On Monday February 12th, the Government of Canada, the City of Ottawa announced that they had reached an agreement to fast-track over 4,400 housing units over the next three years. The work will help spur the construction of 32,600 homes over the next decade.
Under the Housing Accelerator Fund, this agreement will provide over $176.3 million to eliminate barriers to building the housing we need, faster. It will allow for more housing options in the city, including more rental, affordable, and missing middle-housing, with up to four units as-of-right through their comprehensive By-Law Review process. Ottawa’s Action Plan proposes a variety of approaches that will leave lasting impacts on the broader housing system and influence long-range planning through a city-wide plan. Initiatives proposed include the elimination or simplification of rezoning requirements to allow for low-density area intensification, expansion of existing affordable rental programming, and modernizing policy and regulatory frameworks including digitization and leveraging office buildings and city-owned land for housing.
More information here:
Helping build more homes, faster in Ottawa
Government of Canada invests $3 million in citizen science and open data for birds and biodiversity
Birds are the most accessible and effective indicators of the health of air, water, and land. They are at the heart of Canada's biodiversity and play an essential role in maintaining healthy, resilient ecosystems in communities. When bird populations and their habitats are thriving, communities also benefit.
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced an investment of $3 million to Birds Canada over five years. The funding will support citizen science programs and open data, providing access to hundreds of millions of data records gathered by volunteers and professional biologists on the distribution, abundance, and population trends for birds in Canada.
The new funding will allow Birds Canada to build and improve the tools needed to collect, analyze, and share open-access data that will inform a wide range of conservation efforts. Also, experts and citizen science volunteers will be mobilized across Canada to monitor migratory birds, including species at risk, to identify priority habitats and inform land-use management to better protect them.
For more information:
Government of Canada invests $3 million in citizen science and open data for birds and biodiversity
News from the Rideau Sports Centre
Tennis for everyone in Ottawa has just gotten more accessible,
now offering 864 hours of indoor court time every week on 8 bubbled hard courts at Rideau Sports Centre (RSC)’s new, expanded indoor tennis facilities, now Ottawa’s largest indoor tennis facility. On Thursday, I joined Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, provincial MP Lucille Collard, city councillor Rawlson King and RSC Founder and CEO Nicki Bridgland to make the announcement.
RSC has doubled its available indoor tennis courts from four to eight, resulting in Ottawa’s per capita availability of indoor tennis courts now improved to 1:57,000 (previously 1:73,000), getting Ottawa closer to the national average of 1:50,000. And anyone can play here.
As a result of this indoor court expansion, RSC will be able to host Provincial, National and International tennis tournaments, boosting local player development, and Ottawa tourism by attracting national and international players.
I invite you to take a look at the services offered by the Rideau Sports Center by clicking here:
Rideau Sports Centre