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Blossom Park to get Inside a new splash pad
An Ottawa teen takes his vision for the city’s mass transit future to the mayor’s office. – Page 3
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Streetcars could be making their way back to Sparks Street if one local group has its way. – Page 4
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Eddie Rwema eddie.rwema@metroland.com
EMC news – Children from the Blossom Park neighbourhood and the three schools near the Russell Boyd Park can look forward to a new splash pad before the end of the summer. The city held a public meeting on Feb. 12 at St. Bernard Elementary School to allow residents to see preliminary concept plans and to provide input and comments. The new facility will be able to accommodate up to five different types of spray features, based on the available project budget and the size of the splash pad, according to Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans. “There are a lot of children in this neighbourhood and I have heard from many parents in the community that they needed some new elements to update and upgrade the park,” said Deans. Plans to construct the $220,000 splash pad were approved in this year’s city budget. If the community is happy with the plans, the city hopes to have the splash pad completed before the end of summer.
eddie.rwema@metroland.com
– Page 11
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Residents expressed fears about the location, saying it was too close to the road. Some suggestions included moving the splash pad deeper into the park or have the city build a fence or a barrier for protection purposes. City planner Josee Helie said they based their decision on the location on cost and feasibility. See RUSSELL, page 2
EDDIE RWEMA/METROLAND
The way to better skiing Rebecca McDonald takes adult skate-ski lessons at the Mooney’s Bay Cross-Country Ski Centre. The centre offers fundamentals of classic skiing like diagonal stride, increasing power and speed, marathon skate and step turns, among others.
New critic post for Ottawa South MP Eddie Rwema
Justin Trudeau draws an overflow crowd at an Orléans pub.
“If all goes according to plan and the community says they want it and we can agree on the elements, we will try to have it constructed by summer,” said Deans. When open, the splash pad will provide hours of safe water fun to hundreds of children and families in Blossom Park. “I know all the three schools that use the park are very enthusiastic about having some new elements,” said Deans. Beverley, a parent and resident of Blossom Park, said the splash pad would be well received and used by residents. “I think it is great for the neighbourhood and the schools here. We don’t have a splash pad anywhere close,” she said.
EMC news – The new federal Liberal Party science and technology critic has said he strongly believes that Canada can and must be improved with enhanced science, better technology and a culture of innovation. David McGuinty, MP for Ottawa South was recently named critic for the Liberal corner’s science and technology, federal economic development agency for southern Ontario and federal econom-
ic development agency for northern Ontario. He received the new postings a few weeks after he resigned as the natural resources critic because of comments he made to Conservative MPs from Alberta. McGuinty offered his resignation in November and apologized for the comments he made saying that his words in no way reflected the views of his party or leader. “I had a conversation with a journalist. It was a very long discussion and excerpts of the conversation were cut. The
comments were made public and it caused a commotion and I decided the best thing was to apologize for any offence it might have caused and step aside from my critic role,” said McGuinty. However, he disagreed his comments hurt his party’s chances in the Calgary Centre by-election that Conservatives won. “If you look at the results of the Calgary Centre by-election, the reason we lost is because three opposition parties divided the votes and allowed the Conservative candidate
to come up the middle,” said McGuinty. “This is a challenge for the 60 per cent of Canadian voters who are progressive in nature.” EXCITED ABOUT NEW ROLE
McGuinty said he would support any moves to bring back the Ottawa-Gatineau region to where it was in early 2000s when the region was receiving 60 to 70 per cent of all venture capital invested in Canada. “We are now down well below 25 per cent and that is
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unfortunate,” said McGuinty. He said he was pleased to be able to take on this task, that he finds critical and integral to Canada’s success in the future. “Canada in my view is not doing very well on the science and technology front,” he said. “I have a lot of constituents in Ottawa South who work at the National Research Council and at many of the granting agencies and many of them are telling me that funding for core science is being slashed.” 287785-1030
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