OTTAWA – City Council approved a two-year process to develop the city’s second Solid Waste Master Plan last Wednesday (July 10).

“The new 30-year master plan will provide the overall framework, direction and goals for solid waste management, diversion and reduction policy over the short, medium and long term,” city staff released in a statement. “It will look at how the city collects and processes waste, and how to increase waste-diversion rates. Refocusing the city’s approach to waste management will help keep Ottawa clean and livable and help extend the life of the Trail Road Landfill, currently expected to reach capacity in 2042.”

 After extensive public engagement and consultation, the master plan will come to the Standing committee on Environmental Protection, Water and Waste Management for consideration by the end of 2021, along with the initial five-year implementation plan. Staff will provide updates and new implementation plans every five years, making the master plan adaptable as new technologies, legislation, policies, information and ideas emerge.

Council voted against a motion to void a heritage permit for an addition to the back of the Château Laurier hotel. The result was Council sustained the decision of the previous City Council, which approved a permit for the rear addition, proposed by Larco Investments.

Council approved two reports outlining front-ending agreements that will see the city repay developers to design and build infrastructure.

For the largest of the agreements, the city will repay Kanata Land Owners up to $11.74 million to design and build a sanitary sewer on March Road and Shirley’s Brooke Drive. Under another agreement, Tamarack Homes and Mattamy Homes will pay up front to modify the intersection at Cambrian Road and Apolune Way, with the City repaying up to $971,600.

 Council approved additional height for residential buildings planned for both Old Ottawa East and Wellington West. Within the Greystone Village Subdivision, Council approved Official Plan and zoning amendments to permit a nine-storey, 120-unit building south of Oblats Avenue, just east of Main Street. The amendment clarifies that heights between three and nine storeys are permitted in areas, such as this, designated for mixed-use, medium-rise buildings.

Council received the Auditor General’s report on the Fraud and Waste Hotline for 2018.

The report showed that 2018 saw similar numbers of residents and city staff contact the hotline to report concerns as compared to 2017. Of 190 reports to the hotline in 2018, 57 per cent came from the public and 43 per cent came from staff. Three quarters were made online.

From the 194 reports that were closed last year, 27 were fully substantiated. Results of investigations included four employees being terminated and two resigning.

 Council also received three new audit reports: A Review of the Emergency Shelter Program – Use of a Specific Hotel; An Investigation of Cash Theft Incident – Meridian Theatres at Centrepointe; and An Investigation of OC Transpo Clothing Allowance.