Municipal election season begins

Good morning!

Well then, after a few months of a soft launch, it seems the election is here in earnest. Nominations closed last Friday, and the ballots are set for the fall.

It’s going to be an interesting election, if for no other reason than there is so much up in the air, with at least a dozen new faces around the council table, and a new mayor. 

It’s an enormous opportunity for all of you to leave your mark on the direction of this city. There’s a lot at stake, and we want to hear from you what issues you want to hear more about in the lead up to Oct. 24.

What is it you want to see covered this election from the Lookout? Reply to this email, and give us your thoughts. Your opinions will help us focus on what matters to you.

Anyhow, let’s get to the newsletter.

— Robert Hiltz, managing editor

If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free.

Weather Report

Monday: 25 🌡️ 17 | ⛈

Tuesday: 27 🌡️ 16 | 🌧

Wednesday: 28 🌡️ 16 | ⛅

OTTAWA THIS WEEK

• City hall returns: Back from its break, city council returns with meetings of the heritage subcommittee Tuesday morning, and the planning committee on Thursday.

• St. Brigid’s: Last week the group at St. Brigid’s were served a notice of eviction, which they’ve claimed is invalid. Will they stay or go?

• Capital Pride: After a picnic and an art expo yesterday, the city’s Pride festival really gets going today with a morning flag raising at city hall. Events are all week, culminating in a parade and concert on Sunday.

ELECTION 2022

Nominations closed for this fall’s election

What happened: Nominations closed for this fall’s municipal election on Friday. There will be 210 candidates running this year, so many that ballots will, for the first time, need to be printed on legal paper, CBC reported. 

There are 14 people running to be the next mayor. Now that nominations have been closed and accepted, no one can have their name removed from ballots even if they change their mind.

• City council is now in its “lame duck” period. This means it can’t make any new expenditures worth more than $50,000 or sell land worth more than that value.

Biggest surprise: Coun. Rick Chiarelli made a last-day announcement he had decided not to run for re-election, CBC reported. The soon-to-be-former councillor had his salary suspended for more than a year for sexual harassment. He has since been further accused of harassment, though he denies the accusations. Chiarelli has been on council, first in Nepean then in Ottawa, since 1988, except for a three-year gap in the early 90s. He had been expected to run for re-election.

• The city has a tool for you to find who is running in your ward, found here.

Ones to watch: The Ottawa Citizen has picked out six key races to watch including:

• Kanata North, where appointed councillor Cathy Curry faces voters for the first time;

• Knoxdale-Merivale, where departing candidate Keith Egli’s brother Myles is looking to replace him;

• Rideau-Vanier, where 10 people have signed up to replace Coun. Mathieu Fleury, who is leaving council.

What issues are you most concerned about this election? Let us know what you think we need to cover to keep you informed.

ST BRIGID’S

“TUPOC” group now squatting in Lowertown church

What happened: The group that said they were buying St. Brigid’s church said their eviction from the building is invalid. 

The locks were changed on several of the buildings on the church property, but not of the church itself. The group received an eviction notice last week for rent non payment. 

Sunday, William Komer, a board director for The United People of Canada, said the lease is active, despite the notices posted on the church, according to CTV. Komer said the group was being “harassed” and produced photocopies of two cheques for rent, and said the landlords were refusing to accept them, the broadcaster reported.

The previous day, another TUPOC board member held a press conference demanding an apology from the city and city officials.

• “I called this press conference because I really believe we deserve an apology. … We deserve an apology for what’s been said by the mayor,” and said by others in the community, board member Diane Nolan said last week, according to the Ottawa Citizen. “We haven’t had a conversation. All we want to do is serve the community.”

Meanwhile, members of the community came out to tell the group to leave. One resident told CTV the group had never explained how it actually wanted to “serve the community.” Instead, they said they would hold workshops on how the convoy was good, actually. 

• Another told CTV: “We don't need their help here in Lowertown, Ottawa doesn't need their help. I think maybe they should take all of their goodwill and bring it home to their own communities.”

JOBS AROUND TOWN

• Elections staff at the City of Ottawa’s Elections Office

• Senior media relations advisor at the International Development Research Centre

• Wind tunnel controller at the National Research Council

• Risk specialist at the CMHC

• Project contract manager at Alstom 

TRANSIT

Recent LRT axle could be linked to last year’s (second) derailment

What happened: Preliminary results from an investigation into issues with LRT axles suggests the issue may be the same one that led to last August’s derailment. 

The city was forced to pull several trains from service for inspection, after one vehicle's axle broke. According to a city memo, whatever caused the most recent failure appears to be linked to the earlier axle issues, but the full root-cause analysis is not finished yet.

Precautionary measures: The city pulled every train which had more than 175,000 kilometres of service and inspected and replaced the wheel hubs of the leading and trailing axles of each one. They are continuing to replace the wheel hubs on trains, but so far no other failures have been discovered.

STORIES YOU MIGHT’VE MISSED

Officer resigns after sex assault charges: An Ottawa police officer resigned from the force after pleading guilty to breach of trust. Const. Sundeep Singh had been charged with sexual assault for a 2021 incident involving a 19-year-old he had sex with while on the job. The charges of sexual assault were dropped as part of the guilty plea. [Ottawa Sun]

City tries water fountain pilot: A water fountain attached to a fire hydrant in Chinatown is part of a pilot project to bring better water access to the city. It will be at the corner of Somerset and Empress for the next two weeks, before moving to a new location elsewhere in the city. It will keep moving every two weeks until October. Next year, the city hopes to have multiple fountains, for drinking, filling water bottles, and also pets. [CBC]

More funding for paramedics: The mayor has asked the provincial government for enough funding to hire 42 new paramedics. The ambulance service has been running out of ambulances, known as a level zero, an unprecedented number of times this year. It would require $5 million in new funding for the new hires. [CBC]

Death at the dump: A member of the public died on the weekend at the Trail Road dump. The provincial ministry of labour is investigating. No details on what happened were released. [CTV]

Get early access to Capital Eats, a new Ottawa food publication

Our brand new Ottawa food Capital Eats launches officially next week. 

But we’re giving readers early access this week. That means you’ll get access to the best food and restaurants around the city before anyone else. 

Getting early access is simple — just refer one new person to sign-up to the Lookout, and you’ll get early, special access to the best reviews and food in the city.

Head over to this page, input your email address and then share your referral link with anyone who needs better local news in their life. 

Community highlights

• Sixteen communities across the region have only one candidate for mayor, including Brockville, North Glengarry, and Prescott. [CTV]

• Imagine Monet the Immersive Exhibition, featuring over 200 works by impressionist painter Claude Monet, is extended to September 4th. Book your tickets today.*

• Did you know Outaouais is home to some incredible wineries? Our food editor visited and boy was he impressed. 

• Good news! Banh Mi Yes will reopen sometime in September. This is excellent news, it might be the best banh mi in the city.

• The Glengarry Cairn on an island in the St. Lawrence will soon have historical information installed on shore. [CBC]

• DeVonte Demon is returning to the Redblacks after a stint with the Miami Dolphins. [CBC]

• Did you see a very weird-looking shooting star last week? Don’t worry, it was a set of just-launched communications satellites. [CTV]

• If you want to practice using the OC Transpo bike racks on the front of buses, a practice station has been set up at Hurdman Station. 

• There’s still time to enter our free giveaway to win $100 of ice cream to La Cigale.

Sponsored post*

TOP PHOTO

We love a good sunrise here at the Lookout. Well, photos of them anyway, newsletter writing isn’t exactly a crack-of-dawn operation. In any case, today’s photo comes from reader André Martin, with this great shot of the sun coming up over the city.

Have you got a photo you’d like to share? We’d love to put it in the newsletter! Reply to this email with your favourite shots and we’d love to run them in a future issue. 

OTTAWA QUIZ

Congrats to Michelle, who emailed to let us know she got last week’s Ottawa Worlde in one guess! The answer was “RAVEN,” as in the Carleton University athletic teams.

For this week’s quiz, we want to know: How many campuses make up The Ottawa Hospital?

Latest COVID stats

Note: Ottawa Public Health is now only updating COVID stats twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. Because of the Lookout’s publishing schedule, this means the numbers here may be out of date. For the most recent stats, see the OPH COVID Dashboard.

• Active Cases: 845

• Total deaths: 866

• Ottawans In Hospital: 18

• Ottawans In ICU: 1

• Acute Beds Occupied: 104% 

• ICU Beds Occupied: 73% 

• ICU Ventilator Beds Occupied: 30% 

PREVIOUS LOOKOUT EDITIONS

• Group at St. Brigid’s being evicted - read more

• City blames everyone else for LRT failures - read more 

• Traffic headaches end, as 417 reopens - read more