energy efficiency, they hope to reduce the building carbon footprint by 50% and demonstrate that we can take effective measures to reduce carbon emission. She also amended the motion to identified BEEM as a supporter rather than partner. The Environmental Committee would take upon the task to investigate the options and develop a proposal which is a time consuming task that the City will not undertake.

 Main comments from floor were about the GCA financial contribution, how it fits within the GCA mandate which is advocacy and whether it is appropriate for the GCA to fund capital expenditure on City buildings. It was agreed that the project fits in the GCA mandate and the financial part of the project will need to be discussed when more information is available.

(Angela Keller-Herzog / Jennifer Humphries) Carried

Motion 3 – Health and Social Services Committee (Sarah Viehbeck) – Background in Annex A

Whereas the GCA aims in part to build a more livable Glebe.

Whereas the GCA seeks to achieve this aim in partnership with other community groups with a shared aim, including the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group.

Whereas the Grow Smart Girls, in partnership with GNAG, received GCA support in principle in November 2017 and shares interests that are consistent with the GCA aim.

MOTION

The Health and Social Services Committee moves that the GCA provides financial support of $300 to this initiative recognizing it is an opportunity for people to engage and learn without financial burden.

Discussion. Sarah requested the funds to help support the Grow Smart Girls initiative which was presented to the Board at the November meeting.

 There were some discussion on how the motion fits within the GCA mandate but the Board was comfortable that this is the kind of initiative the Board can support if it benefits community members.  The funds are mainly to be used to help pay for hononarium as the program includes sessions held by professionals and the organizers want these sessions to be free to residents who want to attend.

(Sarah Viehbeck / Sam Harris) Carried

Motion 4 – Health and Social Services Committee and Tenants Committee (Sarah Viehbeck/Dan Chook Reid) – Background in Annex A

Whereas the GCA aims to advocate for a liveable, sustainable, diverse urban neighbourhood.

Whereas matters of health and social equity are consistent with this aim;

Whereas housing and income are well-documented social determinant of health and affordable housing is seen as a key action to support both health and social equity;

Whereas the Province of is providing municipalities with a policy framework to enable development proposals to require inclusionary zoning;

Whereas the Glebe is a neighbourhood with many recent and ongoing development proposals;

Whereas the Glebe has been ranked among Ottawa's most desirable and least affordable neighbourhoods;

MOTION

The GCA Tenants' Committee and the GCA Health and Social Services Committee jointly move that the GCA advocate to the Province, City of Ottawa, and/or developers to support inclusionary zoning policies and to specifically consider: 1. a consistent, municipality-wide standard definition for affordability based on percentage of income as recommended by the CMHC;

2. the Provincial and any resulting municipal regulations should include rental units;

3. the cost of implementing inclusionary zoning should not be born by municipalities;

4. implementation of inclusionary zoning should be with equity and dignity principles in mind to ensure equal treatment and access to housing-related services by those individuals and families benefiting from the policy.

Discussion. Dan presented the motion as a request to support the notion that the Glebe should have some residential units destined for low income people. He will write a letter that will be presented later to the Board for approval as there was too little time to get prepared for this meeting.  One person suggested to make sure that developers cannot offer cash-in-lieu where they can provide low income units but in other parts of the City where the land is much cheaper.

(Dan Chook Reid / Sarah Viehbeck) Carried

DISCUSSION WITH YASIR NAQVI

Yasir was there to talk about two main issues: speed limit on Cities’ residential streets and the OMB overhaul.

1- Residential street speed limits. This change in legislation is meant to achieve three main things:

1- The province introduced the change to give cities power to reduce residential street speed limits below 50 km/h in school areas and community safety zones such as areas where elderly residents live; 2- Give cities the power to put photo radars in school zones and community safety zones; 3- Give cities the power to put red light cameras at intersections.

2- OMB reform. The OMB reform or Bill 139 is meant to achieve four things:

1- Protect cities’ major planning plans which include municipal plans and community plans. If municipal plans comply with all regulations, developers will not be able to take it to the OMB and dilute these plans; 2- Give greater weight to local decision makers. This is to avoid that individuals on OMB who don’t live in the affected areas have power to make decision over the head of local stakeholders. A new tribunal – the Local Appeal Tribunal – will have the responsibility to test whether or not a municipality complies with its own plan. If not, the Tribunal will send the file back to the municipality to amend or reconsider. The Local Appeal Tribunal has the final say. 3- The process to go to the Local Appeal Tribunal has been streamlined with faster and more affordable hearings with clear timelines established. 4- Support is provided to local communities when appeals take place. The support is in the form of legal and planning advice. This is provincial government funded.

The OMB measures are effective on the day of Royal Assent which is December 12, 2017. All applications completed before that day will fall under the old system.

Discussion. There was several discussions / comments with Yasir where residents inquired about the possibility that developers will try to infiltrate the process of City’s planning development in order to ensure that these plans are ineffective in the first place. However, the province requires municipalities to consult with residents when developing these plans. Other comments where about a project in the Glebe that was submitted one or two days before December 12th which means it’s under the old system and whether it can be changed, the issue about mega cities where urban and suburban councillors have the same say despite their divergence of interest has been raised as this has a large impact on poor urban projects being approved by cities. A question was raised whether there is a mechanism in place to assess the effectiveness of the new system. There is nothing official yet. Some environmental issues and inclusionary zoning were discussed as well.

Yasir circulated a document on these initiatives which is attached at Annex B

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Environment Committee (Jennifer Humphries)

There was no time left to go through the committee report. The report is attached in Annex C

OTHER BUSINESS

No other business

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m. (Anthony Carricato / Sylvie Legros) Carried

ANNEX A BACKGROUND TO MOTIONS 2, 3 & 4

BACKGROUND – MOTION 1

Concept Note -- DRAFT 2018 01 25 v3

Glebe Community Centre Energy & Carbon Reduction Project

Context and Objectives

We are at the beginning of a transition to a much lower carbon economy in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While for automobiles the next generation technology is readily available (electric cars), the transition for the existing building stock is not so apparent. Yet there are energy retrofitting measures that are well within reach of homeowners and facilities managers. Demonstrating these – the cost savings and carbon reductions that can be achieved in an accessible public building in the heart of the neighbourhood -- can serve as practical encouragement to the wider community to replicate these investments in energy efficiency.

The objectives of the Glebe Community Centre Energy & Carbon Reduction Project are,

1. To increase the energy efficiency of the building and realize cost savings 2. To decrease the carbon footprint of the building by 50% 1 3. To demonstrate to homeowners and facility managers how we can take effective climate protection measures

Project Site

The Glebe Community Centre (GCC) located at 175 Third Avenue in Ottawa is a heritage-designated large Palladian style structure built 1914-24, originally as the St. Paul’s Methodist Church. The Glebe is a mixed residential-commercial neighbourhood central to Ottawa. The building was bought by the City of Ottawa in the 1970s and converted into a community centre. The GCC has become iconic to the heart of the community. It was successfully 'saved' from closure by the protests of the surrounding active residents in the 1990s. The building is very actively used by members of all ages in the community, so there is live engagement and many emotional attachments to this building. Extensive renovations were completed in 2004.

1 Including St. James Tennis Club might make this goal more achievable.

The GCC and St. James Tennis Club are both properties designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act and this reality must be taken into account in planning any energy retrofits, especially those impacting the exterior of the buildings.

The GCC and St. James Tennis Club together consume about 500,000 kWh of electricity, 50,000 m3 natural gas and 1,500 m3 water per year, amounting to just over $95,000 in utility costs annually (2016 data).

Project Proponents

The Environment Committee of the Glebe Community Association (GCA) is a small group of committed volunteers who are seriously concerned about their local environment and climate change and seek to take practical local actions at a neighbourhood scale. From neighbourhood tree planting campaigns to earth day events, this committee always has an active agenda and makes things happen. The project team for the GCC project includes professional expertise in building recommissioning and energy retrofit, procurement and solar energy. The GCA is a well-established not-for-profit residents’ association, has a membership of over 1,500 and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of active community service.

The Building Engineering and Energy Management group (BEEM) is a part of the Facilities Operations Service of the city of Ottawa. The mandate and focus of the BEEM group is to identify, develop and implement energy saving opportunities on behalf of the City of Ottawa. The group has been undertaking about 40 capital measures per year and has a budget of $1M for 2018. Investments must meet a criteria of a 5.5 year simple payback through savings from either energy or water waste reduction.

Project Supporter

The Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group (GNAG) is a volunteer driven, not-for-profit community group and is the primary resident of the GCC. GNAG works to enrich the community by delivering recreational, cultural and social activities and services.

Potential Partners and Donors

St. James Tennis Club

Carleton University

Algonquin College

Bullfrog Power has a program that provides grants to non-profit organizations for community renewable energy projects. The project team is exploring the feasibility of a solar component which would offset electricity and/or gas used by the GCC, thus reducing the building’s costs and carbon footprint.

Federation of Canadian Municipalities, through its Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program has grants up to $1M that municipalities in partnership with non-profit organizations can apply for. This specifically includes grants for energy-focused capital projects that lead to greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Project Approach

By necessity, the project definition will be iterative. This means that ‘we learn as we go’, i.e. the project team will incorporate new assessments, knowledge and opportunities into our planning and project design as they become available.

Due to funding and capacity constraints inherent in community-based initiatives, the project will be broken into work components that can be undertaken independently of each other. It is desirable to have some components for fairly quick action to create awareness and community support for the project. A building retro- commissioning program will be a first line of approach. See Annex 1.

Building energy modelling will be required to identify and cost second level and deeper energy retrofit investments and estimate corresponding carbon reductions. Such modelling will be essential to identify, quantify impacts of one project on another project or unintended consequence of a project.

In the longer run, it is unlikely that we will have resources to complete all possible carbon reduction measures but there will be value in learning what kind of options there are and how much capital is required for deep retrofit and significant carbon emissions reduction for a community heritage building. To serve the demonstration objective well, building improvements will need to be cost effective in a reasonable time-frame.

Given the heritage status of the site, a heritage advisor will be part of the project team, the GCA Heritage Committee will be consulted for each step and all necessary official heritage approvals will be obtained.

In order to pursue the demonstration project objective, the project will systematically invest in communications, seeking to share progress, insights and achievements with both homeowners and facilities managers. The team will use the Glebe Report community newspaper, the GCA and GNAG outreach tools, university networks and other partner channels to do so. The GCA Enviro Committee-organized annual Old Home Earth Day event may also offer a special show-case opportunity to share and demonstrate the project’s achievements.

Timeline

In the short run the team will seek

● costed proposals for ‘quick win’ building investments that will have a high energy savings payback, for prospective implementation by BEEM ● quotes for specific professional diagnostic and assessment work that can inform building retro- commissioning (‘work with what you have’) and retrofit investment feasibility ● partnerships with universities/colleges that can leverage practical, diagnostic and technical work including building energy modelling ● quotes and knowledge from equipment suppliers (eg. Windows, solar, doors, etc) ● do a literature review relating to energy retrofitting of heritage buildings in order to avoid duplicating work already published/documented and to reveal additional funding that may be available for designated heritage buildings. In the medium run the team will

● assess and cost out further building investments that would result in significant energy efficiencies and carbon footprint reductions ● assess and cost out renewable energy investments that can offset building energy consumption ● seek financing to implement viable options through proposals to funding sources Project Governance

The project is community-based and volunteer-led. A core team of volunteers, including relevant professional and technical expertise as much as possible, and including representatives from the GCA Board (Environment and Heritage), will define, plan, supervise implementation. The project will regularly report to the GNAG and GCA boards and communicate progress to the community.

As the project components are defined, decision points will be brought back to the GCA Boards/Executive Committees for formal approvals, including regarding organizational financial contributions, new partnerships and grant proposals. All expenditures require approval of the treasurer.

GNAG will be kept informed of all considerations that will affect building use. John Richardson has been designated as the GNAG Board liaison person for the project.

As the building is City-owned, all physical changes to the building will have to be approved and will typically be contracted by City of Ottawa, Facilities Operations Service. Ownership, maintenance, insurance and disposition of additional equipment procured by the project will be clarified in each instance.

Annex 1 -- Retro-Commissioning Program Approach

Retro-commissioning Program.

Retrocommissioning is a first-order activity in addressing energy conservation in an existing building. It is “making the most with what you have”.

Phase 1: Investigation Phase

Part 1. Baseline energy consumption & greenhouse gases

Creating the baseline, energy intensity (EUI) and thermal energy demand intensity (TEDI) with data supplied by the City. This will establish the baselines for which the improvement will be measured. The goals moving forward would focus on GHG and TEDI reductions.

Part 2. Building envelope

Thermographic imagery of all facades and roof. Two sets of thermography will be taken at neutral pressures to uncover the thermal bridges and at positive pressure for air gaps. The results of this study define the scope of work for improvement (air sealing and weatherstripping). A Thermographer will have to be hired or provided via educational institutions.

Part 3. Controls & controllability of the HVAC systems

Operational schedules, setpoints, sequence of operations will be reviewed under all operating conditions to create a documented baseline of the how the building is controlled. Once the baseline is created, analysis will be carried out to improve the system efficiency and will likely involve recommendations for improvements to the control system (improved sensing & response, reset schedules, free-cooling, demand control ventilation, etc.)

Part 4. Ventilation Rebalancing

In conjunction with Part 3, the ventilation system will benefit from retuning the air balancing to ensure high quality IAQ and energy conservation. A special TAB contractor will have to be hired. Areas of deficiency to be identified and corrected.

Phase 2: Design of the measures identified from investigation.

Phase 3: Implementation of the measures identified from investigation.

Phase 4: Monitor and report results, celebrate success

BACKGROUND MOTION 2

As presented during the November GCA meeting, local resident Camielle Lang is organizing free information seminars that will be held in our neighbourhood. These sessions will cover a range of current topics particularly relevant to pre-teens, teens and their caregivers.

GrowSmartGirls is an innovative seminar series, in partnership with GNAG, that equips pre -teen and teen girls with the knowledge and skills to improve their situational awareness and respond to societal dangers, including on the Internet. All seeking to be informed (including parents, guardians, teen and pre-teen boys) are welcome to attend free of charge. Presentations, provided by experts and practitioners, are designed primarily for pre- teens and teens. An opportunity for Q&As will follow each presentation.

Upcoming sessions:

Safety, Awareness & Self Defence

Social Media (SM 101 for parents only) & Cyber Safety

Substance Abuse

Mental Health/Anxiety/Depression

Empowerment & Independence

The sessions are slated to begin in late February and there are some associated costs, an honorarium for one speaker and travel costs for another (that presenter is donating their time). The total costs are estimated at $ 1000. Other similar course for example on internet safety generally have an associated cost.

BACKGROUND MOTION 3

The provincial government released the new regulations for the Inclusionary Zoning bill to promote affordable housing. The link for that is here: https://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB- External/displaynoticecontent.do? noticeId = MTM0MDk1& statusId = MjAzOTg2 &language=en

Here are comments by Councillor Jeff Leiper: http://kitchissippiward.ca/content/concerns-over-new-inclusionary-zoning-regulations

This website is a great resource. https://inclusionaryhousing.org/

ANNEX B

BACKGROUND INFO ON YASIR DISCUSSION

ANNEX C

ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE REPORT January 23, 2018 Energy

Old Home Earth Day Event, Saturday, April 21, 2018

The Old Home Earth Day Event (OHEDE) is a key focal point for our committee. It has a subcommittee that includes our partner, SmartNet Alliance. OHEDE aims to provide a valuable learning experience that helps people take steps to reduce the carbon intensity of their home.

 Based on feedback from participants and exhibitors, plus a brainstorming session led by Bill Nuttle, Paul Cairns and Angela Keller-Herzog and including experts from business, government and and non-profits, OHEDE 2018 will be “new and improved.”  It will feature more workshops and learning sessions, will have a “roadmap” so that attendees can readily select the type of information they want to get, and will not include remarks from politicians.  We encourage all GCA Board members to promote and attend OHEDE. We also welcome your input on workshops, sponsors, exhibitors, promotion.  OHEDE is not just for Glebe residents. Please tell your friends/colleagues about the event. See the OHEDE article in the Feb. Glebe Report, OSCAR and other community newspapers.

Glebe Community Centre (GCC) Energy and Carbon Reduction Project

Our Committee is working with key partners to make our community centre a model of energy use and carbon reduction. Angela Keller-Herzog presented this project opportunity at the GCA Board meeting in December and the Board agreed that it should go to the next steps. GNAG has joined us as a project partner and we are working in close collaboration with the City’s Building Engineering and Energy Management group (BEEM).

The project objectives are: 1. To increase the energy efficiency of the building and realize cost savings 2. To decrease the carbon footprint of the building by 50% 3. To demonstrate to homeowners and facility managers how we can take effective climate protection measures The project team will be putting forward grant proposals to implement project activities and will report to the GCA and GNAG boards, as well as City officials. Decision points will be brought back to the GCA and GNAG Boards/Executive Committees for formal approvals.

Trees and Greenspace

While 150 is over and we are delighted that our campaign to promote 150 new Glebe trees has achieved its goal, there is more to be done to make our community truly “green”.

The new plantings are a highly welcome addition, but at the same time we have lost a number of viable middle- aged trees to development. And the Bank Street trees continue to struggle and die in their poorly designed “plots.”

In early January we emailed Bruce Reaney, City forestry officer responsible for the Glebe, to ask for a meeting to discuss a number of key matters and to get an overall sense of the City’s work plan for our area over the coming year. We have received a written response on specific items from Tracey Schwetts, also of City forestry, and will be considering follow up.

We continue to communicate with Martha Copestake of City forestry. She has indicated that work on the tree by-law review would begin in earnest this month (Jan. 2018) and that there should soon be information on the terms of reference and composition of the External Consultative Group – we have asked that it include a Glebe representative or a colleague from another urban community association.

We continue to write on trees and greenspace for the Glebe Report. The December issue took a look at trees and development. The February column will be on trees in hardscape. Exciting: The Glebe Report February issue will be the 500th!!

Nuclear Waste

A proposal for a nuclear waste disposal site at Chalk River near the Ottawa River threatens the health of our waterways – and drinking water supply – in Ottawa and in communities from north of Renfrew to Montreal. See the analysis prepared by the Ottawa Riverkeeper at https://www.ottawariverkeeper.ca/what-we-do- 2/issues/cnls-proposed-nuclear-waste-disposal-facility/

Our committee is supporting groups that are raising awareness of the issue and pushing government to prevent rubberstamping of the nuclear waste dump proposal. These groups have succeeded in slowing down the process to give more time for consultation and analysis of the potential environmental damage of the proposed nuclear waste landfill. On January 18, a march was held to raise awareness and present letters to Mayor Jim Watson and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.

We urge GCA board members and the community to sign the electronic petition supported by Elizabeth May at: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-1450

Waste and Recycling

You may have heard the news that China will no longer be accepting plastics for recycling, at least not the quantity that it used to. A new policy requires that recycled materials meet high standards for “purity” and most of the material that Canada and the USA produce cannot meet the standards.

What isn’t generally known is that, for years, two-thirds of waste material sent for recycling by Canada and the USA has been going to China. The short-term solutions to the problem created by the new Chinese policy are not ideal. While cities look for options, much of what residents believe will be recycled may end up in landfill.

Our committee has undertaken the annual “zero-waste” project around the Great Glebe Garage Sale. But there is much more that needs to be done to reduce our community’s waste footprint.

Would you or someone you know in the Glebe be interested in being our committee’s point person on waste and recycling? If you have an interest or know of someone who does, please be in touch with Jennifer Humphries or Angela Keller-Herzog.