Weekly newsletter: April 9, 2024
Hi everyone!
I spent a few hours in Lancaster, Ontario (east of Cornwall) yesterday to watch the eclipse with my wife’s family. What an unforgettable experience! Other than the darkness, most striking to me was the temperature change as the darkness set in.
Starting at about 75 per cent coverage, it certainly looked like Netflix’s Eastern Europe filter had been applied to the world.
Tree planting programme – public survey
City staff are updating our tree planting strategy and would like your feedback!
The City of Ottawa’s Urban Forest Management Plan was passed by Council in 2017 as a 20-year comprehensive guiding document to manage the city’s urban forest. The plan is broken down into five management cycles, each lasting four years.
The first management cycle focused on tree protection, data collection, and improving tree retention mostly through means of policy, such as the Tree Protection By-law, tree canopy assessment, and tree inventory.
Planning the second management cycle, whose start was delayed by the pandemic, derecho, and last year’s ice storm, is now underway. Rather than a singular report with all the necessary steps staff intend to take, approval will be sought for individual steps incrementally as staff prepare them.
The second cycle focuses on tree planting, including shifting towards a more proactive approach to improve the city’s tree canopy towards the goal of 40 per cent coverage across Ottawa.
Proposed elements of the updated planting strategy include increasing the opportunities to work with private property owners to add trees to their properties, strengthening the City’s planting guidelines, and better integrating tree considerations into City projects.
Earlier today, staff hosted a Councillor engagement session to collect feedback from Councillors and their offices to help guide their efforts. With a focus on my ward, I provided the following:
Naturalising and adding trees to dry stormwater ponds where appropriate,
More trees along park pathways, beside benches, and in some bare areas of parks to provide shade, and
Adding trees alongside major roadways and in medians, potentially including the use of planters where the soil is thinner.
Trees are excellent community assets. Aside from the obvious environmental benefits, they are beneficial to mental health, a community’s look and feel, and can even serve as minor traffic calming devices as they mature. With their thirsty leaves and roots absorbing rainfall and groundwater, trees have also been known to increase the life of a roadway by reducing the amount of water that reaches the roadway!
Of course, planting more trees isn’t the only answer. A planting programme must be complemented by an effective maintenance programme to ensure those trees survive past the first three years of their lives.
We seem to lose a significant number of trees each year to extreme weather, particularly in the last six years since the 2018 tornadoes, so the updated programming is important and of great interest to me.
A public survey is available through EngageOttawa for thoughts to be shared with staff. The survey includes a few preset and multiple-choice questions, as well as opportunities for more open feedback. The survey closes April 15.
In the meantime, residents will find more information about the existing tree planting programmes at Ottawa.ca. In suburban communities like Barrhaven East, the programme most applicable to residents would be trees in trust, where the City plants a tree in the right-of-way abutting a resident’s home, who would also be responsible for watering it for the first three years.
Fibe installation
Residential fibre optic installations are restarting across the city. (Actually, some minor projects already started, but none of them impact residential properties.)
Affected homes will receive door hanger notices 30 AND 10 days prior to the start of works. These notices also include a request for residents to identify sprinkler system elements.
After the 30-day notice, utility locates are ordered. If you need to temporarily remove the flags to cut your grass, please ensure it's returned to its original location.
At most locations, installation is done by directional bore at two to three feet deep. A conduit is hooked to the bore, then fibre is blown into the conduit. This process can sometimes push up rocks underground and create bumps at the surface (driveways, lawns, etc.).
Trenches about four inches wide are legally required where lines cross or are near another utility for visual confirmation of safe passage. Backfilling is usually completed within 24 hours, although crews may need to wait longer for asphalt in some cases.
Where boring and trenching happens is determined in the project design phase. However, where trenching crews encounter concrete or stamped driveways, the fibre will be bored as a courtesy to those homeowners, except if crossing another utility line.
Upon completion of works, crews will restore cuts and trenches to City specifications. Interlocking will be reinstalled. Restoration may not exactly match the rest of the asphalt (nature of material) or lawn (different types of grass). Garden restoration is not required of the contractor.
Most restoration work is usually completed by the end of next workday, although crews may wait to bundle several locations for asphalt remediation. Reseeding may also be delayed to the spring for projects near the end of the year.
Works are confined to the City’s right of way unless the resident provides consent for the wire to be brought to the home at no extra cost. Crews may also need to dig into edges of gardens in the City’s right-of-way where trenching is required. Remember utilities have a legislated right of access to build, maintain, and repair their infrastructure. Please do not obstruct work crews.
The telecom will canvass affected residents if they would like the cable connected to their home and if they would like to purchase fibre services. There is NO obligation to agree to either. Even if you agree to a connection for future use, there is no obligation to purchase the services.
If connection is declined, the cable will end in an underground box installed flush to the ground in the right-of-way. The connection can be requested in the future, which will complete at no extra cost to you or a future resident.
As crew washroom facilities are legally required at construction sites, a portable toilet will be installed in/near the work zone. The location is based on what's least obstructive to works and the flow of general traffic. This will be removed once works are complete.
In 2022, some residents were provided incorrect or misleading information about obligations to connect and purchase services due to poor training and communication. To my knowledge, that has not happened in 2023, and the telecoms have agreed to continue ensuring it does not happen again.
The telecoms and their contractors have stated their commitment to act in good faith during the project. Project contractor contact information is posted on signs at work sites. All restoration works are guaranteed by a two-year warranty.
For inquiries and concerns, to report damages caused by works or to exercise a warranty, contact me at Wilson.Lo@ottawa.ca or by calling 613-580-2846. Concerns requiring immediate attention should be shared with 3-1-1.
The first residential fibre optic installation will begin April 15 on the streets listed below. More information about the project will be available on my Facebook page in the coming days. Notifications about future projects will also be posted through Facebook (and made obvious by flags in lawns).
Beatrice (between Claridge and Berrigan)
Burntwood
Claridge (between Totteridge and Beatrice)
Gospel Oak
Nottingham
Queensbury (between Beatrice and Burntwood)
Upminster (between Totteridge and Gospel Oak)
Upney
Take care and enjoy your week!
-Wilson