It's a hot one

Heatwave continues, as public health warns of dangerous conditions

Good morning!

Well, if yesterday wasn’t the perfect day for the car’s air conditioning to give up the ghost, I don’t know what would be. It doesn’t seem like it will be too difficult to fix, but crawling around in the heat working on a hot car was not exactly what I had planned for the week.

Ah well. Hope you are all staying cool Sadly, there’s not much relief in sight. Plenty on that below.

Let’s get to it.

— Robert Hiltz, Lookout managing editor

Wednesday: 34 🌡️ 23 | 🌤/⛈️

Thursday: 31 🌡️ 20 | 🌧

Friday: 28 🌡️ 17 | ☀️

IT’S A HOT ONE

Heat dome sticking around for several more days

What happened: A heat dome settled over much of the central part of the country, bringing high temperatures and humidity for a second straight day.  Relief is not yet in sight, according to Environment Canada, which said high temperatures will persist for several days.

  • “Dangerously hot and humid conditions are expected through most of the week. Daytime highs through much of the week are expected to be 30 to 35 C with humidex values of 40 to 45. There will be little relief through the overnight as lows are expected to be 18 to 23 C with humidex values of 26 to 30,” a heat warning issued by the agency said.

Life-threatening situation: Ottawa Public Health warned the heat levels are extremely dangerous, and they have dispatched a van to patrol the city to help residents in distress. “Unfortunately, we could see more deaths. I expect that could happen as people have that multiple days of exposure,” chief medical officer Dr. Vera Etches said, according to CBC.

Useful resources: OPH has an interactive map, where you can find pools, air conditioned public buildings, and more places to cool off. You can find it here on their website. Not sure what the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke are? OPH has important information here.

  • Ottawa, as well as townships and municipalities outside the city have also opened up cooling centres for people to get a break from the heat.

School dangers: In older schools in particular, the high heat days are becoming an problem, CBC reported. As the heat starts and ends earlier in the year, many schools are struggling to keep kids cool. Many schools weren’t designed with such high temperatures in mind, with the assumption being kids would be out of the classroom for the hot summer months.

Don’t stress over kids playtime, this newsletter has you covered

Ever struggled to plan activities for your kids? Want an easy, no stress way to keep your kids engaged and entertained?

Morning Mom Memo is a free newsletter that delivers you a curated selection of activites for you and your child. It’s the easiest way to stay conected with them without the added stress of planning.

OTTAWA BY THE NUMBERS

🦮 10: Issac the CHEO therapy dog, and a very good boy, is this old. He’s spent most of those years comforting sick kids at the hospital. [CTV]

🪫 10,713: This many customers in Findlay Creek lost power Monday for about an hour. The cause of the outage is unknown, and stretched as far as the airport. [CTV]

🔎 12%: The increase in property crime from 2022 to 2023 according to the force’s annual report. Non-violent crime was up 13.4%. The overall police clearance rate was 28.4%. [CTV]

OUTSIDE DOWNTOWN

🌊 A water main break in Alta Vista has forced CHEO to cancel some elective surgeries and visits because of a lack of water. The break occurred right out front of the hospital. [CTV]

📖 A book seller in Arnprior said that a rewards program has helped keep their customers coming back despite the squeeze of inflation. [CTV]

🌳 A council committee approved a plan to offer subsidies to farmers in rural Ottawa to plant trees and bushes at the edge of their properties to form living snow fences. The exact details of the plan will still need to be figured out before the plan goes into action. [CBC]

💐 One person is dead after a head-on collision on Highway 7 near Sharbot Lake. Five others were sent to hospital after the crash. [CBC]

GETTING AROUND

Car usage up, transit usage down in city-wide survey

What happened: A higher percentage of people are using their car to get around the city since the last time the city surveyed residents more than a decade ago. But at the same time the number of daily trips per person is dropping.

  • The results are from the city’s latest Origin-Destination Survey, which asked 69,501 people from 31,818 households their travel habits in 2022. In total, the survey captured 162,243 trips. The last study was done in 2011.

The big picture: Per capita, the number of daily trips has dropped 9%, according to the report. Per capita work trips dipped 34% and transit trips dropped by 46%. Work trips via transit have dropped more than half, falling a staggering 61%.

City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa

Transit troubles: Many people who once took transit, particularly downtown commuters, are instead deciding to drive. “With infrequent work trips and without a transit pass, people are more likely to choose to drive to work, even if this entails paying high parking costs and/or tolerating congestion,” the report said.

  • “The 2023 Commuter Attitude Survey suggests that the top reasons for not using transit in Ottawa are issues with service reliability and route changes since the pandemic that made transit less convenient,” the report said.

Trip breakdown: Per capita, the number of vehicle trips has stayed pretty steady, while the percentage of walking trips has increased. Cycling rates have almost doubled, but transit trips have decreased significantly.

City of Ottawa

City of Ottawa

HOUSE OF THE WEEK

Given the heat, we thought it might be well-timed to find a place with water access. And lo and behold, we found one that’s affordable too. It’s two bedrooms, and not gigantic, but it’s within easy access of the beaches of Constance Bay.

House of The Week is a home selected by the Lookout team and is not a paid advertisement. All ads are labelled as such. If you’re a realtor who wishes to feature your home in our newsletter, please contact our sales team.

GIG LISTINGS

Listings are provided by OttawaGigs.ca, the best place to discover live music in Ottawa. Check out Ottawagigs.ca for full listings across the city.

Dali van Gogh, Wednesday 8 pm: Female-fronted hard rock from Halifax known for their showmanship, originality, and musicianship. At House of Targ, 1077 Bank St. Tickets $10.

Christjay, Thursday 12 pm: Infectious grooves, mesmerizing melodies, and heartfelt lyrics drawing inspiration from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix. At The Shed, 190 Sparks St. FREE Show.

Daniel Lew, 7 pm: Introspective BC singer-songwriter combining folk, pop, and rock. At Avant-Garde Bar, 135 Besserer St. Tickets $15.

Ivytide, Friday 8 pm: Bedroom indie-pop songs with intricate, catchy melodies, which float on well thought-out instrumentation. At the Rainbow Bistro, 76 Murray St. Tickets $15. 

Shabaka, Saturday 7 pm: Acclaimed multi-instrumentalist who blends jazz, calypso, dancehall, hip-hop, and African folk music.At theNational Arts Centre, 1 Elgin St. Tickets $45.

THE AGENDA

🏟️ Despite concerns that the new Lansdowne arena will have a lower capacity than the current TD Place Arena, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said PWHL Ottawa will be happy with the results. The new event centre will have 5,500 seats and 1,000 standing-room spaces, down from the current 9,500-person capacity. [CTV]

🍷 Negotiations are carrying on, but LCBO workers across the province could go on strike as soon as July 5. Workers are concerned for their futures after the provincial decision to get beer into corner stores. [CityNews]

🎤 Bluesfest added an extra day for performances from Jelly Roll and Shaboozey. Tickets for the July 9th additions go on sale today at 10 am. [CTV]

🚑 A new ambulance dispatch system is having a positive effect, with the city not running into nearly as many “level zero” events, where they have no available crews to send to a call. The new data hasn’t been released, but the head of the Ottawa Paramedic Service said they’re no longer seeing level zeros every day. [CBC]

📈 An Ottawa couple had their payments more than double on a loan they took out to replace their furnace in 2018, after a new company bought out the financial company with the loan and jacked the interest rate from 2.99% to 14.99%. [CTV]

💥 A pedestrian was severely injured by a driver on Mitch Owens Road on Sunday. They were taken to hospital in life-threatening condition. [CTV]

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

  • The local Climate Leap group will be joined by Cassandra Morris from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to discuss low-carbon cities.  At Happy Goat (Sandy Hill), 317 Rue Wilbrod St. Register Here (Free). 

  • Looking to take your wine knowledge further? A complete newbie looking to explore new wines? Then Third Place Wine is for you. Get their free newsletter today. [Sponsored]

  • The Ottawa Public Library has launched its Summer Reading Club with great activities for kids, and a chance to win fun prizes. [Ottawa Public Library]

  • Two women from Ottawa will be competing separately on Jeopardy! this week. Good luck! [CTV]

  • There’s a lake in Rockcliffe Park that only residents who live on it can use, despite half of the lake being city-owned. CBC dives deep into why. [CBC]

  • The World’s Biggest Bouncy Castle will be at Saunders Farm for two weekends in July. [CTV]

  • Thousands came out for the return of the annual CHEO Teddy Bear Picnic. [CTV]

  • Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

CAPITAL EATS

Are these trucks for you?

Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout

Capital Eats is written by our food editor Ralf Joneikies.

Visiting a food truck can be its own adventure. In the back of our minds, and we have to be honest here, we generally don’t expect much. Yet that’s likely a chief reason we try them out: we want to be surprised by something great. Then we can tell others of our discovery.

We also know that certain foods don’t travel well and are best consumed on site. I’ll have more on that next week but today’s visits offered good food that worked well once reheated at home.

Meryenda Filipino cuisine is located at a mall (Prince of Wales and Meadowlands) and offers a healthy alternative to the fast food joint just steps away.

OTTAWA GAMES

Google Maps

Congrats to the 73% of you who knew that the Ottawa Food Bank received its largest-ever single donation with 210,000 pounds of food.

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