The Master Plan (TMP) is the city’s long-range strategy that is meant to guide Ottawa’s transportation system up until 2046, and council has officially approved Part 2 of the plan, which focuses on capital infrastructure.

While Part 1 was approved in April 2023 and outlines policies and priorities for transportation in Ottawa, Part 2 is based on travel demand forecasting and includes approximately $3.4 billion in city-led transportation projects.

The plan outlines $2.3 billion in transit projects and $1.6 billion in road projects, with active transportation projects like pedestrian and cycling networks accounting for $350 million.

According to the city’s Official Plan, Ottawa is projected to increase by over 400,000 residents over the next 20 years, with 47 per cent of new dwellings built with intensification, mostly inside the city’s Greenbelt. According to the staff report, the TMP identifies the transportation policies and investments that will be required to support the projected growth.

The forecasts for transportation in Ottawa also take into account post-pandemic shifts to working from home, leading to “evolving and diverse transportation needs”, the report says.

The plan allocates $8 million annually to implement “the most critical isolated measures”.

During the mayoral election, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe campaigned largely on road-centred infrastructure and shared priorities among drivers, especially those living in suburban neighbourhoods. But according to the TMP, road investments were only considered “where transit would not be sufficient to meet demand.”

Some of the projects among “highest-priority” are the Baseline-Heron, Cumberland and Kanata North Transitways and bus lanes on Carling Avenue, Blair Road, St-Laurent Boulevard and Montreal Road, as are the O-Train extensions.

The rapid bus projects will be injected with $2.3 billion from the city, city staff said, and the rest will be funded by other levels of government.

The O-Train Line 1 extension from Algonquin Station to Barrhaven Town Centre and the Line 3 extension from Moodie Station to Hazeldean Station are also included among the highest of the priorities, accounting for an additional $8.3 billion in investment.

The report notes that the implementation of these extensions “remains fully reliant on funding from other levels of government.”

“However, even with 100 per cent capital funding, the operating costs of these projects are very significant,” the report continues, “and are not expected to be substantially offset by increased fare revenue from these extensions.

These projects are all part of the “Priority Transit Network” and are meant to be implemented in the next 20 years.

City administration recommended the entire network be submitted for funding from the Canada Public Transit Fund.

The plan also includes committed road projects, like the Bank Street widening project and Robert Grant Avenue extension.

Notably, the TMP refers to the Official Plan’s target of having the majority of trips in Ottawa made by walking, cycling transit or carpooling. The latest data from the a 2022 city survey said sustainable moves currently account for 43.4 per cent of trips.

Once implemented, the TMP will add approximately 43 kilometres of O-Train tracks, 111 kilometres of Transitway and continuous bus lanes, 68 kilometres of road widenings and new roads, 48 kilometres of sidewalks, 18 kilometres of pathways and 151 kilometres of cycling facilities.

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As part of its plan to identify and track violence against women and intimate partner violence (IPV), OPS has committed to releasing both annual and semi-annual statistics. This month, the semi-annual statistics were released for the first time, and they showed a nine per cent increase in reports of intimate partner violence in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period of time in 2024.

According to the data, just above 80 per cent of victims identified as female, while 18.6 per cent identified as male. The majority — 50 per cent — were between the ages of 30 and 45. Nearly 30 per cent were between 18 and 29 and 12.4 per cent were between 46 and 60. Victims under the age of 18 were represented in 4.8 per cent of reports, and 3.4 per cent were over the age of 60.

Melanie Winwood is the senior advisor for violence against women at OPS, and she said the increase is “significant” and could be due to a variety of factors.

In January of this year, OPS began a pilot project to offer more options for reporting IPV. If accessibility has increased, that could contribute to the increase, said Winwood.

Until recently, the main form of reporting involved calling emergency dispatchers, then waiting for a patrol officer to arrive. 

“Now, they don’t necessarily have to wait for a physical police like patrol response to wherever they’re calling from, which would take hours, and we would lose women by the time the officers got there,” she said. “They either weren’t there, depending on where they had called from, or they didn’t want to provide a report anymore.

“Their abuser could show up and threaten them, or they could just change their mind and think they’re being silly or that it isn’t a big deal,” Winwood continued. 

But there’s also evidence that social norms could be resulting in a rise in reports, Winwood said, especially when it comes to younger age groups.

“That age group is under 18, but we usually will see them starting at 16. But you’re looking at 14-18 year olds in 4.8 per cent of reports. That’s not insignificant, and that’s something that needs to be focused on,” she said. “We’re working on reaching out and addressing that with the youth, either in the schools or youth programming.

“We’re working on education about healthy relationships and signs of an abusive relationship,” Winwood continued. 

When it comes to addressing and even preventing IPV on a more substantial level, though, Winwood said it goes “beyond policing”.

“Police can respond to the calls when people reach out and seek help or things like that,” she said. “But a lot of this is more on a community or societal level.

“We haven’t had a really big shift in gender norms or society, like social views on women versus men. And I think that’s a big conversation,” she said. “That is often missed because a lot of things kind of age out with generations, but this remains consistent throughout history. I don’t know that there’s been a huge shift.”

Dr. Katie Bausch is a feminist historian and instructor at Carleton University’s Feminist Institute for Social Transformation. Bausch will be teaching a course focused on gender-based violence in the winter, and she said she’s “unfortunately not surprised” to see that rates of intimate partner violence are increasing, largely due to this “particular moment” in society.

“Right now, there’s a kind of masculinity that’s being celebrated that I don’t think necessarily leads directly to violent behavior, but is a culture that permits violence against women and gender-queer people,” she told Ottawa Compass. “The things that people make jokes about and think are funny, and the way sort of women and gender queer people are still ‘other’… It doesn’t actually surprise me.”

While law enforcement has a role in education and spreading awareness, Bausch agreed with Winwood that addressed the problem in a substantial way “goes deeper.”

Part of the issue is that IPC is often framed as a “women’s issue”, Bausch said, which places blame and responsibility on women — excluding the cases where men are victims. But since the vast majority of reports come from women, Bausch said there needs to be more discussion about addressing the issue with young men and boys.

“I do think it should be part of the curriculum where we talk openly about how this is a problem of men, and it’s been structured as a problem for women,” she explained. “We’re taught to protect ourselves, and those resources can be great, but there are very few, if any, resources for boys and men. 

“If you make it a problem for women, you don’t have to have a frank conversation about masculinity and manhood, which a lot of people feel like if you do, it’s like a blame game,” she continued. “People get very defensive.”

However, by going to schools and speaking to boys about healthy relationships and behaviour, Bausch said educators could get ahead of the curve.

“Little boys don’t dream of growing up to be that person, and there are ways in which they’re being oppressed by masculinity…” she said. “So I think you can deliver it in a way that’s not about blame.

“[Gender-based violence] has never not been present in the patriarchal system. And I think where we could really put resources and effort is in stopping teaching boys that when you feel scared and insecure about your position in the world, that anger and violence is the way to feel better,” explained Bausch. “It’s like we create these men and then we punish them for being what we created.”

Bausch also said funding and streamlining processes for schools or organizations seeking government support and funding in these areas.

“I think that there has been so much grace given to try to work this out in traditional ways that we should now be able to admit as a community they don’t work, because nothing’s changing,” she said. “I do appreciate the [OPS], I do believe that people who take on those roles take it seriously and care. I just think that the police can only do so much.”

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The Barrie Police Service responded to reports that a man in his early 70’s was found injured in a parking lot on Lakeshore Drive. During the investigation, police learned that the man was the victim of a fraud scheme. The following information is from the Barrie Police Service:

“The victim advised police that he had received an unexpected call from an unknown male just before 8:00 p.m., stating that he was a suspect in a fraud investigation and police were going to come to his home and arrest him. The caller convinced the victim that in order to resolve the situation, he needed to attend a Collier Street financial institution. The victim took a cab to that location where an unknown male identified himself as the bank manager and stated they needed to go to another bank located at Minets Point Road and Yonge Street. 

The senior, whose mobility is aided by a walker, got into the alleged bank manager’s car and at the bank, a cheque was deposited into the victim’s bank account.

The alleged bank manager, who is now considered a primary suspect in this scheme, drove the victim away from the Minets Point Road and Yonge Street bank and stopped in a Lakeshore Drive parking lot where he removed him from the car, and drove away with his walker. The victim, who was unsteady on his feet without the use of his walker, fell to the ground, sustained some facial injuries and was transported to a local hospital for treatment.”

Police are urging people with elderly loved ones to discuss this event and remind them about how to identify fraud. 

Investigators are seeking to identify a male suspect between the ages of 30 and 40 with a brown complexion, black hair, beard, wearing a black shirt and driving and a black Cadillac.

Police Service Dog Serge Retires

A long-serving member of the Barrie Police Service is retiring — Serge, a german shepherd who has served since 2014, is retiring from service.

Serge is the partner of Barrie Police Constable Matt Abofs and has attended 775 operational deployments that included tracking, searches for controlled drugs, evidence and people. He was responsible in 316 incidents where people were located, receiving a Life Saving Award in 2019.

He will spend his retirement living with Abofs, who will continue to serve in the canine unit with his other canine partner Radar, a Belgian malinois. 

Police respond to weapons report

A 22-year-old man was arrested on Monday evening after he was reported to be loading a firearm, Barrie Police say. 

Police responded to reports of the man and located him, and he was taken into custody without incident. No firearm was located.

Police rescue teens on Kempenfelt Bay

Two female teenagers were rescued from Kempenfelt Bay on July 24 after they were blown into open water on an inflatable floatie, say Barrie Police.

The teenagers were not wearing life jackets and could not swim and were on the floatie near the Centennial Beach fountain when strong, sudden winds blew them out to 100f eet from shore.

Barrie Police were able to bring the girls safely ashore near the Tiffin boat Launch and are encouraging people to use caution and wear a life jacket when spending time in water.

Barrie man killed in single motor vehicle collision

A man was killed in a single motor vehicle collision on July 23, Barrie Police say, after the vehicle left the roadway, struck a tree and fell on its side.

The driver was extricated by the Barrie Fire and Emergency Services and was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The collision occurred on Huronia Road south of Mapleview Drive East, Barrie Police say.

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The team was greeted by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to the National Art Gallery on Tuesday on the road to the World Cup, which will be held in England in August. The Canadian team currently holds second place in the international ranking.

On Friday, the team will also be playing against the United States at TD Place.

“Fans here in Ottawa are going to get to see this incredible team in action before you get overseas,” Sutcliffe said in his remarks. “I’m really looking forward to the game on Friday… to face off against the United States of America. I don’t know whether you’re allowed to have your elbows up in rugby, but anyway, it’s going to be a very interesting match.”

Sutcliffe went on to say that he’s dedicated to supporting women’s sports and hoping to host “more and more” rugby events in the city.

“Thank you for everything you do to inspire women and girls in sports. Congratulations on making Team Canada,” he said. “Thank you for representing our country, and good luck at the World Cup.”

The event was more than a little nostalgic for Claire Gallagher, the team’s fly-half who is a University of Ottawa Health Sciences alum from the class of 2023.

Gallagher, who was born in Caledon, Ont., plays for the Leicester Tigers. She was previously with the Aurora Barbarians. 

She came to Ottawa a few days early, she told Ottawa Compass, to revisit some of her old haunts.

“I was able to go to an Ottawa Rapids soccer game, so that was really cool. I went to the University and was able to come back and see my friends, hit all the spots around campus,” she said. “I’ve been showing some of the girls on the team my favorite spots in Ottawa, like the coffee shops and secret swimming spots.”

It was a full-circle moment to return, she added, after playing rugby for the Geegees during her studies.

“Two years ago, we played here and I got my first cap in Ottawa. So that was super special,” she said, referencing her debut for the Canadian national team. “Coming back, I’m seeing all the university girls that I played with who were younger when I was on the team, and now they’re hopefully seeing they can be here one day, too.

“I looked up to girls on the team, when I wasn’t here quite yet. So that’s really special to be that person for them.”

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Dr. Tim Aubry is a professor in the university’s school of psychology and senior researcher at the ​​Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services. He’s been studying homelessness, its causes and the possible solutions for decades, and he says transitional housing facilities that provide long-term housing options on a temporary basis could be perpetuating the problems, despite receiving support from the community and City.

Aubry was part of the research group that studied the Housing First (HF) approach over a decade ago and conducted a report based on engagement with 2,000 people. According to this research, Aubry says the most effective approach is to house people — permanently — and follow up with support and resources. Unlike transitional housing, which has been advertised across the country as a necessary in-between step, HF does not have a time limit for how long people can stay.

To address the ongoing homelessness crisis, the City of Ottawa has opened a new transitional housing facility that will provide temporary housing for up to 140 people. The city has leased the building at 230 Queen St. for a 10-year term to establish a transitional housing facility that will provide “temporary” accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and connect them with employment and housing resources.

“This is technically considered a shelter. It’s not permanent housing, so it sits within the shelter system,” said Kale Brown, director of housing with the city. “The way our system works in terms of who ends up going to this building is you’re assessed by your needs and then we determine a placement, working with our various shelter partners.”

The Queen Street facility will focus on newcomers to Canada but can serve anyone who meets the criteria, Brown said, and will offer supportive temporary accommodations, the building includes kitchens, dining areas, washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, lounge areas, and dedicated rooms for meetings and workshops.

Clients will also have access to settlement and employment support, housing search case management, short-term mental health crisis workers, and weekly life skills workshops

This is the second transitional housing facility for single adults in Ottawa — the other, St-Joseph Transitional Housing Program in the east end, exclusively serves newcomers seeking asylum in Canada who are experiencing homelessness.

While emergency shelters like the Ottawa Mission and Shepherds of Good Hope aim to shelter people for only 30 days, they can stay in transitional housing for up to a year until they “get on their feet”, said Brown.

The “Housing First” program and research followed 2,000 individuals as well as hundreds of service providers across Canada over two years. Across all cities, HF participants obtained housing and retained their housing at a much higher rate than the treatment as usual (TAU) group.

In the last six months of the study, 62 per cent of HF participants were housed all of the time, 22 per cent some of the time, and 16 per cent none of the time. In comparison, 31 per cent of TAU participants were housed all of the time, 23 per cent some of the time, and 46 per cent none of the time.

“The idea is to rehouse people without condition, so they don’t have to go through any kind of transitional process,” Aubry told Ottawa Compass. “This approach targets people with histories of chronic homelessness, particularly histories of mental health problems and often with addiction.”

Transitional models have been useful in the past, he said, and have been used for decades to help people transition from living in psychiatric hospitals, for example, to living independently. 

The Queen Street housing consists of sleeping “pods” with shared living spaces, allowing some independence with plenty of support and resources. But there isn’t a lot of privacy — due to the layout of the building, the pods don’t have floor-to-ceiling walls.

“What we’re seeing here in the city, I think it’s really just more emergency shelter space, just with sort of a different model,” Aubry said.

The Queen Street facility is geared towards newcomers to Canada, as is a facility on St. Joseph Boulevard, and in these cases, Aubry said transitional housing could help as people get on their feet.

But in the context of chronic homelessness, it might be a different conversation.

“Housing First involved housing and support in line with people’s needs. So it can be quite intensive, but the actual rental housing is a big problem,” said Aubry. “Many people who are homeless are on social benefits here in Ontario, and they don’t have enough money to pay the rent in the private market.”

Through Housing First programs, people can receive a housing supplement that Aubry said would “ideally” pay more than 30 per cent of rent. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of affordable housing in Ontario and extremely low vacancy rates.

The report found that HF approaches resulted in savings over time, with the most significant for the participants with highest costs at entry.

For this group, the intervention cost was $19,582 per person per year on average, and over the two-year period following study entry, every $10 invested in HF services resulted in an average savings of $21.72, the report stated.

When the report was first released, the federal government mandated communities across the country to invest in Housing First initiatives. However, in 2017, the Liberals released a new national housing strategy that placed the focus on social housing.

“There was nothing about Housing First in the strategy, so things have stalled,” said Aubry.

“If you look at the last six or seven years, we’ve grown some of the HF programs, but we really haven’t seen any kind of scaling up of them, despite the fact that we know that chronic homelessness has increased significantly,” he continued.

“We have a lot more visible homelessness, a lot more people unsheltered — they’re living in encampments, and they’re really not tied to any kind of system. And this is the kind of approach that could address that.”

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A lawyer for one of two leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” facing sentencing told an Ottawa court Wednesday her client should not be left with a criminal record.

Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said Wednesday she is seeking stiff sentences for convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa’s downtown core.

Outside the courthouse, a few demonstrators gathered with signs that protested vaccine mandates, called COVID-19 a “hoax”, and advocated, “free Tamara”. Among them was a billboard truck owned by far-right media website Rebel News touting an LED sign of Lich, accompanied by the words, “Tamara Lich stood up for democracy. Trudeau threw her in jail.”

The focus on Wednesday was on Barber, with Lich’s attorney set to present Thursday. Inside, the large courtroom was nearly full. Some of the observers gathered carried paper Canadian flags.

Diane Magas, Barber’s lawyer, told the court she wants an absolute discharge for her client because he’s been out on bail without incident for the last 3 1/2 years. That decision would mean Barber would not receive a criminal record.

While Barber did not address the court himself, Magas said “his intention was not to harm the people of Ottawa. It was an unfortunate consequence of what occurred in the protest.”

Magas said that if Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey decides a criminal record is necessary, she wants to see Barber receive a suspended or conditional sentence to be served in his home community.

Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their key roles in the convoy protest, which filled downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures.

The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order.

Lich’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon is set to present his submissions Thursday.

Magas called the Crown’s sentencing proposal “cruel and unusual,” adding that Barber has no criminal record and is a respected member of his community.

“Considering all of the circumstances of the offence, given the fact there was no violence, the fact my client was advocating no violence whatsoever,” Magas said outside the courthouse Wednesday.

During her submissions, Magas referred the judge to several mischief sentences emerging from the massive protests that attended the 2010 Toronto G20 Summit — including one six-month sentence for a person who pleaded guilty to smashing windows in two police vehicles.

Perkins-McVey said it’s hard to draw comparisons between the G20 protests and the convoy protest because the crimes in Toronto were “old-fashioned mischief.”

She said that if someone smashes a $400 window, the damage has a tangible cost, while the damage from the convoy protest is less tangible. She said this makes for a difficult sentencing decision, one that she does not take lightly.

The convoy protest ended after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever. The convoy was cleared out of Ottawa’s downtown core in a three-day police operation that began on Feb. 18, 2022.

The Crown is calling for a longer sentence for Barber because he was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order related to an injunction against protesters honking truck horns. Lich was not charged with that offence.

Perkins-McVey said in her April decision that she found Lich and Barber guilty of mischief because they routinely encouraged people to join or remain at the protest, despite knowing the adverse effects it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

Wetscher said she is seeking these sentences because of what Lich and Barber did, not because of their political beliefs.

Wetscher said that while Lich and Barber may have come to Ottawa with noble intentions, they continued to encourage people to take part in the protests even when it became impossible for them to ignore the effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

The prosecutor said that while there are mitigating sentencing factors for both Barber and Lich, the overall effect of the protest outweighs them.

Magas also referred to the sentencing of fellow “Freedom Convoy” organizer Pat King for mischief and disobeying a court order in February.

The Crown sought a sentence of 10 years in prison for King but he was sentenced to three months of house arrest, 100 hours of community service at a food bank or men’s shelter and a year of probation.

He received nine months’ credit for time served before his conviction.

Wetscher said that while the protest was not violent, it was not peaceful. She read a summary of victim impact statements that include one from an employee of a downtown Ottawa church who talked about still feeling ill at the sight of large trucks with Canadian flags.

That drew some chuckles from the gallery.

The Crown also emphasized that although Lich and Barber may have had “innocent intentions” when coming to Ottawa, that was not how the demonstration ended.

Wetscher added that the Ottawa Police Service has reported policing the protest cost $55 million, while the City of Ottawa pegged its own convoy-related costs at over $7 million.

The prosecutor said that while Lich and Barber aren’t responsible for every dollar spent because of the protest, those cost figures give the judge a sense of the protest’s impact.

Barber attended court virtually Wednesday, while Lich attended in person.

Both Lich and Barber were found not guilty on charges of intimidation, counselling to commit intimidation, obstructing police and counselling others to obstruct police.

Perkins-McVey said intimidation carries a sense of menace or violence. She said that both Lich and Barber repeatedly called for protesters to remain peaceful throughout the protest.

As for obstructing police, Perkins-McVey said both were arrested without incident and were in custody before the main police operation began to clear downtown Ottawa.

Charges for counselling others to commit mischief were stayed at the request of the Crown.

with files from The Canadian Press

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The derailments were just the latest of challenges plaguing the then-new LRT system, which soon triggered a provincial public inquiry.

Amilcar quickly inherited the controversial and flawed LRT system, ongoing construction to expand the Trillium Line O-Train, and an all-time low in bus reliability and ridership.

She brought with her a wealth of experience, a commitment to data transparency and an impressive technical expertise in transit, says Glen Gower, city councillor for Stittsville and chair of the Ottawa transit committee.

“What she was known for was being a very strong technical expert and engineer who really understood transit, but with an expertise in busses. And if I look over her tenure, I think now she’s recognized as someone who knows trains as well,” he told Ottawa Compass, reflecting on Amilcar’s time at OC Transpo. “And I think it was her technical abilities as an engineer that really helped her put a stamp on the organization.

“I remember her saying that we have technical problems with the train, and that there’s a technical solution.”

As chair, Gower and his staff met with Amilcar’s team regularly for updates on the city’s public transit system. 

“We were still very much in the pandemic, our ridership was significantly down on trains and buse, we were still dealing with a lot of technical issues with the trains, and we were on the verge of embarking on the major transformation of the bus fleet to electrical,” said Gower. “So, any one of those things on its own would have been plenty for a new general manager to handle, and she had all three.

“She had quite the list of “to-do” when she came on, and all of them were pretty major projects and challenges.”

In the time since then, Amilcar has overseen the testing, completion and opening of the O-Train’s south extension, which brings service to Limebank Station and to the Ottawa Airport. With her at the helm, the LRT extensions continued, with the east extension to Trim Road nearing completion in the testing phase, and the west Line 3 extension to Moodie Drive and Line 1 to Algonquin Station continuing to progress in construction.

Amilcar was tasked with implementing the recommendations from the public inquiry report and was responsible for the continued transition to electric bus fleet. She also implemented the “New Ways to Bus” route changes this spring.

Through the process of opening the O-Train extension, Amilcar provided reports to committee and city council, held media availabilities and provided updates on the testing and opening phases.

“Her own personal values and approach to leadership was about transparency and communications with council, because we’re the group that governs the organization, but also with the public and the importance of that transparency in rebuilding that trust,” said Gower.

Gower stressed that Amilcar was also dedicated to clearly communicating the organization’s goals and explaining both the positive and negative realities of OC Transpo service.

For example, in summer 2023, a technical issue with the LRT led to service being suspended for about a month. During that time, Amilcar held daily press conferences to inform the media of any updates or new information, said Gower.

“She felt it was important to have staff be able to provide updates about how things were going and answer questions from the media and so that the public would understand what’s happening in the background,” he said. “It’s a huge inconvenience to OC Transpo customers, but I think she felt it was important that people know what’s happening and why it is that the service isn’t running and what to expect.

“I guess it’s like when you’re on an airplane and your plane is stuck on the tarmac; it’s a lot better to know what the timeline is and have regular check-ins from your pilot, than to just sit there without having any idea what’s going on.”

Amilcar officially left OC Transpo this month after announcing her departure in June at a meeting of the transit committee. 

“We should all be very proud of the progress we’ve made toward improving customer service, restoring public trust and building a stronger, more reliable transit system,” Amilcar told committee and staff. “I will say that OC Transpo is on the right path, guided by strong civic leaders and a dedicated workforce. I’m very sad to be leaving.”

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Performers like Wilson, Hozier, Turnstile, Shania Twain and Def Leppard have taken to the main RBC stage, with more to come, including Sean Paul on Thursday, followed by Green Day on Friday and Papa Roach on Saturday. The festival will conclude on Sunday with Kaytranada.

Spokesperson Joe Reilly said the festival has made a full recovery since the pandemic, and has been in full swing for a few years now. This year, the festival will likely hit its usual average of approximately 250,000 attendees, with the biggest turnout for Green Day — Reilly said they estimate more than 25,000 will come out for the California rock band.

“If you look across the headliners, there’s a definite effort to make sure everybody feels there’ys something for them,” said Reilly. “We had classic rock with Def Leppard, for example. And then there’s four stages running all night, every night.”

The heat wave and isolated thunderstorms in Ottawa haven’t deterred attendees, either; Reilly said the Bluesfest team works with meteorologists to monitor the weather specific to LeBreton Flats.

He also said the festival is only possible due to volunteers. This year, the event expanded across both lanes of the Kichi Zībī Parkway to accommodate more people, and grown to about 2,000 volunteers. 

“This is a community festival, and the community helps to make it happen through the thousands of volunteers that come out every year and do everything from working in our bars to backstage hospitality for artists to the green team, who clean up the site every day and who actually do go through the refuse bags and separate recycling,” said Reilly. “Some people question whether all those different bags around the city and stuff get checked out or not, but ours definitely do. So that component of the festival is critical.”

Festivals like Bluesfest are known in the tourism industry as a marquee event, one that draws large crowds from both within the city and outside, says Jerome Miousse, director of public affairs at Ottawa Tourism.

“Ottawa is known for Bluesfest just as much as it’s known for the Tulip Festival, and just as much as it’s known for Winterlude,” he said. “These events are the ones that draw the most visitors to our city and are major contributors to our visitor economy to Ottawa, because they’re the best at drawing people and also triggering a decision for people to come to Ottawa for a time bound, specific event.

“They’re prepared for it in advance, like even before the Bluesfest lineup is out, they know that they will come to Ottawa for that.”

Nearly 80 per cent of Bluesfest attendees each year are repeat customers, according to Bluesfest’s data. 

Although it can be difficult to track how much traffic is a result of the festival, Miousse said the tourism industry as a whole brings approximately $2.6 billion to the local economy annually.

Data from Bluesfest found that festival-goers create an economic impact of approximately $40 million each year. 

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe shared photos of the Hozier concert on his social media channels and said Bluesfest is just one of the events that makes Ottawa a “music city”. 

“It’s a great example of a time-bound reason for people to come from other places and choose Ottawa as their destination,” said Miousse. “It’s super important to our visitor economy, because they’re yearly events that support many  jobs in the city, and they showcase our city’s cultural scene, musical scene, and all of that. 

“It makes the city much more lively,” he added. “People want to come for that, and they’re able to plan in advance to come for it as well.”

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The city has leased the building at 230 Queen St. for a 10-year term to establish a transitional housing facility that will provide “temporary” accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and connect them with employment and housing resources.

“This is technically considered a shelter. It’s not permanent housing, so it sits within the shelter system,” said Kale Brown, director of housing with the city. “The way our system works in terms of who ends up going to this building is you’re assessed by your needs and then we determine a placement, working with our various shelter partners.”

The Queen Street facility will focus on newcomers to Canada but can serve anyone who meets the criteria, Brown said, and will offer supportive temporary accommodations, the building includes kitchens, dining areas, washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, lounge areas, and dedicated rooms for meetings and workshops.

“It’s much more like permanent housing… You have an occupancy agreement where you’re there and you’re expected to be contributing towards your stay,” said Brown. “Again, this is for people who are actively, independently looking for their housing and just need a temporary place to reside.”

People well-suited to the transitional facility will require less support with addressing chronic, complex and mental health conditions or substance use. There will also be approximately 35 staff members and security, with staff on-site at all times. The facility will be managed and staffed by Catholic Centre for Immigrants (CCI) Ottawa, a local social services organization.

Clients will also have access to settlement and employment support, housing search case management, short-term mental health crisis workers, and weekly life skills workshops.

This is the second transitional housing facility for single adults in Ottawa — the other, St-Joseph Transitional Housing Program in the east end, exclusively serves newcomers seeking asylum in Canada who are experiencing homelessness.

While emergency shelters like the Ottawa Mission and Shepherds of Good Hope aim to shelter people for only 30 days, they can stay in transitional housing for up to a year until they “get on their feet”, said Brown.

There is an occupancy agreement and a “contribution fee” that clients pay in order to access the facility, because transitional housing facilities “must have a source of income,” said Brown.

The conversion project is the first of its kind in Ottawa, one that many community organizations and advocates have been working towards as the downtown core grapples with still-vacant buildings and a lack of affordable or transitional housing.

Office-to-housing conversions have largely been the talk of the town since the pandemic emptied the downtown streets and offices, but Brown said the Queen Street facility is a “unicorn” that will be difficult to reproduce.

“One of the reasons that we have pods instead of actual rooms is because once you put floors to ceiling, walls, around something, it triggers a whole set of additional Building Code things you need to do…” he continued. “So I think there’s a lot of excitement around office-to-housing conversion, but there are a lot of challenges when you’re doing really full conversion to actual residential where someone would have a lease.”

Ottawa Compass has previously spoken with JBPA Developments Inc., an Ottawa-based developer that has been working on several projects converting vacant office buildings into market housing.

While conversion to housing may seem like a no-brainer, Kevin Morris, chief financial officer at JBPA said not every building is suitable for conversion. 

Factors like layout, floor plans and the surrounding infrastructure and community all weigh in, and in some cases, it can be “easier” to just start from scratch.

“I think it’s a really promising model, and there’s a lot of interest around this, but we want folks to understand this was kind of a unicorn site in terms of having the right systems, HVAC, that kind of thing, to be able to do it,” Brown explained. “Not all office buildings are this easy to convert to some type of housing.”

Kaite Burkholder Harris is the executive director at the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, member-based organization representing 75 agencies in Ottawa, including CCI and providing a “backbone” and “coordinated effort” to ending homelessness.

“We’re really trying to make navigating the system a better experience for the person who’s homeless or in a housing crisis,” she told Ottawa Compass. “And increasingly, we’re trying to really drive and focus on prevention and diversion to reduce the flow into shelter and into the shelter system.”

While she said the conversion of vacant buildings into transitional housing is an “awesome idea”, she echoed Brown’s concerns that it can be a very difficult process.

“Office conversions seem like a really good idea, and then when you dig into it, oftentimes, they just won’t work,” said Burkholder Harris. “And so I think it’s telling that this isn’t actually permanent housing, but that they converted it into transitional housing and a bit of a different model, because that’s what was actually doable with the building.”

In the broader conversation of ending homelessness, she said facilities like shelters and Queen Street are vital when addressing the crisis, but she points to countries like Finland where homelessness has been “functionally ended” by focusing on supportive but permanent housing.

“The next step in our community, and more broadly in the city, is certainly looking towards how we move more and more of our shelter system towards a permanent model, knowing that that is the best model,” she explained. “We’re always going to need emergency shelter to some degree, but how do we both reduce the number of shelter beds that we need in this city, increase our permanent housing, and then look at actually changing the design of shelter?”

She said research has shown that permanent housing — where people can access support but live without a time limit on their stay — is most productive in reducing homelessness by using the “housing first” approach.

“Ultimately, it would be fantastic if we’re able to make that transitional model where you can access those very specific, necessary supports at a shelter level, but it’s a more dignified context where you have a lock and key,” she continued. “So that you get that level of expertise and support to be able to move to permanent housing as quickly as possible.”

The Queen Street facility is substantially complete and is now awaiting “soft items” like dishes and linens, he said, and the City is hoping that people will move in by the end of the summer.

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Bill C-5 moved through parliament with lightning speed after it was introduced earlier in June but studied by committee for only two days before returning to the Commons. It now moves to the Senate for final votes and if approved, royal assent.

The legislation creates a framework to select projects of national importance that would benefit from a fast-tracked approval process. Cabinet would select the projects based on five factors — economic benefits, likelihood of success, advancing the interests of Indigenous peoples, contributing to clean growth and strengthening Canada’s autonomy, resilience and security — and in consultation with the provinces, territories and Indigenous rights holders.

The bill also removes duplicative federal standards on inter-provincial trade and recognizes provincial certifications for workers on federal projects. This means companies trading within Canada only need to meet requirements in their own respective province, and could ignore federal rules like the national energy efficiency standards. It also means workers would only need to be certified in their own province before taking part in federal projects.

“Now that C-5 is moving ahead, we just want to make sure that the local government is included,” said Tierney, who is councillor for Beacon Hill-Cyrville ward. “We support it and we think this is great, but we also have to really recognize that municipalities are part of this solution as well.”

For example, he said FCM has been “really harping on for a while” about streamlining infrastructure approvals and that he hopes this “national view” doesn’t sideline local projects and commitments.

“One that’s hitting home here when we’re talking about something of a national priority, that could be the high speed rail between Montreal and Toronto, with Ottawa being one of the stations. We think that’s a national prosperity project,” explained. “So while it’s great, and we fully support… We don’t want to forget about all the other commitments that were made.”

One project that is top of mind in Ottawa is the Eastern Bridge, which will aim to connect Ottawa and Gatineau, re-routing traffic from the downtown core. But Ottawa-Vanier MP Mona Fortier recently opposed the project, arguing that she didn’t think the chosen location was suitable, or that the plan as-is would divert trucks from downtown as expected.

There have also been concerns about the project’s price tag — estimated at $3-4 billion — and uncertainty among federal workers about proposed cuts.

“There was a feeling that money is better served [elsewhere]. And this is someone that’s in government, that is the MP that is saying that money is better served,” said Tierney. “There’s no real way to connect the Montreal highway and the Toronto highway. You have to go through the middle of Ottawa. So this is where, you know, municipalities really have a big role, especially here in Ottawa, where we see a lot of those crossovers taking place, and we need the municipal government to have some kind of voice at the table. 

“You have both the mayor of our city and the mayor of Gatineau saying, look, there’s an investment over $3 billion going ahead on a project for a tram system between Gatineau and Ottawa. That’s something that we support,” he said. “We don’t support $3.4 billion for a bridge when we just heard that there’s probably going to be some of the largest federal government cuts in history. How does that change traffic patterns? There’s a lot there, and the timing is kind of perfect for this discussion.”

With the prime minister representing an Ottawa riding, Tierney said he hopes Ottawa can have more of a voice at the Hill, including from Fortier.

“We’re simpatico with the province. We’re hoping the federal government here in Ottawa will listen to the one of the longer serving MPs, Fortier, about where we can spend some of that money and make sure some of it stays here in Ottawa.”

Advocacy for municipalities has been on Tierney’s mind as he has travelled to the United States in recent weeks, meeting with American municipalities and discussing cross-border trade. 

“That is the hot topic. You never know one day, one day the tariffs are on, one day they’re off… We’re still going to continue being the [FCM] to have that outreach, not only just to the United States, but it could extend into, you know, Britain, other partners with Canada,” he said. “And if we can educate other municipalities about the benefits of trade, that’s just another arm of FCM that we’ve been fulfilling for the last year.”

And while the House of Commons takes a step back for the summer, Tierney said he’s expected a very busy few months for municipal leaders. 

“Regardless if the House is sitting or not, for especially municipal politicians, we’re observing what’s happening south of the border, and we’re talking to all 2,000 member municipalities across the country all through the summer, because it affects everyone,” he said. “It is a real struggle. No municipal politician that I know of is going to be really taking much time off this summer.”

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