Watson tells Buzz On to buzz off
Meeting decides prayer will go but Elgin Street pilot’s here to stay,
If there were any doubt where Mayor Jim Watson stood on the city’s first vapour lounge, which opened on Montreal Road recently, he put it to rest on Wednesday.
“I’m not impressed with it at all,” Watson told reporters after Wednesday’s council meeting. “I think it’s the last thing this city needs.”
The mayor had plenty to say about Buzz On — where patrons pay a membership fee to smoke their own marijuana on the premises — and the frustration he feels about the city’s inability to deal with the controversial new establishment.
Q What does the mayor want to see happen?
A Plain and simple, he wants the place shut down. And he wants the police to do it.
“I fully expect the police to enforce the laws,” Watson said. “If laws are being broken, if people are consuming and smoking and exchanging illegal products, then police should lay charges.”
He hasn’t personally spoken to police Chief Charles Bordeleau — “Politicians don’t direct police,” Watson said — but it’s evident to him that police have concerns. “Ultimately it’s up to the chief of police whether they’re going to lay charge, but as a citizen I see something that’s being done illegally, then the police should lay charges,” he said.
But it’s probably not that easy. While police are on the lookout for drug trafficking around and at the site, they might be reluctant to spend police resources constantly arresting people for smoking small amounts of their own marijuana.
Q Ottawa has quite stringent no-smoking bylaws. Can’t the city enforce them at Buzz On?
A “The short answer is no,” the mayor said. The issue is that smoking marijuana is illegal, so naturally the city wouldn’t pass a bylaw regulating an illegal activity. “We can regulate tobacco products, but we can’t regulate marijuana as a city bylaw. It would have to come from the province — it would have to amend the Smoke Free Ontario Act.”
The Smoke Free Ontario Act, provincial legislation that bans smoking from all public venues, refers specifically to tobacco. The province would have to add marijuana to the act for the city to regulate its use, but doing that is complicated by the fact that marijuana is illegal.
Q How is Buzz On even allowed to be open?
A The zoning uses for the area includes something called place of assembly, which the city defines as a place to “accommodate gatherings of people.” So the vapour lounge complies with these rules. And because Buzz On doesn’t sell anything — it rents marijuana paraphernalia — the proprietor doesn’t need a vending licence.
“The staff did review that and they believe (the owner) is in compliance with the zoning bylaw,” the mayor said. “It’s somewhat uncharted waters.”
Watson was cognizant, and seemed frustrated, by the bizarre circumstances whereby the municipality can regulate (legal) tobacco use but do nothing about (illegal) marijuana use.
“So if we’re cracking down on people smoking illegally on a patio — which I support — you shouldn’t allow it in a restaurant,” Watson said, although Buzz On does not appear to be a restaurant.
“If someone has a medical licence for marijuana, then please go and use that product on your property in your own house, but please don’t bring it in an establishment where other people can be affected by the second-hand smoke.”
Q The owner of Buzz On has invited the mayor to visit. Is he game?
A “No,” Watson said. “That would turn into a bit of a three-ring circus and generate publicity for him. I want to see areas like Vanier develop with legitimate, exciting new businesses, not something that is clearly illegal.”
PATIOS MADE PERMANENT
The Elgin Street sidewalk patios that were created as part of a pilot project are here to stay.
Patios south of MacLaren Street, where pedestrian levels are lower, must leave 1.8 metres of clear sidewalk, while patios north of MacLaren are required to leave two metres of clearance because of the greater number of pedestrians.
Council also approved patio fees for the 2015 season, despite concerns from some business groups that the fees are too high.
SWAPPING PRAYER FOR MOMENT OF SILENCE
On the heels of a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision that found a Quebec municipality couldn’t begin its council meeting with a Catholic prayer, council has decided to replace its short, nondenominational prayer with a moment for reflection at the start of each meeting.
However, Coun. Marianne Wilkinson said she didn’t believe a moment of silence — usually reserved for a time of remembrance — was appropriate, and said she’d prefer a non-religious statement read at the start of council to set the intention for each meeting.
Council passed the motion for the moment of silence, but decided to revisit the issue during its midterm governance review.
DEAR KATHLEEN
Mayor Jim Watson will send a letter to the provincial government requesting that it let Hydro Ottawa participate in a “transparent procurement process” to purchase Ottawa’s 45,000 Hydro One customers at fair market value.
This is the fifth time a resolution requesting the province negotiate the sale of these 45,000 customers has been brought forward and approved by Ottawa city councils.
“If we have one city, we should have one hydro provider,” Watson said during Wednesday’s meeting.
The province has recently indicated a willingness to sell a portion of Hydro One and struck an asset panel to recommend a process for divestiture of Hydro One assets.
NEW CHILD-CARE PLAN OK’D
The city will pump $11.5 million into the child-care sector between now and 2020 as part of a new council-approved plan.
It is intended to stabilize fees, slash wait times and help childcare agencies adapt to shifts in the industry caused by the introduction of full-day kindergarten in 2010 and the province’s efforts to modernize its child-care legislation last year. The new funding would come from the city’s childcare reserve fund.
There are 28,051 licensed spaces in Ottawa and more than 12,000 children on a waiting list for a space (full fee and subsidized).
CARLSBAD SPRINGS LANDFILL CLEARS HURDLE
Council signed off on the formal comments the city will submit as part of an ongoing environmental assessment for a large-scale industrial landfill and recycling facility proposed for the city’s east end.
Taggart Miller Environmental Services, a joint venture of Taggart Investments Inc. and Miller Waste Systems Inc., has been working since 2010 on a proposal that would bring a new facility for processing industrial, commercial and institutional waste (known in the industry as IC&I) to a site on Boundary Road adjacent to Highway 417, about three kilometres south of Carlsbad Springs.
The facility would also process organics, construction and demolition waste, contaminated soil and leaf and yard scraps, and store residual waste in a large landfill.
Because the province oversees the IC&I waste sector, it has the ultimate authority to approve or reject the project. The city’s only role at this stage is to provide comments as part of the ongoing environmental assessment.
The city’s formal comments call for restricting the service area to the City of Ottawa boundaries and those of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell and the United Counties of Stormont Glengarry, and preventing Taggart Miller from charging less for waste loads going directly to the landfill than for loads being recycled.
HAT TRICK OF HERITAGE DESIGNATIONS
Council unanimously — and quickly — endorsed three heritagerelated items.
It approved the new design for 7 Clarence St., a National Capital Commission-owned heritage building in the By Ward Market that had to be demolished after engineers found the 135-year-old structure was beyond repair. The new building will be used temporarily as an exhibition space for embassies during the 2017 celebrations.
Council also approved the heritage designation for 7 Bayview Rd. — also known as Municipal Works Building No. 4 — as it’s one of the city’s last examples of 1940s industrial buildings constructed in the modern style.
And finally, council gave the goahead for the construction of a new six-storey building at the southeast corner of Bank and Lisgar streets, which is within the Centretown heritage conservation district.
$48-MILLION HOUSING PLAN APPROVED
Council gave the unanimous thumbs up to a city staff plan on how to spend the $48 million the federal and provincial governments are handing to the city for affordable housing initiatives over the next five years.
Most of the money — $35.7 million — will be spent on new construction, while $5 million be spent on rental supplements and housing allowances. Another $5.4 million will go to the Ontario Renovates Program, while the final $2.16 million will cover administrative costs.