Weekly newsletter: October 29, 2024
Hi everyone!
It continues to be such a pleasure to have met and spoken with so many residents at community events and at their doors over the last few weeks.
Did you know Barrhaven has a local Toastmasters Club that just celebrated its 20th anniversary?
Thank you to the residents who came to the barbecue at Foot Guards Park last Saturday.
It was also so awesome seeing kids and parents in Halloween costumes at Farley Mowat Public School’s trunk or treat event. My favourite costume was the girl dressed as a toilet (I wonder if it’s related to the skibidi toilet thing).
Sprung structure shelter – update eight
Public virtual information session Thursday November 7 at 7:00 pm— no registration required: look for a link to the session in next week's newsletter, on our social media, and on our website as soon as it becomes available. Previous updates can be found here (under the sprung structure shelters tab).
Quick recap
Since it was made public in July, I have been opposed to the proposal. My position continues to remain the same. The type of structure proposed is not appropriate for housing people in Barrhaven or anywhere, even on a temporary basis.
To quickly recap, at a City Council meeting back in July, I motioned to withdraw staff’s authority to advance the sprung structure proposal. The vote failed three to 21, with 20 other councillors and the Mayor voting to continue to support the project.
Despite that, Councillor Hill and I continued engaging with City staff, the Mayor, and the Mayor’s office, to challenge some of the earlier assumptions and conclusions.
It is still a bad policy, and we have been working since July to secure a better outcome for everybody involved, from existing residents in our community, to the asylum seekers who would be temporarily housed under the City’s care while they awaited processing by the federal government.
Additionally, the City’s application for federal funding for the proposal has not yet been submitted and won’t be until the preferred sites are confirmed by an engineering report currently underway.
The next two weeks will perhaps be the most important time period for the overall process.
The report will be complete soon and is expected to be released late next week. A freedom of information request I opened against city staff for the full list of sites considered and the selection criteria, is due mid-November.
Councillor Hill and I will also be hosting a public information virtual session on Thursday, November 7, at 7:00 pm. Details are below.
Later this week, I also have another meeting with a stakeholder relations person at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital to further discussions about a potential Barrhaven urgent care clinic at Greenbank/Highbury Park. Exciting!
Ongoing engineering evaluations
The third-party engineering firm will complete its field work and report, which staff will release by memo late next week. The memo will include a ranking of preferred sites, plus information about the site selection process.
Interestingly, the information about the site selection process was part of my freedom of information request, though I’m unsure if it will include a list of all sites considered throughout the entire process. I will not be withdrawing my information request, and staff will still have to meet the mid-November deadline.
An intrusive environmental investigation will also be underway at the Greenbank/Highbury Park site as part of the engineer’s field work, briefly described as follows:
October 29 (today) – utility locates and geophysical survey
October 30 – test pitting, a series of small excavations with a backhoe to collect soil samples
November 13 to November 15 – more holes to be drilled for soil sampling, with wells installed in select holes
November 22 – wells to be installed to allow for groundwater sample collection
November 27 – groundwater sampling to be collected
Excess soil and water will be stored on site in sealed, labelled drums until the lab results confirm the appropriate disposal method.
There will be noise and dust during test pitting and drilling operations. Work will not occur outside 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
The type of work is required by provincial environmental legislation, where former industrial lands are to become residential/residential-type (including shelter) lands. 1005 Greenbank used to be a snow dump, while 1045 Greenbank was a Nav Canada facility which included a diesel generator.
The work determines if soil remediation will be necessary as part of the construction, which will add significant time and cost to any project. It is possible that prospect may mean it falls outside the federal government funding’s “rapid deployment” criteria.
The work is also being done at another west-end property outside Barrhaven, which was a site that was recently added for consideration for a sprung structure shelter.
Your first thought may be “wow, that’s a lot of taxpayer money,” and you’d be right, but my failed motion at Council back in July means staff have the authority to continue advancing the project, including detailed site evaluations.
Although staff have stated the detailed work does not seal either site’s fate, I understand you’ll be uneasy about the sunk costs and level of work being done, because I share that unease.
You may also notice some of the work is scheduled after the report is to be completed. Staff also added there’s also an overall desire to complete environmental due diligence on city-owned lands across Ottawa, to which this evaluation contributes.
Public information virtual session
Councillor Hill and I will be hosting a public information virtual session the evening of November 7, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
The session will be an opportunity for us to provide a concise account of what the proposal is, what has happened so far, what we have done and will continue to do to oppose it, and what to expect next.
There will also be an opportunity for residents to ask questions and share their concerns and feedback about the proposal.
Although we have both been sharing lots of information through our newsletters, we understand there are challenges and gaps in our reach. The overall timeline has also fragmented the way information has been shared as well.
Please share the session with as many people as possible. We hope to see you there!
I truly appreciate your continued care and engagement on the issue. Thank you to the residents who have emailed and called my office to share their feedback and express their concerns about the proposal, including many who copied me in emails to the Mayor’s office.
Housing long range financial plan, committee meeting
Additionally, a joint meeting of the Finance and Corporate Services and of the Planning and Housing committees will be held Wednesday November 6 at 11:00 am (or 15 minutes after the main Finance and Corporate Services Committee ends).
At that meeting, staff will provide an update on the long range financial plan (2025 to 2030)↗ for subsidised, supportive, and transitional housing in Ottawa.
The report briefly mentions the City working with the federal government to secure funding for two “newcomer reception centres.” The ongoing work is the sprung structure shelter proposal.
Given the concerns highlighted earlier and throughout the summer about the use of an inappropriate type of structure for housing, Councillor Hill and I will be speaking against the item at committee.
Residents interested in the overall sprung structure discussion can choose to send a written submission (email is fine) for the committee’s consideration, or even make a public delegation at next Wednesday’s committee meeting.
To find out more about sending a written submission or making a public delegation, please reach out to me by replying to this newsletter.
Trillium Line trial running
Second of two phases of trial running successfully complete. System moves towards regulatory approvals, final works, and substantial completion.
The seven days of scenario trials have been completed successfully by OC Transpo and TransitNext. The second phase of trial running provided several opportunities for operations and maintenance staff to work through various scenarios that could occur when lines 2 and 4 are in service.
Unlike the first phase of trial running, there was no scoring component to the scenarios, but they allowed staff to further assess and finesse operating procedures and workflow, as well as identify gaps, and validate technical systems.
A sample of scenarios tested during the week include:
Emergency first responder access
Flooding in the Dow’s Lake tunnel
Immobilised trains at various locations, including sections with only a single track, and the track connecting the storage facility with the main line
Track blockage at South Keys Station (interchange between lines 2 and 4)
Unauthorised persons on the track and other obstructions
Various single-track operating patterns
A full list of scenarios simulated, plus results of the first phase of trial running, can be found at OCTranspo.com↗.
Later this week, City Council will receive a full report and briefing on the results. The project then moves towards substantial completion, final readiness work, and regulatory approvals from federal bodies, a process which will take a minimum of three weeks.
Upon completion of those contractual and regulatory requirements, the Trillium Line will move towards service launch for transit customers. At that point, an opening date will be shared publicly.
As of October 27, 2024, the earliest possible opening date for service is the week of November 18, 2024, assuming there are no delays in the contractual and regulatory approval process.
The new bus network launches in April 2025, but routes 74 and 99 will be modified to service Limebank Station once the line opens. The 600-space park and ride at Bowesville Station also opens when the line opens.
As shared two weeks ago, students at Carleton University have access to the parking closer to campus at “Lot 64” at the northwest corner of Heron and Riverside at a daily rate of $7.50 until Bowesville Station opens.
O-Train Line 1 service disruptions
Continued implementation of sustainable solution for the Confederation Line.
Moving over to the troubled Confederation Line, rail service on Line 1 will be partly or fully suspended on select days and times between now and Sunday, November 3.
Tonight (October 29) and tomorrow night (October 30), regular rail service will operate from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm, with rail service between Tunney’s Pasture and uOttawa only and R1 between Rideau and Blair from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am.
Regular rail service will operate all day Thursday, October 31, and Friday, November 1.
A weekend full closure of Line 1 means R1 buses will operate between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair stations Saturday, November 2, and Sunday, November 3.
(The graphic above is probably easier to understand than the text version.)
During the closures, crews will perform rail ballast (the rocks under the tracks) work to improve overall track stability between Hurdman and Tremblay stations. Rail grinding across the entire line will also be done to maximise the effectiveness of top-of-rail lubricators installed at the curves, throughout 2024.
The work is intended to contribute to the line’s overall reliability as part of its sustainable solution, which also includes a redesign of the train’s axle assemblies. That work is undertaken at RTG’s expense.
Additionally, city staff will perform routine inspections of the tunnel structure at St-Laurent Station.
Thank you, as always, for reading. Please share the sprung structure update as widely as you can, especially the public information session!
-Wilson