At Tuesday’s Environment and Climate Change committee meeting, councillors voted in favour of a motion to open the Rain Ready Ottawa (RRO) program to low-rise multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs).
Rain Ready Ottawa is a program aimed at protecting waterways by awarding rebates to residents who undertake actions on their property that reduce the harmful impacts of stormwater runoff.
City staff explained the reason for expanding the program.
“[The existing rebate program] is one of our most effective tools,” they said. “Council directed staff to explore a low-rise MURB rebate when the RRO was approved in 2024.”
The proposed program expansion would apply only to low-rise MURBs (buildings under three storeys), including cooperative housing, condominiums, rental housing, and affordable housing. Rebates for MURBs could amount to as much as $30,000.
Although the new rebate stream will be funded out of the existing program budget of $500,000, with $100,000 specifically allocated to low-rise MURBs, city staff clarified that availability of the existing stream for private residents is not expected to be impacted.
Councillor Theresa Kavanagh (Bay) expressed her support for the expansion, but wondered about how this might impact the existing program’s capacity.
“I think we have to grow it. I worry that we have a backlog, and we as a council have to look at the budget,” she said. “Because this program should be expanded. It’s been a huge success.”
City staff clarified that there is no backlog currently. “We don’t have a backlog when it comes to rebate application itself… The intent of this is to help us further maximize the budget that we have right now.”
The committee approved the motion, which will be taken to the next city council meeting on May 27.
