The province has no plan to fix the healthcare system

Good morning!

Busy times here at Lookout headquarters. With a new newsletter on the horizon, and a personal move that is half complete and half not for reasons outside of our control, things are kind of hectic around here.

We’ve got an exciting new feature in the newsletter today, Re-imagining Ottawa, where we talk to people in the community with their vision for what could make the city truly great. Our first interview is with Toon Dreessen of Architects DCA, and he’s got some really interesting things to say about how we build in this town.

I’d also like to thank the many of you who donated to Team Nancy in the Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope. Nancy, our family, and I really appreciate your help, and your thoughts.

Okay, let’s get to it.

— 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

Wednesday: 25 🌡️ 14 | ⛅

Thursday: 26 🌡️ 11 | 🌦

Friday: 24 🌡️ 11 | ⛅

No plan for healthcare fix from provincial government

What happened: There was no concrete plan to address the healthcare crisis from the Ontario government as it introduced its new agenda in the first session since the June election. In the speech from the throne, which laid out the government’s agenda, they said more needed to be done, and it is working with hospital operators and others to find solutions to the current staffing crisis.

• The government also said it “will not be limited by conventional thinking that stifles innovation and preserves a status quo that struggles to respond to growing challenges and changing needs.”

Background: Hospitals have had to close departments for days or even weeks this summer. In Alexandria, Perth, Carleton Place, and here in Ottawa at the Montfort Hospital, emergency departments were closed. Healthcare unions proposed five steps to relieve the crisis, none of which were taken up by the province.

No new money: The government re-tabled its pre-election budget, which included no new healthcare spending despite the crisis, The Canadian Press reported. This despite hospital department closures across the province, which have sent the system teetering toward collapse in the intervening months.

• Dig deeper: Ontario's budget to be re-tabled, and this is what Doug Ford promised [CTV]

Local hospitals monitoring staffing: The Montfort Hospital, which closed overnight on the weekend, said it was monitoring staffing levels, and could not rule out further closures, CBC reported. The Carleton Place and District Hospital said it had two nurses in training, but was still vulnerable to closure.

Minister blames vacations: On Monday, provincial Health Minister Sylvia Jones put the blame on staff vacations, CBC reported. She said the widespread closures were not unprecedented. The Ontario Nurses’ Association said the problem was not due to vacations, calling the minister’s comments an insult to its members.

Re-Imaging Ottawa with Toon Dreessen: How do we build a great city?

What does it mean to build a world-class city? How can Ottawa live up to its potential? In our new series Re-Imagining Ottawa, we interview leaders about what it’ll take to improve our city.

For our first interview, we talked to Toon Dreessen, president of the local firm Architects DCA, and an outspoken member of the community.

He has an idea that the city could be something more. What follows is part of our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, where we talk about some of the issues about how things are built in this Ottawa.

Robert Hiltz 

Maybe the easiest question to start with is what got you interested in speaking out about city building?

Toon Dreessen

What got me interested in this was the frustration of seeing things being done in a way that doesn't live up to their potential. So, we build a bike lane, but we don't put in a proper curb. We designed a beautiful building, but we don't maintain it properly.

The airport bridge was one of the first things that really got me irate, that we had this pedestrian bridge. We go through the effort of designing the bridge, and then we don't build it properly, and we don't manage the project properly. We're not honest with each other about how long something like this is gonna take or how complex something is. .

It's those bigger city building issues like LRT, or the library or Lansdowne or the ByWard Market. These are massive opportunities where we could really excel. But because we don't, because we choose not to, it always ends up being kind of meh. And it's fine, like, Lansdowne is fine. It's not great. It's fine.

Robert Hiltz

It always seems like we have options, and then we limit ourselves because so often the city seems to favour those projects, like a P3 project, where money has to be made somewhere. So, eventually, the things that might be more beneficial to people get kind of chopped away until you get that sort of whittled-down project.

Toon Dreessen

Yeah, and it's because we don't have a bold enough vision. I don't want to say that we shouldn't compromise and consult — we should — but I don't think we listen to the right voices.

Take Elgin Street as a good example. Public consultations were held people said, ‘Look, this is not a good design, the super sharrows in the street as a terrible design. We need to come up with something better.’ And the city said, ‘Very good point,’ then went away and did nothing with that. So as soon as Elgin Street reopens a cyclist is nearly killed. It's easy to say ‘I told you so,’ but now it's too late.

This was like a once-in-50-year opportunity and so we're stuck living with something lesser.

We don't think enough about how to design these things in a way that makes them last.

Read the rest of our conversation here.

Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for an ice cream giveaway

How does $100 worth of free ice cream sound?

We’ve launched a giveaway for $100 of free ice cream from La Cigale, a local ice cream shop producing some excellent ice cream. You’ll fall in love with their sorbets and ice cream flavours like gingersnap and chai, megamint oreo and lemon cassis cheesecake. Yum!

Entering is easy. Just sign-up here and you’ll automatically be entered to win. It’s that easy!

Plus we’ve got a special bonus for anyone who refers three sign-ups.

Swim registration overwhelms online city system

What happened: On Monday night parents across the city struggled to sign up their kids for the next season of swim classes and other recreational activities. The city’s digital infrastructure couldn’t handle so many users all at once. Many got messages the servers were experiencing technical problems.

• It wasn’t until after 11 pm that the city said its website was back online.

Why it happened: The city’s online infrastructure is set up to handle the typical day-to-day volume of traffic. But on days when registration for swim classes and other programs open up, the city is flooded with people trying to book a limited number of slots.

Coun. Shawn Menard posted a message on Twitter that said for the city to upgrade its own infrastructure to handle the surge, which only happens a few times a year, it would cost $1 million.

No fix until fall: Instead, the city is planning to use third-party services for times when it expects a surge of users. The city said in March it was expecting to be able to have a system upgrade in place sometime in the fall, CTV reported.

Sponsored by Puppets Up!

Spend your weekend with puppets. Yes, seriously

The weekend is approaching. You need something fun. May we suggest puppets?

Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival in Almonte — Presented by Neilcorp Homes — is the adventure your family needs.

• Date and time: Friday to Sunday, morning and evening. Schedule here.

It features world-class puppet artistry, a puppet parade, and a kids’ craft tent.

Forget scrambling to find plans. Puppets Up! has enough activities for the entire day.

Get your day pass before they sell out.

Stories you might have missed

Detective faces misconduct charges: Ottawa Const. Helen Grus is facing charges of discreditable conduct for investigating the COVID vaccination status of the parents of children who had died. Grus is accused of accessing nine cases of infant or child death cases she was not assigned to, and contacting the father of a baby who had died without telling the lead investigator. She has been suspended since February. [Ottawa Citizen]

Ottawa police dismissive of death threat: When Ottawa-based Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore was mentioned in a vulgar email that threatened her life, Ottawa Police did not seem interested in following up on the threat. The email threatened another area writer, Erica Ifill, and was sent to a Toronto reporter. In a video (content warning: racist and sexist language threatening violence) Gilmore posted to Twitter, an officer can be heard interrupting her and having seemingly no interest in following up on the threat because it wasn’t sent directly to her.

LRT to close completely at night: Starting Friday, the LRT will be closed early at 8 pm every night until next Monday for scheduled maintenance. There will be some sections of the track closed next Tuesday and Friday night. The line will close again along its full length at night at 9 pm on Aug. 20 and at 8 pm from Aug. 21 to 25. Previously, OC Transpo had said the line would only be closed in sections. R1 bus replacement service will run while the LRT is closed. You can find the full schedule for at OC Transpo’s website.

Crossing guard shortage: The Ottawa Safety Council is looking to recruit 100 crossing guards before the start of the school year. Across the city, there are about 500 shifts to fill each school day. Wages start at $17 per hour. If you’re interested, you can find more info here. [CTV]

Masks not mandatory in school: When school starts up next month, masks will not be required. Masks and rapid tests will be available for students, if they want them. One OCDSB trustee said on Twitter the board was willing to consider making masks mandatory if Ottawa Public Health makes an explicit request. [CTV]

Pet foster care shortage: The Ottawa Humane Society needs foster homes for more than 40 animals. Typically, the shelter can find a temporary home for an animal that’s been turned over within five days, but this year it’s taking longer than a month. Shelters across the province are full of animals being turned over. If you think you could foster an animal, you can find more information here. [CBC]

Some good news: Lost dog gets home

What happened: A dog found by Kingston Police was reunited with its owner. The force tweeted out a picture of Charlie, who had lost his tags and his owners, CTV reported. The dog went to the Kingston Humane Society where his owners were able to pick him up.

Community highlights

• Nominations are now open for the Best Ottawa Business Awards, organizations have until Sept. 30 to get their names in. [OBJ]

• Our food editor has some advice for anyone selling burgers: spend more on the bread, it’s always worth it.

• If you find yourself in Smiths Falls, head on over to a re-opened basement speakeasy The Post Office Cocktail Bar. [OBJ]

• A pretty large sinkhole opened up underneath the slide at one Barrhaven park after the recent heavy rains. (Don’t worry, it’s since been filled in.)

• It’s never a bad time to check out some great brewery patios around town.

• Capital Pride is looking for volunteers for its late-August festival. [CTV]

• One Reddit user was told Ottawa was boring before they moved here, but being chased by a wild turkey convinced them otherwise. (Warning: A bit of fowl—couldn’t help this—language in this one.)

Ottawa GeoGuesser

Congrats to Carolle, Weste, Doug, Sylvie, Khalida, Emma, Alan, Louise, Roger, Beverly, and Ginette, who all correctly guessed that it was Gisèle Lalonde who led the effort to save the Montfort Hospital in Monday’s quiz.

Here’s today’s GeoGuesser. Can you guess where or what this is? Reply with your name if you want it mentioned if you guess correctly.

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: 1,016

• Total deaths: 854

• Ottawans In Hospital: 39

• Ottawans In ICU: 2

• Acute Beds Occupied: 92%

• ICU Beds Occupied: 70%

• ICU Ventilator Beds Occupied: 31%

Previous Lookout editions

• Five solutions to Ottawa’s healthcare crisis - read more 

• Why home sales dropped 35 percent in July - read more 

• Major closures to the 417 and LRT this month - read more 

• aramedic service under heavy strain - read more 

• LRT expected to return Friday - read more