Hello,

We’re now in the middle of summer (but not Midsummer—that was in June around the time of the solstice) and Ottawa has had some hot weather lately. In fact, when June 23 reached 35C (46C with humidex) it was the highest temperature ever recorded for that day of the year, breaking the previous record of 34.4C in 1921.

Final numbers aren’t in for July yet, but we did just get through a multi-day heat wave. July 29 reached 30C (some accounts would place that as the eleventh straight day with temperatures above 30C) but by that point the heat wave was waning after having peaked at 33C on July 28. The record for hottest July 28 is 35 C, set back in 1949.

A heat warning for the city was ended on July 30, as temperatures plummeted to 28C.

That all being said, it is also worth nothing that 2024 was the overall warmest year in Ottawa since record began. Climate scientists attribute the general rise in temperatures to climate change.

Amid the heat, some city politicians and activists are calling for bylaws to protect tenants during heat waves. ACORN Ottawa is pushing for a “maximum heat” bylaw that would require landlords to maintain indoor temperatures of no higher than 26C during summer months. A similar bylaw is already on the books to keep indoor temperatures about 20C in the winter, but an analogous mandate is not set for summer. Ottawa Centre NDP MPP Catherine McKenney is advocating for the same thing.

Meanwhile, the heat and low rainfall are lowering levels in local waterways. The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) is asking people—mostly in rural areas—who have permits for taking water from the surface or groundwater sources to reduce consumption. “The notice does not impact the people who rely on the Ottawa River for water, which is most of the urban homes and businesses in the nation’s capital,” reports CityNews.

Stories from the PEN!

This month’s stories from the PEN include:

• Lynn Jones, from the Ottawa River Institute, describes how Two recent Federal Court judgments put brakes on giant Ottawa River nuclear waste dump at Chalk River Laboratories.

  • “These two successful court challenges are fuelling concerns about whether or not privatizing Canada’s federal nuclear laboratories in 2015 was a good move for Canadian taxpayers. A recent op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen noted that since privatization, costs to taxpayers have ballooned by 300 per cent to $1.4-billion annually, more than the budget of the CBC. Yet little progress has been made to reduce the multi-billion dollar nuclear waste liability that was purported to be the main purpose of the contract.”

• Ecology Ottawa’s community organizer writes about the benefits of transitioning school buses to electric power, in Three Wins, One School Bus.

• By including crustaceans—like lobsters, crabs, and shrimp— in the Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act, Ontario can raise the bar and mandate humane treatment of these animals, explains Malvika Chandnani is the Environmental Sustainability Coordinator for GentleWays for OurPlanet.

From The PEN Archives

The Summer 2019 PEN Insider included an article by then-executive director of Ecology Ottawa Robb Barnes, discussing how the group Ottawa Energy Collective Impact was strategizing to reduce the city’s emissions. The group was formed as a collective of environmental organizations from across the city that included the Canada Green Building Council, the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, and Ecology Ottawa, with experts from Hydro Ottawa, the City of Ottawa, other local groups. Barnes explains that the group focused policies for “greening Ottawa’s building stock” because heating, cooling, and electrifying homes, offices, and other buildings was the city’s greatest source of emissions.

Other News

• Check out this interactive post on mow microplastics form and spread throughout the environment, from The Guardian.

• Neil Saravanamuttoo has more to say about the Lansdowne 2.0 project, for which he says a “best case scenario is $246 million in revenues, with taxpayers on the hook for the remaining $247 million.”

• Ontario’s Bill 21, the Protect Our Food Act—a private member's bill by Independent Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner—has undergone first reading and has been ordered for second reading. The Bill calls for establishing a provincial farmer-led committee to create a "Foodbelt" for preserving farmland, reports CBC.

• The City of Ottawa has launched a new housing approvals dashboard—”a centralized, interactive tool designed to track Ottawa’s residential development activity.”

• The City has retrofitted the downtown office building at 230 Queen Street to serve as a temporary home for 140 people, mostly newcomers and refugees, says the Ottawa Citizen. The project cost $5.6 million and the city is now committed to a 10-year lease.

• The Ottawa Police has redesigned its Crime Map that you can use to view data about crime throughout the city since January 1. “The data is updated daily at 7:30 a.m. and displays distinct crime occurrences from the current year (2025) to the previous day. Each incident is displayed according to its most serious violation and pinpointed at the nearest intersection to its actual location.

• Banu Örmeci, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Carleton University, has been testing cleanliness of the Rideau River and says it is usually safe for swimming. “Our test results for the last five weeks and our sampling from five major parks on the Rideau River shows that the water quality is excellent, and it is safe for swimming and other recreational activities,” she told CTV News.

I look forward to connecting with you again next month through the PEN Newsletter. In the meantime, please use the comments section of the newsletter or email [email protected] with thoughts or questions.

—Christopher Bonasia, PEN editor

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