Tag: ottawa

Rambling and Random Thoughts on Covid and Cannabis

April 14, 2022

The two-year pandemic took its toll on people. There were lockdowns. The Canada/US border was closed. Even the Ontario and Quebec border was closed for a while. My community center where I play cards and my gym was closed on and off. People got cabin fever. When our border opened and Covid mandates lifted, people felt like they gained the freedom to get back to life. And jumped for joy.

Joy for Kathy and me comprised taking a quick trip to see grandchildren in Durham, NC. Crossing the border into the US was a pleasure; as in the old days, the US border guard asked where we were going and for how long. That was it. There was no masking required and nobody asked for a vaccine passport.

And Durham was great with the grandson going to a UNC and Virginia Tech ball game where masks were scarce. And they sold beer and popcorn. Refreshing. In the grocery stores, many people wore masks, and nobody paid attention to unmasked people. It was up to you if you wanted to be more cautious and wear a mask.

When talking with people, I found the American attitude towards the virus relaxed. In contrast, my friends at home drop comments about having to be careful: “the current sixth wave is serious”. In the US, people believe they have to live with the virus and take responsibility for their actions.

Coming from Ottawa, the lack of cannabis stores in Durham was a total surprise. It is illegal to sell cannabis in NC. By the last count, there were one hundred and eight cannabis stores in Ottawa, with another forty being considered for licensing by the Ontario authorities. Along the “green mile” on Wellington Street in Ottawa, I heard there are nine cannabis stores. (We should compare this number to the thirty-six liquor stores in Ottawa).

Do we have too many cannabis stores in Ottawa? Will there be an amalgamation of ownership of these stores? I do not know. Are there disadvantages to having so many stores? Some of the BIAs claim cannabis stores on the street can negatively affect other stores coming to the area.

I have not visited cannabis stores, but perhaps, will. For now, I find their storefronts and fancy names outlandish, garish, and suggestive, like: “Dutch Love” and “Spiritleaf”. But obviously, there is a growing market for them.

Coming back to Canada reminded us that Canada still considers the virus a threat: we had to fill out an “arrivecan” form. My Samsung phone stored my data from previous returns to Canada and it took me literally two minutes to fill out the form. Kathy used her iPhone that brought up an outdated “arrivecan” form that demanded proof of an antigen test. She tried to get the most up-to-date form with no success. Do you think the government could get its IT group organized? After a while, I filled out the form for her on my Samsung phone that worked. At the border, the Canadian border official was pleasant, and we crossed the border in a couple of minutes, having our “arrivecan” approved in advance.

On the second day at home, I received an email from Public Health Canada reminding us to quarantine:

“IF YOU:

Were NOT randomly selected to complete COVID-19 molecular testing

THEN, YOU MUST:

for the 14 days after you entered Canada, monitor yourself for symptoms of COVID-19; and maintain a list of the names and contact information of every person you have come into close contact with during the 14 days AND all of the places you have been”.

It was not clear why this requirement exists: I thought with our three vaccinations we were safe, and quarantining was unnecessary. The email explained that people arriving from outside Canada need to quarantine, but it was blurry if coming back is from the US or elsewhere. I wish the government people could write clearly.

Solid Waste Plan Focus Groups. Ottawa

Woke focus groups

April 1, 2022

Have you heard of the solid waste planning process in Ottawa? Probably not. But it is an extensive and expensive project to serve Ottawa for the next thirty years. It may cost upwards of a hundred million dollars and it will affect your daily activities. 

As a typical person, you want to get rid of your garbage at the least cost in an environmentally suitable manner (for example, do not throw your garbage onto the street).

Do you really care what technology the City uses? Is it aerobic or anaerobic? Do you know the difference?

Garbage collection and disposal are not like movies where you may like romantic, warlike, adventure, or science fiction movies. Your choices with garbage disposal shrink primarily to cost and the environment.

And the cost is a small part of your total living costs that includes property taxes, electricity, and utilities. I never thought much about garbage collection and disposal in my spare time. 

But the City is developing a long-range plan that will take three years to finish. A consultant did background work in identifying quantities of garbage the city accumulates annually by type: recyclable, organic, bulk garbage (construction materials), etc, and projected trends for thirty years.

To provide input for the plan, the city started a series of public consultations to find out what people think about the way garbage is collected and disposed of.

I took part in a zoom meeting organized by the city to discuss options for garbage reuse. There were thirty people in attendance, with five people from the city. If you broke the meeting down by time, city officials provided information most of the time, leaving precious little time for public input that was scant and needed prodding from the city officials. 

The city researched and developed the proposals, but the consultation process is difficult: if it is a highrise going up behind your house, it has a direct impact on you and you express your views strongly. Here, the consultation relates to something decades in the future, and people’s interest wanes. 

After the options were presented, they asked the audience to prioritize the various proposals. In one chart, “repair cafes”; “sharing libraries”; “community events” and “community strategies” were the options. These options propose venues exchanging or using goods surplus to you but usable to others.

Although the audience expressed their priorities in the ensuing discussion; I wondered if they had experience with them. I had never heard of “repair cafes” and “sharing libraries”. My surplus stuff that is still useful, ends up with charities or is sold. 

 I understood that the previous two zoom meetings had about fifteen people each in attendance. The population of the city is a million people. A few dozen people per consultation do not give you confidence that public opinion is fully collected.

The city arranged for seven zoom meetings on various aspects of the solid waste plan, and five focus groups for specific target populations. 

The focus groups are:

older people (not defined for age), young people (not defined for age), immigrants, BIPOC, and 2SLGBTQQIA+; do you know what the last two terms mean? I did not. I had to look them up on the internet.

Do young and old people have different ideas from middle-aged people regarding garbage? And immigrants? Could these people not join the other zoom meetings? By having focus groups concentrating on these people, do we assume their views on garbage collection and disposal differ from the rest of us? Is that likely? I have a sense of wokeness arranging these focus groups. 

I admire the amount of effort the city puts into the consultation process versus the payoff; the city’s intention to get public feedback and, ultimately, acceptance of its solid waste management plan is desirable. But the consultation should be more specific. For example, do not just ask if you would use the city depots for hazardous waste disposal but ask how far would you drive to drop off your paint cans. And do not separate special groups for the consultations. Just my opinion.

Thank You, University of British Columbia

March 14

The current Ukrainian war reminded me of escaping from Hungary in 1956 and the unlikely admission to UBC in the following year. I am immensely grateful for the understanding and opportunity the University of British Columbia afforded me.

When I came home from school on the last day of October 1956, my mother ordered me and my brother to walk to Vienna. She did not explain why we should leave until months later: she had heard that when The Hungarian Revolution broke out in Budapest, on October 23, soldiers guarding the “iron curtain” (the border between Hungary and Austria) stood aside while the refugees crossed the border.

My brother, 18, and I, 16 years old, left with a sandwich and a name on a piece of paper that my mother told us to call when arriving in Vienna. The name on the slip of paper turned out to be a Jesuit priest, a college mate of my uncle’s at the University of Vienna. The priest picked us up from the refugee camp and settled us in Vienna. Just before the border closed, when the Russian tanks returned to occupy Hungary, my parents and younger brother also left Hungary and joined us. They thought they may never see us again.

We ended up in Vancouver in January 1957. I was 17 years old and hated the thought of going back to high school; I felt suddenly mature beyond my age because of the uprooting from Hungary to Canada via Vienna and Manchester, England. They were going to put me back a year because of my poor English language skills. That was abhorrent to me. I thought of attending university instead. But I was only in grade 10 when we escaped from Hungary; how could I apply to university?

Unbeknownst to my parents, I looked up when registration took place at UBC in the Fall and took a bus there. The admissions officer’s first question was to ask for my high school diploma, which, of course, I did not have. Actually; I had no papers to even show that I had been in high school. In my tortuous English (which I had learned in Manchester and courses at the YMCA in Vancouver) I said that I had not finished high school, but I was confident that I could do the science courses. Like maths, physics, and chemistry. But she said that I needed to have the graduation papers. I responded I would take a chance and if I could not pass the courses, I would just fail. Well, the officer went to the back office to discuss my unique request and after a half-hour; she came back and said that it was my choice and my money if I failed, but they would let me take the chance.

Then, she told me the fee for the semester was $250. Feeling foolish and by now totally embarrassed, I said that I had no money. But I improvised and said that the government, I heard, was paying for the tuition of Hungarian refugees. That, of course, caused another long discussion in the back room. I waited nervously with bated breath. After a substantial time, the officer came back and said that UBC would accept me with no payment. I sighed and my heartbeat came down a few notches. Although I was uptight with my heart pounding, the entire negotiation occurred in a friendly and relaxed manner.

And I did UBC proud; I excelled in all the sciences. My weakest performance was in the mandatory English language courses. I was fortunate to have Professor Woodcock for my English course, who gave me a “P” or pass mark; he was aware of my background and valued the effort I put into learning the language.

So thank you UBC. You were gracious and understanding. And you can be proud, I finished UBC with an architecture degree. I followed it up with a couple of masters’ degrees in the States. And made my career in Canada since 1973.

Without your understanding and taking a chance on a 17-year-old refugee in 1957, I could not have made a successful career, grown a happy family in, and given back in services to, Canada. Thank you!

What is Community Engagement in Ottawa

February 24

What is Community Engagement in Ottawa?

We called it “citizen participation” in the late sixties in Norfolk, Virginia, where I worked for the City of Norfolk as a city planner. Urban renewal was in vogue and I had to liaise with community groups in the inner cities where urban renewal took place. The program replaced dilapidated homes with public housing.

To help to identify what the residents of the inner city wanted in their neighborhood – in their homes and open space surrounding them–we played interactive games. We had paper cutout benches, models for housing types and asked for their preferences. We tried to develop a plan from their input. That was called “citizen participation”. To get federal program funding, we had to show and describe how we worked collaboratively with the inner-city people (mostly African Americans) in Norfolk, Virginia.

I have often wondered if and how the City of Ottawa would invite the public to comment on upcoming developments in our neighborhood. My curiosity increased with my discovery that over 3000 apartments units in highrise buildings have been proposed in our neighborhood in the last few years. Construction has already started on some of them.

 Where will all these people come from to fill these new units? And who will pay for the infrastructure required by the increased demand for roads and utilities? Who is the target market for all these units: families, singles, retirees? What effects would all these proposals bring to our traffic? To our water and wastewater systems, and electrical grid? Would our taxes go up to pay for the new infrastructure required or do developers pay for the increased demand for these services?

So it pleasantly surprised me when I saw an ad in my local community newsletter in Ottawa. The City of Ottawa, it said, was accepting applications for “community engagement” to review neighborhoods’ development proposals. What better way to understand plans for our neighborhood than to take part with the city in reviewing these proposals So, I jumped on the opportunity and applied.

The response to my application came a few days later, advising me: I have to belong to the local community association; sign a “non-disclosure” agreement, and that I’ll need some training provided by the City. Instead of providing training, I expected the City to find out what skills I would bring to these reviews. I sat back, awaiting info on my training.

When cleaning up my old emails yesterday, I came across my exchange with the City on the application I submitted ten weeks ago. Wow! I followed up and copied my local City Councillor on my response. That did the trick: I received an email from the city the day after explaining that their “priorities have changed” and that is why I have not heard from them. But someone will follow up this Spring. Does that mean that they have one training program in the Spring? Or that they do not need volunteers anymore?

More importantly, does the City want “community engagement” or just check boxes to reflect “political correctness”? I suspect the latter: the email I received from the City to my application ends with three expressions; “Thank you” “Mercy” and “Migwetch”! The first two words are standard in a bilingual city with English and French. But the last word got my interest. It is in a native language meaning “thank you”. OK. We are politically correct, the City occupies Algonquin lands and I suspect the native language word is an acknowledgment of that.

But only five percent of the Ottawa population is of native origin. The same percentage of the population is Chinese, Arabic, and Asian. Will we see “thank you” notes in City of Ottawa letters in Chinese and Arabic and Hindi as well to acknowledge other major ethnic groups? Just a question.

However, my more serious concern is the commitment of the City to “public engagement” – it has now been three months since I applied in response to a request by the City for “public engagement”. It looks like it will be another three months before there is a “training” session. The sluggishness and response to my inquiry lead me to believe that the City is more interested in checking boxes than receiving input from citizens on development proposals. Just my opinion.

Ottawa Under Siege?

February 18

The headline said “Ottawa under siege” and then “Ottawa under occupation”. I live in Ottawa and frankly, I did not understand what they were talking about. In our neighborhood, there was nothing different from yesterday or the week before. Or the month before. I did not see one single truck pulling through our streets. I went shopping, went for my walks, and continued with my usual activities, including going to the gym, etc. so where is this siege?

Ottawa’s population is one million people; the metro area, including the Quebec side (the City of Gatineau), is one and a half million people. One part of the downtown area is the Parliamentary Precinct that is one kilometer long along Wellington Street and is a narrow band of land housing the Center, East and West blocks plus the Supreme Court building and the Archives (Parliament meets in the Center Block). The northern boundary of the Parliamentary District is the Ottawa River. The Precinct is a narrow sliver of land.

The protesters jammed up Wellington Street and then expanded to occupy the next few streets in the downtown area. Most of the buildings in this area are office buildings but include some condo high-rises. Further out there are more low rise residential apartments. The protesters occupied a four-block area going south from Wellington Street. I do not know how many people live in the occupied zone, but I would hazard to say that there are no more than a thousand.

The diesel fumes, the honking, the dancing, and the parties plus the fires where the protesters drank and conducted themselves in a loud manner surely irritated the nearby residents. And there was taunting as well for people who wore masks. But there was no vandalism to speak of and what I heard was that it was a party type of atmosphere downtown. OK. So the occupation was downtown and covered the kilometer-long Wellington Street and a few parallel streets south of Wellington. So would that be half a square kilometer area: it is one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide? The area of the City of Ottawa is 2800 square kilometers, not including the Quebec side). So we are talking about much less than one percent of the area of Ottawa where the occupation is.

But, the occupied area is an important part of Ottawa, both economically and symbolically.  Many people, including government employees, work remotely, away from the downtown area. Their absence hurt downtown shops economically.

The Parliamentary Precinct is an important tourist destination as well, even in the winter. No question that the protesters create a nuisance for people living and working in the area. But to claim that the City is under siege is an overstatement. It is an exaggeration beyond reason. Outside of the small affected area, the city is carrying on normally as if there were nothing dramatic occurring.

I live nine kilometers from Parliament (by road) and if it were not for the newspapers and television, I would not have known that there was is an “occupation” downtown. For people with no interest in politics and no desire to go downtown, the protest is nothing more than an interesting episode on television. Please, do not exaggerate and sow panic! Just my opinion.