Recent activities

Below is a brief description of our past activities listed from most recent to oldest. In addition to these we have held numerous meetings with representatives at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels as well as City of Ottawa transportation planning staff and senior officials with Ontario Ministry of Transport (MTO).

Activities During Phase 2B: Interprovincial Crossings Study

Having been unsuccessful at convincing the Study Partners to include a more detailed engineering study of a downtown tunnel as part of the interprovincial crossings study, Sustainable Solutions limited it's activities during 2011-2013 to participating in the public consultation sessions at various intervals during the Interprovincial Crossings study's process.

In parallel, meetings were held with the office of the Mayor of Ottawa to understand better his public statements that he did not support a new east end bridge and to discuss his views on possible alternatives. Research also continued on monitoring other cities around the world who were making decisions to implement downtown road tunnels and this research was shared with other political representatives of downtown ridings at various levels of government.

Sustainable Solutions presents at OAIA conference (Oct 15,2010)

Post phase 2A Correspondence with the NCC (Jul 27, 2010)

Letter to NCC, MTO and MTQ following Jun 29, 2010 NCC Board of Directors Meeting

At the Jun 29, 2010 NCC Board of Director's meeting the board accepted the consultant's wrap-up report of the Phase 2A public consultations along with their Study Design report recommending what process will be used to select a bridge location during the upcoming Phase 2B study. The Board also commissioned NCC staff to move forward with the Phase 2B process. Phase 2B limits the options to be considered to 3 different bridge locations.

Sustainable Solutions followed with this letter to Study partners to which this NCC response was received.

NCC consultant's Ph2A report to Ottawa Council (Jul 14, 2010)

The City of Ottawa is not officially a 'study partner' on this project. However the City is on the technical advisory panel and so it was appropriate that the Phase 2A final report should be presented to Ottawa City transportation committee and then to full City Council. Sustainable Solutions was engaged with several City councillors in the affected wards to direct questions and discussions with the consultants. There was significant debate about the issue of the trucks in downtown Ottawa and how any one of the proposed bridge locations could provide a solution to this problem. We also proposed a series of motions which were adopted by the City of Ottawa in the form of requests to the NCC regarding the study process for Phase 2B of the project. These motions again focused on requiring the NCC to do 'more homework' in order to ensure a better solution to the downtown truck problem could be found. The NCC has since followed with an addendum to their Phase 2A study report outlining additional studies that will be made pertaining to inter-provincial trucking issues.

By reading further down the meeting minutes page on the City of Ottawa web site a detailed account can be read of the discussions that occurred at this City Council meeting.

NCC Board of Directors meeting (Jun 29, 2010)

Letter to NCC Board of Directors in advance of Jun 29, 2010 Board of Director's Meeting

At this meeting the NCC Board was to vote to accept the results of the consultant's work for Phase 2A which included their report on how the study and public consultation is to be carried out in Phase 2B. Sustainable Solutions wrote this NCC BoD letter which was circulated to each of the board members prior to this meeting. At the meeting, a 90 minute time slot was scheduled for this topic however there was minimal discussion and the report was approved (ie. authorization was granted to proceed with Phase 2B) within 45 minutes.

Sustainable Solutions meeting with NCC and Phase 2A project team (Jun 22, 2010)

As a result of the Joint Communities Statement described below, a special meeting was arranged by the NCC with Sustainable Solutions. We made the case for a greater emphasis on finding a solution for the downtown truck problem and for opening up the study process for a more thorough evaluation of other alternatives besides three potential bridge corridors. The Sustainable Solutions case was expressed using this presentation. The meeting was documented in these minutes by the NCC project leader.

Sustainable Solutions Joint Statement to the NCC (Jun 2010)

During the Phase 2A public consultations it became clear that public engagement was being limited to a narrow range of topics (such as ways to lessen the negative impacts of any planned bridge). On numerous occasions we had tried to engage in a dialogue regarding the main objectives of this project and to broaden the list of options that could be considered as potential solutions. As a result of frustration with this process, during the spring of 2010 numerous discussions were held between community associations and other groups to build consensus around a unified response to the NCC. This became especially important as the Phase 2A consultation process was nearing completion. The result of these efforts was the following Joint Statement which was signed by over a dozen different community groups and sent to Marie Lemay (Chair of the NCC) as well as local political representatives of all three levels of government.