Letters to the Editor

How long does it take bureaucrats in Ottawa to change a lightbulb?

According to the NCC Canal Lighting Rehabilitation Project, close to three years. The NCC has announced that outdated lights are being replaced along both sides of the canal, and the work will be done by sometime in 2025.

I first contacted the NCC in November of 2022 about the lights on Queen Elizabeth Driveway not working. Their response: “In partnership with the City of Ottawa, which is responsible for the maintenance and replacement of the street lighting systems on Queen Elizabeth Driveway and Colonel By Drive, we’re working to repair or replace all outdated and broken pathway and parkway lights along the Rideau Canal.”

In February 2023, I counted 70 lights burned out between Laurier and the Bank Street Bridge. I emailed Councillor Menard’s office and their response: “The NCC will have the more informative response, as it is their project. We will await their reply with you, as the information is most helpful.”

These non-answers are not solving the problem. Queen Elizabeth Driveway is dangerously dark for bikers, pedestrians and cars. Surely, in the name of safety, the timeline to repair can be advanced before December 2025.

J Spiteri

Lansdowne consultations a sham

It has become obvious to all of us that the so-called “robust consultations” on Lansdowne 2.0 have been a complete sham. We have elected a new mayor, but this city’s governance is clearly same-old, same-old. Increasingly, those who follow politics are realizing that we never hear about developments until it is too late to change them, or, alternatively, that we are being fed outright lies. At all levels of government, we are seeing an alarming deterioration of democratic process. We elect representatives, believing that this will give us influence, only to find out that we are powerless.

Dorothy Speak