Ottawa, we need more public washrooms
Our last city council made some limited progress in improving access to public toilets in Ottawa:
It agreed to add two toilets to the LRT (at the hub stations of Bayview and Hurdman) and promised them at hub stations in Phase Two;
It funded 10 porta potties for splash pads and sports fields during the summer months of 2018; and,
For those with a smartphone or tablet, it produced an app (ottpee.ca) showing the locations of toilets in city-supported institutions ( but excluding, for example, those managed by the NCC or facilities such as shopping centres).
Despite this, our city, with one million residents and another 10 million visitors each year to Ottawa- Gatineau, has an appalling shortage of public toilets downtown, in recreation areas and on the transit system. Moreover, some of our public toilets are hidden or closed half the time.
The next council should recognize the importance of public toilets for parents of young children, for seniors, for those suffering from diseases such as Crohn’s and colitis, for transit users waiting at park-and-ride hubs, for park users — and probably for all of us at some time.
Many options to improve this situation have only a modest price tag. For instance:
Street-level direction signs to public toilets downtown. One example is the toilet east of the East Block of Parliament, a fine facility but out of sight from Wellington Street;
Putting porta potties at public splash pads that have no nearby toilet;
Placing porta potties at the park-and-ride transit sta- tions, such as at Eagleson;
The city could also experiment with lower-cost composting toilet sin some parks; make better use of the existing toilets by opening them for longer hours; and expand the ottpee.ca app to include all publicly available toilets.
How low-cost are these ideas? GottaGo rented a porta potty at Harrold Place splash pad (near Merivale and Carling Avenues) for $150 a month for the summer of 2016. It was used by dozens of preschool kids, their caregivers and others.
Manufacturing and installing 20 or so streetlevel direction signs for the “hidden” public toilets in the downtown area would cost $2,000 to $3,000. Meanwhile, while compost toilets cost approximately $40,000, it’s a small fraction of the cost of a toilet with sewer connection.
The city could provide financial incentives to businesses, to encourage coffee shops and other food and drink businesses to allow the public to use the toilet (thanks to Starbucks for leading on this!), and the city should promote guidelines that require universal-access toilets in new and renovated public buildings.
If there are special funds for special needs, these should include funding for one or two full-service toilets downtown with changing facilities for severely disabled adults needing a hoist.
Great cities are cities that welcome everybody and make them feel at ease. Helping people to find and access a toilet is part of making Ottawa a great place to live and visit.