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THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013
www.YourOttawaRegion.com
SEE OUR SPECIALS on the back page
CHEO Inside gets SPORTS funding boost Expansion of day-care surgery allows for 2,200 more operations Ottawa South United Force wins a Disney soccer tournament. – Page 5
NEWS
A new development to spice up the Cyrville neighbourhood aims to get underway this year. – Page 6
ARTS
Eddie Rwema eddie.rwema@metreoland.com
EMC news - The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario will soon be able to perform 2,200 additional operations each year, thanks to new provincial funding. On Jan. 8, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the Ontario Liberal government will spend close to $10-million to renovate and expand the day care surgery and post anaesthetic care units at CHEO.. “We do everything we can, stretch as far as we need, make every sacrifice that is necessary to ensure that our children receive the best possible care,” said McGuinty. See RENOVATIONS, page 3
Dreams come true at Jules Morin Park Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson joins students from École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Anne and York Street Public School at the opening of the city’s second Sens RINC project in Lowertown’s Jules Morin Park on Dec. 11. The Sens Foundation, in partnership with the Ottawa Senators and the city, launched a community rink initiative last year to benefit the city’s youth. The Rink of Dreams constructed at Ottawa City Hall last year was the first in what will be a series of 20 rinks to be installed in high-risk neighbourhoods.
Public invited to peek into Ottawa’s streets of the future Laura Mueller laura.mueller@metroland.com
The Sparks Street Mall launches a new program to promote local artists. – Page 21
STEPH WILLEMS/METROLAND
EMC news - A radical rethinking of transportation in Ottawa’s downtown core will be on display for the public at city hall on Thursday, Jan. 17. The final presentation for the city’s Downtown Moves study will kick off the way it started – with speakers discussing the strategy needed to move transportation for Ottawa’s urban core into the future. That means reconsidering how people will get downtown – mainly by using tran-
sit, bicycles or by walking. Members of the public can view a display of the final Downtown Moves plan in Jean Pigott Hall at city hall (110 Laurier Ave. W.) starting at 5 p.m. Presentations will begin at 7 p.m. and feature Amanda O’Rourke from 880 Cities, Donna Hinde from the Planning Partnership, Ron Clarke of Delcan Corporation, the study’s engineering consultant, and finally Ken Greenberg, a popular consultant and speaker on urban design issues. The open house is the final public meeting on the plan before it goes to planning com-
mittee for approval in early March. The study is meant to provide a blueprint for how streets, bicycle lanes and sidewalks should be designed in the downtown to accommodate thousands of pedestrians who will pour onto the streets from three underground stations after the city’s light-rail line begins operating in 2018. The city’s master planning documents say that pedestrians should have the highest priority, but that’s often not the case in reality, said Nelson Edwards, the city planner in charge of the project. “It’s going to test how far
we can push that conversation,” Edwards said. The difference will be in how engineers approach the way they design the street, he said. In the past, they would start with the center line in the road and move outwards to fill up the space. In that paradigm, the private vehicle ranks as most important. But the shifting needs of downtown transportation mean the city needs to look at building streets from the outside edge inward, meaning the features for pedestrians have the highest priority, then bicycles are considered, and finally the remaining amount
of space will be parceled out for vehicles. Edwards and engineering consultants have drawn up samples of how downtown streets could be rebuilt when the city approves money for the projects. By doing a lot of the work ahead of time, Edwards thinks it will be much easier for city planners to simply adopt the those prepared templates that have already been studied. Making the process easier will ensure the streets are actually built as Downtown Moves envisions them to be, he said. See STRATEGY, page 2
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