Happy Canada Day! There are several exciting events taking place in Stittsville on July 1st and July 2nd. The Councillor invites you to join him for his Canada Day Flag Raising Ceremony at the Welcome to Stittsville sign at Hazeldean Road and Stittsville Main Street. He is pleased to share good news from the Ottawa Paramedic Service. He provides an update to the Waste Management Plan; a reminder for Accessible Parking; an update on the Robert Grant extension to Hazeldean Road. Hydro Ottawa says squirrels are causing the hydro outages in Stittsville and other neighbourhoods – read more about this below. Find out more about Ottawa Public Health’s new website – Party Safer. An update is provided about parks maintenance and grass cutting. Should you require assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Councillor’s office at the contact information below.
Join us for the Canada Day Flag Raising Ceremony!
Join us on July 1, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. at the Stittsville sign (Kavanagh Green, corner of Hazeldean and Stittsville Main) for a special Canada Day Flag Raising Ceremony. This annual tradition, now in its fifth year, aims to promote civic pride and kick off Canada Day with a memorable event. Free admission.
More Canada Day events:
- Canada Day Promenade on Stittsville Main: Family-friendly activities at the Stittsville Legion (1481 Stittsville Main), a car show at Frederick Banting School (1453 Stittsville Main), and at the Lions Hall (1339 Stittsville Main).
- Canada Day Festivities & Fireworks: The Stittsville Village Association is hosting Canada Day celebrations behind Sacred Heart High School (Abbott Street near Shea) from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. There will be fireworks, food vendors, and other entertainment for families. For more information, visit www.stittsvilleva.com/canadaday/
And then on July 2:
- Ottawa Symphony Orchestra Premieres + Ice Cream = Summer Vibes!
Come and hear three exciting new works for brass quintet and percussion by local composers Ben Glossop, Jan Järvlepp, and Victor Herbiet, commissioned with support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. These lively premieres will tour Ottawa this summer, performing live alongside The Merry Dairy Ice Cream Truck! Bring your friends, family, and lawn chairs for an evening of music, community, and summer treats. Each 20-minute concert will repeat every half hour between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. at Alexander Grove Park (10 Warner Colpitts Lane next to Johnny Leroux Arena). Free admission, family-friendly, and all are welcome! For more information, visit their Facebook event page.
Paramedic response times
Some good news in the annual report from Ottawa Paramedic Service. They met all legislated response time targets in 2024 for the first time since 2020. Level zero events, which occur when there are no ambulances available to respond to a call, decreased by 79 per cent. There was also a decrease in hospital offload delay, meaning that paramedics spent less time waiting to transfer patient care to hospital staff. Read more highlights from the report…
Waste management update
Last week City Council authorized staff to review three options to ensure Ottawa is ready when the Trail Waste Facility Landfill reaches capacity next decade. One option is to use private facilities; another option is to build a waste-to-energy incineration facility; and a third option would be to build a new municipal landfill. Each option comes with considerable cost and risk, which is why we will continue efforts to encourage and enable residents to avoid sending waste to the landfill in the first place. Read more…
Accessible parking
A reminder to drivers to not park in accessible parking spaces if you don’t have a permit. The fine for parking in an accessible parking space without a permit is $450. And more importantly, if you’re parking without a permit you’re taking away a spot from someone who really deserves and needs that extra bit of accessibility.
UPDATE: Robert Grant Avenue extension construction
Construction is on track for an opening this fall, possibly as early as Thanksgiving weekend in October. The opening date depends on a number of factors including weather conditions. Work to upgrade the Robert Grant-Abbott roundabout to current active transportation standards starts this week, with overnight work from July 2-4 at the roundabout. More information about construction and timelines…
Hydro Ottawa annual update
Last week we received our annual update from Hydro Ottawa at City Council. I asked CEO Bryce Conrad about the recent outages in Stittsville. There are some neighbourhoods that seem to be having a high number of outages – both in Stittsville and in other parts of the city. Is new growth causing more power outages?
His answer: “It’s not the growth, it’s the squirrels.”
Squirrels interfering with equipment, tree branches damaging wires, and even bad drivers knocking over utility poles are by and large the main causes of outages. Ottawa’s grid has the capacity to handle additional housing growth, an Hydro Ottawa is making investments to improve resilience and ensure the grid is ready for a growing population and new business needs. For more about this, visit Hydro Ottawa’s “Powering Tomorrow” page.
We’re working to set up a meeting for residents in Stittsville to so that you can ask questions directly to Hydro Ottawa, and hear about their future plans. Stay tuned!
Ottawa Public Health Launches New “Party Safer” Website and Training
Planning to go to a party, a festival, or just hang out with friends this summer? Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has info for you—it’s called Party Safer! This new website and training are all about staying safer, having fun, and looking out for each other while you’re out or hosting. The course is easy, interactive, and totally free! Visit PartySafer.ca to learn more and take the training today.
Parks maintenance & grass cutting
Parks Maintenance is responsible for around 4,300 hectares of green space across the City, split into 286 maintenance beats. The beats cover parks and roadsides and are on various cycle lengths based on the area’s use and the City’s maintenance quality standards. Issues that could affect our level of service include weather, grass growth rate, soil conditions, staffing or vehicle levels, emergency responses, nearby construction projects and park designation. You can learn the designations of the various parks in your ward by visiting geoOttawa. Most park beats are weekly and biweekly, some are less, and destination parks such as Andrew Haydon Park, Mooney’s Bay Park and Britannia Park receive more maintenance than other locations.
- Parks: Staff cuts passive areas in our parks every seven to 14 days. Regular mowing is good for the health of the turf making it denser, discouraging weeds. They cut grass height in our parks between 60 and 75 millimetres unless the area is in a designated naturalization area. You may notice longer grass around the base of some trees this year. Getting too close with trimmers can open some wounds that could attract beetles carrying the oak wilt virus. Oak Wilt is not in Ottawa, and we’d like to keep it that way!
- Sports fields: Staff maintains the turfgrass in sports fields and ball diamonds every three to seven days. Sport fields also have designations based on the events and activities they usually attract. Regular mowing creates safer playing conditions on our fields. They cut sports fields’ grass at a height of 60 millimetres with a maximum height of 80 to 90 millimetres.
- Naturalization: Staff typically mow naturalized areas one to two times a year to control invasive species and other vegetation control. These bio-diverse habitats slow and help to filter surface water run-off while creating homes for birds, butterflies and other wildlife. It also helps us improve the maintenance of the areas we do mow. Mowing in naturalized areas still occurs along vehicular, cycling, or pedestrian corridors to define sight lines.
- Roadside: Parks Maintenance cuts grass along urban, suburban, and rural roadsides and boulevards between five to nine times a year. This is to maintain safe sightlines along roads, paths and sidewalks. All of the roadside beats have seen at least one pass. Grass cutting is a collaborative affair as Roads and Parking Services cut grass in the ditches and along guard rails. Residents are reminded of requirements of Use and Care of Roads By-Law, particularly the section which covers residents’ responsibility for cutting the grass and weeds on the boulevard abutting the owner’s land.
Get in touch!
If we can help in any way, please email me at glen.gower@ottawa.ca or leave a voicemail at 613-580-2476. Please call 3-1-1 if you require immediate assistance. – Councillor Glen Gower