Weekly newsletter: February 17, 2026
Happy Lunar New Year!
祝大家身體健康, 龍馬精神! 恭喜發財, 新年快樂!
Wishing you and your family good health, strong spirit, and prosperity this Year of the Horse, and hoping that you can celebrate with those close to you.
Special shoutout to the Chapman Mills Public School community, which made and delivered over 300 Valentine’s cards to residents of two long-term care homes in Barrhaven East! How sweet is that?
Waste collection
New residential curbside collection contract begins the week of March 30. Please take note of the streets listed in the graphics above.
The City’s current contract for residential curbside waste collection ends on Friday March 27, with a new one beginning Monday March 30.
With the new contract, some garbage and green bin collection areas and routes have been adjusted to improve operational balance and efficiency, as new communities in the last 13 years were simply added to the nearest existing route.
Most notably, the new contract will begin on a paper recycling (black bin)/green bin week, meaning there will be two weeks in a row without garbage and container recycling (blue bin). The cycle change aligns Barrhaven with the rest of the city west of the Rideau River.
To offset that, the garbage limit will temporarily be increased to six items for the two garbage days in April. As a reminder, multiple garbage bags in a container less than 140 litres in capacity are considered one item.
During the two weeks without garbage collection, households with special consideration pickup for diapers and medical waste will receive that service for both weeks.
Collection day in the Foxfield-Holitman neighbourhood (“Northwest Triangle”) will change to Thursdays, as it gets moved to a route that also services the west side of Greenbank Road. The change eliminates out-of-service travel (deadheading) to get to/from the neighbourhood south of the railway.
Collection day will be delayed by a day the week of April 6 for Easter Monday.
Originally, paper collection calendars were to be discontinued, but with assurances from Circular Materials that collection days will be unchanged for the next year, paper collection calendars will be produced and distributed to households in early March.
However, please feel free to save and/or print the collection calendars for the transition period above. Information is also available at Ottawa.ca↗ and through the City’s collection calendar app (which includes recycling collection days) available for Apple↗ and Android↗.
Deerfox/Woodroffe closure
Contractor has not fulfilled one of the road closure permit conditions.
Deerfox Drive between Ryland and Woodroffe is set to close to all vehicle traffic for a month starting today until Friday March 13 to facilitate a water connection for the ongoing private development at the northwest corner of Deerfox/Woodroffe. The sidewalk on the south side of the street would remain open.
Typically, the contractor would apply for a road closure permit with a description of the work. The request is circulated with City staff and the local councillor for input. Councillor input can include hyper-local considerations like suggested areas for required flyer distribution. If approved, a notification is then sent out.
I was notified of the closure only last week, but thankfully in time for last week’s newsletter. For residents closest to the closure, the notice for this lengthy and relatively significant closure was very short.
Closure requests related to development (like this one is) can be approved or rejected based on paperwork only, but typically have one main condition, that flyers be distributed to nearby households as notification.
Based on feedback from area residents, it’s my understanding the notices were not delivered, so I have reached out to City staff for next steps. Among the options staff can exercise is a cancellation/delay of the permit. More information will be shared on Facebook↗ or my next newsletter once available.
Cresthaven Drive watermain break
Many thanks to crews for their diligent repair work.
Early Friday morning, the watermain under Cresthaven Drive between Versilia and Baypointe broke, sending water gushing to the surface and coating some surrounding streets in water that quickly froze.
Crews were on scene by 3:00 am to isolate the damaged section of pipe. Repairs began around 6:30 am and were complete by 6:30 pm, which was followed by backfilling and asphalt before Cresthaven was reopened around 8:30 pm.
During that time, public works crews also cleared and salted affected roadways, which was helped by the afternoon sun.
City staff are still investigating the cause of the break, though early information they provided suggested it was caused by frost heaving beyond the pipe’s structural tolerance. At just under 25 years old, the pipe is relatively young, especially compared to other recent watermain breaks, but heaving knows no age.
The asphalt on the repaired road surface now is coarser and may require attention throughout the winter until asphalt plants reopen in the spring for a proper road repair. Please let me know of any issues at Wilson.Lo@ottawa.ca or open a service request at Ottawa.ca/3-1-1↗ as required.
Bite-sized updates
Sorted alphabetically. New or updated items from last week marked with an asterisk (*).
Beatrice/Queensbury (stop 3345) bus shelter – Delayed to the spring or summer. See explanation and update.
*Deerfox/Woodroffe closure – See update in this newsletter.
Development application, 320 Bren-Maur West↗ – The City received an application to construct a three-storey apartment building with 35 units and underground parking. The lot is currently zoned development reserve, and the developer is seeking rezoning to permit residential development.
*Development application, 3400 Woodroffe↗ – The City received an application to construct 160 homes divided amongst stacked townhouses, back-to-back townhouses, and traditional townhouses. The developer is seeking rezoning to permit the desired density. Given public interest in the file, I am organising a public information session with the developer.
Development application, 596 Via Campanale↗ – The developer is seeking to amend their development approval to increase the number of units from 92 to 99, following a market analysis. No changes to the building height or footprint.
Fallowfield/Transitway – The traffic signals at Fallowfield/Transitway are intermittently cycling on their own (instead of changing for Transitway traffic only). City staff will investigate all detection components as the fault has happened a few times over the last year.
Police office hours – South District officers will test out open office hours as an added form of community outreach. Officers will be upstairs at the Walter Baker Sports Centre from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm every other Thursday, with their next day on February 19. No registration or scheduling needed.
Recycling – Friendly reminder that all recycling inquiries, including service issues and replacement bin requests should be directed to Miller Waste at 1-888-852-2374 or Area2@MillerWaste.ca. Garbage, green bin, and yard waste remain responsibilities of the city.
Vacant unit tax – The 2026 vacant unit tax declaration portal is now open. Homeowners may complete their declaration through their ServiceOttawa account↗, at Ottawa.ca/VUT↗, by calling 613-580-2444, or in person at Ben Franklin Place or City Hall. Letters with access codes were delivered last week. The deadline to complete the VUT declaration is March 19, 2026.
*Waste collection – Garbage, blue bin, and green bin collection is delayed by a day to Wednesday this week, as Monday was Family Day.
Have a great week ahead, and happy pancake Tuesday!
-Wilson