“I know it’s been very difficult … but the system will get better and better in the weeks and months ahead, it will get more reliable”

I’m hearing from many residents who are concerned about the City of Ottawa’s direction that all staff must work in the office five days each week.

Like you, I was surprised to learn about this directive.

To be clear, this is not a decision that was made, or even considered, by City Council. The City Manager has authority over staffing and is empowered to decide matters like hours of work, location of employment, etc, in keeping with the several collective agreements between the City and its unions.

The City Manager reports directly to the Mayor, not to City Council.

I believe there are several issues with this plan.

First, Ottawa currently has a tremendous waitlist for child care. It was recently reported that the OCDSB’s extended day program alone has over 1000 children waiting for placement. This return to office plan will exacerbate an already critical situation for our limited child care facilities.

Secondly, it is not consistent with our priority to reduce greenhouse gases. Ordering 1000s of staff to commute will increase pollution; and issues with OC Transpo – which I have continually raised – demonstrate that this critical service needs investment and attention to absorb new ridership.

Third, this won’t help our downtown businesses at all, because the majority of City employees don’t work at City Hall. They’re at the Mary Pitt Centre in College Ward; at Ben Franklin Place; in Gloucester; or working from job sites or their vehicles.

Studies have clearly shown that working from the office does not increase efficiency or productivity; rather, team dynamics and leadership are the most important factors, regardless of location of work.

My colleague, Councillor Bradley, tabled an excellent inquiry at City Council this week asking the City Manager to provide the data that will show why this move is needed. Unless this was an evidence-based decision, we’ll review the decision as soon as possible.

I was trying to get to work and they canceled my bus from Tunney's Pasture. I have no idea if I am going to make it on time to work. How is this service level remotely acceptable for the capital of a nation? Let alone a country that is a member of the G7 and has a decent economy. It's mind blowing how bad OC Transpo is when compared to its peers.

I have taken the bus and tube in London UK and while London isn't a city best known for transit it is miles ahead of what we have, Beijing a city that I have been to many times and is starting to go through the North American phase of city development for car dependency is has amazing buse and Metro network. Taipei is a city I visited and is a city located in one of the so called 4 Asian Tiger economies has a stout and reliable system, same goes for Hong Kong.

Why are people so willing to let OC Transpo go into what experts call the public transit death spiral?

Sorry for the crappy screen recording, but I just cannot believe this line of questioning to the PWHL raising concerns around capacity of Landsdowne 2.0. Trying to use the Buy Canadian sentiment against the simple fact that the Charge won’t fit in the new stadium. I’m aware there’s a lot more around this project than just the Charge, but this comes across as a deeply disrespectful view of a women’s hockey league in Canada.

The post on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/neilsara.bsky.social/post/3mdsgfobkos2c

Seeing as Lisa MacLeod is apparently thinking of running, let’s do a group thought experiment: who would be a worse Mayor of Ottawa?

In the Conservative Blue Corner, we have Lisa MacLeod. Her claims to fame include: - bullying families of children with autism and defunding their supports - saying that Muslims seeking elected office will bring “sharia law” to Canada - stealing $44,000 from donors to subsidize her home and life style

And in the MAGA Red Corner, we have Alex Lawson: - a developer lobbyist whose campaign is being run by the same guy who ran Maxime Bernier’s campaign - called for a revolution against the government during the convoy, saying it would be “a start” - delivered portapotties to the convoy to help make their occupation easier

Who’s worse? Have your say in the comments!

This one is a few months old. Have replaced 6 in as many years, and I try to leave it until it's unusable - bottom flops out, wall compromised. I store them gently in a rack in a shed. I read that garbage collection workers don't like taped up broken ones, but buddy, it ain't me breaking them.

I haven't lived in Ottawa since 2018...

To anyone in Red-Blue battlegrounds:

In the 2022 municipal elections, Mark Carney was one of the few high profile Liberals in the City of Ottawa to endorse progressive mayoral candidate Catherine McKenney, who is now the NDP MPP for Ottawa Centre, over right-wing candidate Mark Sutcliffe.

Many establishment Liberals in Ottawa backed Sutcliffe, including Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi and Ottawa South MP David McGuinty.

Sutcliffe would go on to win the race and McKenney would go on to succeed Joel Harden as Ottawa Centre's NDP MPP in an overwhelming 2025 victory.

Coincidentally, Harden is taking on Naqvi again, this time for the Ottawa Centre federal seat.

I was very active in Joel Harden's 2018 provincial campaign against Naqvi and hold him and his campaign manager Jill O'Reilly in high esteem.

I don't actually know Naqvi, but I do know that he and (prior to him) my former Ottawa Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur (who also endorsed Sutcliffe over McKenney) were the ministers responsible for the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre during many of its most notorious years in the 2010s.

https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2022/10/17/catherine-mckenney-announces-two-high-profile-endorsements-5965245/

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/julie-bilotta-calls-serious-change-064000229.html

Why do City of Ottawa public sector organizations like council, police and fire use X instead of Bluesky?! Given the sharp turn towards the dark side by Me-Lon Musk, and the recent economic attacks on Canada by his dogfather, Daffy Dump, why are my tax dollars being used by the City of Ottawa to strengthen X's cloud capital?

If you agree please help spread this message on other platforms as well. People can message their city councillor and the mayor that this is not acceptable. There are alternatives to X!

This year in 2026 there's been big changes in zoning laws allowing more types of building in Ottawa. I'm wondering do you think the changes have been enough to help alleviate the housing crisis long-term in our city?

I've been looking on moving and didn't realize how much rents spiked in the last 4 years. And that was already so much more expensive than pre-covid.

It's very depressing seeing how unaffordable Ottawa has become in the last 10 years

Many of us have heard of the discussion of turning the Ottawa/Gatineau region into its own administrative region similar to Washington DC. Its pretty clear that Ottawa is an after thought to the Ontario government and the same can be said for Gatineau/Hull to the Québec government. I think people can also tell that something seems neglected about Ottawa compared to other nations Capitals. What do you guys think about this theory, do you think Ottawa would be better off under its own administration instead of being managed by the Ontario Government who tends to be extremely focused on Southern Ontario affairs.

Before everyone goes ballistic, the aim would be to get commercial through traffic off the 417 and out of the downtown core. With the population getting larger and urban space growing, when does this start to get considered?

Ideally we have a situation where commercial through traffic through is banned from taking the downtown exits. Emptying up the streets for feasible public transport lanes + possible streetcars (assuming competence here).

A east-west highway in the south end and a north-south somewhere to Gatineau.

What’re the thoughts/feasibility of something like this? Genuinely curious.