WHAT’S INSIDE: Tenant Volunteers Firefighter Jeff Line Ladouceur & Page 7 Tracy Pike Page 2 Ottawa Community Housing Corporation THE Quarterly OCH Tenant Newsletter Increasing Energy Efficiency ISSUE 8.1 Through Retrofits WINTER 2017 congratulated both organizations for their efforts in providing energy efficient retrofits, including new energy efficient lighting and new heating equipment, for hundreds of individual and family social housing homes. In total, OCH has reduced annual electricity use by 6,073,696 kWh. This reduction is equivalent to removing 750 homes from the electrical grid. OCH and Hydro Ottawa were also commended by Minister Thibeault for earning $396,910 in incentives for social housing retrofits through Ontario’s saveONenergy program. OCH Secures an Additional $8.7 Million for Capital Repairs Left to Right, Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH; Councillor Mark Taylor; Glenn Thibeault, Minister OCH was recently awarded $8.7 million from the of Energy; Bryce Conrad, President and CEO, 2016 Social Housing Improvement (SHIP) Program Hydro Ottawa and Councillor Mathieu Fleury, Chair, OCH Board of Directors. administered by the City of Ottawa. The program provides federal, provincial and municipal funds for Minister of Energy, Glenn Thibeault, visited social housing capital repairs. Regina Towers on October 13 to highlight the successful partnership between Ottawa The majority of the projects that have been Community Housing and Hydro Ottawa to approved for repairs are increase energy efficiency in OCH homes. fire and life safety system-related (fire alarm Joined by Hydro Ottawa President and CEO systems and emergency generators), Bryce Conrad and OCH CEO Stéphane Giguère and OCH Board of Directors Chair, Councillor structural restorations, Mathieu Fleury, Minister Thibeault window and door replacements. Tenant Volunteers Coming Up Line Ladouceur and Tracy Pike All tenants are invited to attend Carson’s Road Tenant Association OCH Board Meetings Please Note the New Time Thursday, January 19, 2017 4:30 p.m. Champlain Room, City Hall 110 Laurier Avenue West Thursday, March 23, 2017 4:30 p.m. Boardroom 39 Auriga Drive District Based Committee (DBC) Meetings East DBC Meeting Line and Tracy have a passion for their community, with a Tuesday, March 14, 2017 combined time of more than 15 years as Carson’s Road 5:00 p.m. volunteers; they have devoted many hours and their talents to Richelieu Vanier Community Centre 300 Des Pères-Blancs Avenue foster a strong community spirit. Central DBC Meeting They regularly consult with the community to determine what is Thursday, March 16, 2017 needed. They have brought many activities and initiatives to their 5:00 p.m. community: yoga lessons, a new garbage and recycling system, Strathcona Heights Community speed bumps and parking passes, the Good Food Market, the Room MarketMobile, a collective kitchen, picnic tables with canopies, 721 Chapel Crescent fruit trees, a volleyball net, a children’s playground sponsored by South DBC Meeting the Greco Foundation, a ladies coffee hour and a Tenant Wednesday, March 22, 2017 Association logo contest, etc.. They work closely and successfully 5:30 p.m. with partners such as the Carson’s Community House and South East Ottawa CHC Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre. 7th floor, 1355 Bank Street They organize many events and engage organizations to help West DBC Meeting bring resources to their community. For example, their back to Thursday, March 30, 2017 6:00 p.m. school BBQ in 2015 was broadcast live by New Hot 89.9 and Lepage Manor Community Room featured a bike repair station, a face painting/henna tattoo 1400 Lepage Avenue station, inflatable structures, a visit from Ottawa Fire Services and a Story Time from the Ottawa Public Library. OCH Office Hours Line and Tracy were successful applicants for the 2016 OCH Monday to Friday Community Capital Fund program. They were also awarded the OCH Offices 2015 OCH Volunteer Recognition Award. They are continually 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Closed from noon – 1:00 p.m. seeking to add services and amenities to their community. In addition, they regularly organise BBQ’s, spring clean-ups, holiday Head Office – 39 Auriga Drive celebrations and garage sales. 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. They are planning to transition from a formal Tenant Association Holiday Hours to a more informal Tenant Circle in the hopes of increasing community participation at the leadership level. They have many OCH Offices will be closed on Monday, February 20, 2017 for plans and ideas for the future, a future that looks very bright for Family Day. Carson’s Road residents! 2 Tenant Gathering at Wabano Center a Big Success On Saturday, October 1, over 120 OCH tenant volunteers attended the 2016 OCH Tenant Appreciation event at the spectacular Wabano Centre. Highlights included dinner, a performance by Branch Out Theatre actors, guided tours that gave a brief history of Canada’s aboriginal green corner people and their culture, guest speakers Councillor Mathieu Fleury, Chair of the OCH Board of Directors and Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH, and a Volunteer Recognition Ceremony. Heating Season Greetings! Six OCH tenants were recognized as outstanding OCH volunteers. Congratulations to Iman Al-Khatib, Virtue Beurling, Susan and The cold is upon us. For our Christopher Ings, Charlotte Morin and Sylvie Roussell. The 2016 heating systems to operate as Tenant Advisory Group Award was presented to Community efficiently as possible without Development Manager Francine Vachon, for the support and affecting your comfort, please contributions she has made to tenant involvement in healthy make sure to remove all air communities. conditioning units from windows and to keep doors Watch for details about the 2017 Tenant Forum in upcoming and windows properly newsletters. closed. It’s easy to keep the heat from leaking out Iman Al-Khatib, recipient of the 2016 OCH Tenant unnecessarily. Volunteer Recognition Award with Councillor Mathieu Did You Know? Fleury, Chair of the OCH Board of Directors and Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH has a Heating OCH. Management System installed in several electrically heated buildings to help reduce wasted Virtue Beurling and Charlotte Morin, recipients of the 2016 energy without affecting your OCH Tenant Volunteer comfort. With less than one Recognition Award with Councillor Mathieu Fleury, year of operation, it has already Chair of the OCH Board of reduced the heating Directors, Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH, and Brian consumption by over 650,000 Gilligan, Vice-President of kWh; that’s about $100,000 in Community Development. utility costs. We thank you for Sylvie Roussel recipient of the supporting the initiative and 2016 OCH Tenant Volunteer look forward to reinvesting the Recognition Award with Councillor Mathieu Fleury, savings into our buildings. Chair of the OCH Board of Directors; Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH, and Brian Gilligan, Vice-President of Community Development. 3 Community Noticeboard Deputy Chief Sean Tracey, Ottawa Fire Services; Councillor Mathieu Fleury, Chair of the OCH Board of Directors; Councillor Mark Taylor; Stéphane Giguère, CEO of OCH; Hani Dakwar, Firefighter, Ottawa Fire Services and Foster Farm residents at the OCH Fire Prevention Launch event held on September 26 at 1065 Ramsey Crescent. OCH tenant A group of University of painting a new Ottawa students baked mural at the Albion- and decorated 510 Heatherington cupcakes which were Community Centre. distributed to the The mural will Community Houses for represent the circle their Halloween of life and feature celebrations. artwork from local youth. It is slated to be completed in late December. News From Ottawa Public Health Resources to Help Prevent Falls in Older Adults The “You CAN Prevent Falls!” fact sheet can help older adults stay independent and safe. It includes information about how to identify hazards around the home, how to reduce personal risk, and has an action plan to make changes. The “Staying Independent Checklist” is a self-screening tool for older adults to find out if they are at risk for falling. Older adults are encouraged to complete the checklist and to follow-up with their healthcare provider as needed. DID YOU KNOW? In Ottawa, falls are the leading cause of injury related emergency room visits and hospitalization. Every year, approximately one fifth of adults 65 years or older who live in private homes fall, contributing over 8,000 visits to emergency departments, 2000 hospitalizations and 90 deaths. To get copies of the fact sheet and checklist: Call Ottawa Public Health at 613-580-6744 (TTY: 613-580-9656) or visit www.ottawa.ca/seniors 4 4 Making Your Internet Access More Affordable OCH has been discussing with various internet providers to make your access to the internet more affordable. We are very pleased to announce that two companies will provide internet services at a discounted rate to OCH tenants. These companies are Rogers and National Capital Freenet (NCF). How do you sign up? OCH cannot sign you up. To sign up for low-cost Internet you must contact the Internet Providers directly. They have different criteria and offer different options. To qualify for Rogers, you must: To qualify for NCF you must: receive a housing subsidy mention that you are an OCH tenant sign a required privacy release form to confirm the confirm your address subsidy (a simple yes or no identification) Rogers Connected for Success: National Capital Freenet: 1-866-689-0758 between 9am-6pm, Monday to 613 -721-1773 ext.0 Friday www.ncf.ca