As the number of tenants being forced out of their homes soars, an Ottawa city councilor wants the city to do more to prevent bad-faith evictions.

The city has seen a significant increase in the number of N13 forms being used for evictions – which require a tenant to move out so a landlord can do major renovations and charge a higher rent.

According to a renoviction report by ACORN, the number of N13’s filed in Ottawa from 2021 to 2022 jumped 545 per cent.

Coun. Ariel Troster now wants the city to explore an anti-renoviction bylaw. Looking to Hamilton, the first city in the province who is requiring a renovation licence for landlords and allowing tenants to return to their units at the same rent.

"Our office has been absolutely inundated with calls," said Troster, who is putting forward a similar motion to the city's planning comittee.

“We have no provincial tenancy control right now, which means, in between tenants, a property owner can raise the rent as much as they want. Citywide, this is leading to a massive problem that's driving people into homelessness.”

...

By the end of the day after the solar eclipse, there were no signs of residents rushing to get treatment for eye damage, say spokespeople for Ottawa hospitals.

After Monday’s eclipse, “my eyes hurt” was trending on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting some people had damaged their eyes. But, if that was the case, there was no sign of it in Ottawa.

Spokespeople for CHEO, The Ottawa Hospital, Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton all said they had not seen cases of people with eye damage coming to the hospital as of Tuesday evening....

Ottawa motorists will be paying three cents a litre more to fill up the gas tank on Monday, when the federal carbon tax hike kicks in.

As of April 1, the federal government is increasing the price on carbon pollution by $15 per tonne to $80. The federal carbon tax will be 17.71 cents a litre on gas in Ontario.

Canadians for Affordable Energy President Dan McTeague says the average price of regular gasoline in Ottawa will increase three cents from 159.9 cents a litre to 162.9 cents a litre on Monday.

Motorists will also see a 3 cent a litre hike in Kingston and across eastern Ontario.

...

Ontario's premier called on the federal government to require public servants to work in the office more frequently to revitalize the city's downtown — but neither the government department responsible for public servants nor one of its main unions appeared moved by the request.

"They have to get people back to work," Premier Doug Ford said during a press conference on Thursday in Ottawa, standing next to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.

"It sounds crazy. I'm begging people to go to work for three days — not that they aren't working at home, but it really affects the downtown."

Ford popped by Sutcliffe's monthly city hall breakfast Thursday where he served up a wide-ranging funding plan for the capital over the next decade — one that would also require significant federal investment. The "new deal for Ottawa" offers up to $543 million over 10 years from the province for housing, travel, public safety and other areas.

Up to $20 million is on offer for economic recovery and downtown revitalization.

Ottawa Fire Services says no injuries were reported after a fire broke out in a commercial building along Bank Street in the Glebe Sunday morning.

Firefighters say they received multiple calls around 7:59 reporting black smoke coming from the top of a two-storey building located at 785 Bank St..

When crews arrived on scene, two minutes into the initial call, they found fire in the ceiling of the second floor. That was when they began opening up the ceiling to put the flames out. Crews reported significant fire in the attic of the structure at at 08:21, the fire department said.

The fire was declared under control at 10:03 a.m..

"A 'fire watch' has been set up to monitor for any flare ups," Ottawa fire said in a post on X.

Ottawa fire spokesperson Nick Defazio told CTV News Ottawa the fire was contained to the building.

However, smoke made its way into the grocery store at the back of the building, prompting crews to use high pressurized fans to ventilate it out.

Defazio said crews had asked Hydro Ottawa to cut the power to the building, as a precaution.

Firefighters asked people to avoid the area between Second and Third avenues while they were on scene.

The investigation into what led to the fire is ongoing.

I'd take either over Yasir Naqvi personally.

I am a petty man. Hell he probably just said it for the votes knowing what was coming. Either way it still makes me smile

Ottawa's homeless shelters are struggling to keep up with demand as the rise of newcomers puts pressure on the already overburdened system.

The Ottawa Mission is seeing many newcomers looking for shelter and they now account for nearly 40 per cent of its clients, according to its CEO

"We're easily at about 115 to 120 per cent [capacity] per night, and those people have to be fed three meals a day," said Peter Tilley.

"Don't forget, we're also turning away another 60 to 70 people per night who when they arrive, half of whom are newcomers,"

...

It didn’t break any speed records, but Ottawa’s LRT is finally on its way to Orléans.

The first test run of a train along a portion of the 12.5-kilometre eastward extension of the Confederation Line occurred Sunday night, with a train travelling one stop from Blair Station to Montreal Road, said Mike Morgan, director of the LRT construction, in a memo to the mayor and members of council on Monday.

That’s about three weeks later than had been forecast in the last update on construction given in December.

The Alstom Citadis Spirit train crept east from Blair to Montreal Road while crews walked beside to make sure the train’s pantograph, the flexible arm that connects it to the overhead power lines, functioned properly. The testing occurred after regular Confederation Line service stopped for the night.

More testing will continue this week, Morgan said.

I recently watched HBO's The Time Travelers Wife full well knowing there was only one season. I think I mostly regret it. I loved the show, and knowing there won't be any more to watch has bummed me out for the past week. I can't remember feeling this way about any other show - it sucks.

Patients were followed for a median of 15 months. The mean duration of B-cell aplasia was 112 ± 47 days. The researchers found that all patients with SLE had DORIS remission, all patients with idiopathic inflammatory myositis had an ACR-EULAR major clinical response, and a reduction in the score on the EUSTAR activity index was seen for all patients with systemic sclerosis. In all patients, immunosuppressive therapy was completely stopped. In 10 patients, grade 1 cytokine release syndrome occurred.

"Even though it is premature to judge whether these patients are indeed cured from their autoimmune disease, CD19 CAR T-cells at least appear to be able to achieve sustained disease- and drug-free remission," the authors write.