City to add bike lanes, explore closures for special events this summer Ottawa city councillors voted in favour of reopening Wellington Street to vehicles Wednesday with a motion that leaves the door open to making the downtown roadway pedestrian-only for special events as soon as this summer. City councillors voted to take down the concrete barricades “as soon as is operationally feasible” but no sooner than March 1. Capital Coun. Shawn Menard and Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Jessica Bradley dissented. Phil Landry, director of traffic services with the city, said he couldn’t give a precise date cars would be able toRead more

Alberta’s energy regulator has given Imperial Oil until the end of the month to figure out how to deal with ongoing seepage at a tailings pond at its Kearl oilsands mine. On Monday, the regulator issued an environmental protection order to Imperial to clean up ongoing seepages of industrial wastewater at the mine, located in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta, about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. The company also needs to submit plans for wildlife protection, environmental remediation and notifying the public. The order covers two separate contamination incidents that took place over nine months.Read more

The company failed to treat effluent for selenium and nitrate, Ministry of Environment says. A Canadian mining company has been fined more than $16 million for polluting waterways in B.C.’s East Kootenay. The B.C. Ministry of Environment has imposed three administrative penalties on Teck Coal Limited, a subsidiary of Teck Resources, citing the company’s failure to have water treatment facilities ready by a required date to limit emissions of nitrate and selenium from its Fording River operations in the Elk Valley. The ministry says administrative penalties are monetary fines issued by theRead more

It isn’t just about high interest rates. When rent goes up, it often goes up most dramatically in major urban centres. And, sure enough, Toronto and Vancouver have consistently been in the spotlight as rental prices have skyrocketed over the last year. A two-bedroom apartment in the Ontario capital averaged $1,765 a month in 2022, while the same place in Vancouver soared to $2,002, according to the latest Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). But it isn’t just a problem for Canada’s biggest cities. Across the country, high interest rates have left would-beRead more

Driver charged with 1st-degree murder after crash kills 2 children, injures 6 others A 51-year-old man drove a city bus into a daycare in Laval, Que., on Wednesday morning, killing two children and injuring six more. Pierre Ny St-Amand, a bus driver with the Société de transport de Laval (STL), was arrested at the scene. He has been charged with several crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm. Around 8:30 a.m., the Laval city bus crashed into the Garderie Éducative de Sainte-RoseRead more