KANATA NORTH NEWS Marianne Wilkinson Councillor, Kanata North City to put forth recommendations on Carp landfill expansion

Waste Management has put forward plans for its site on Carp Road. They have renamed it the West Carleton Environmental Centre to show that they will be adding more recycling facilities, starting operation of their energy plant (using methane gas from the breakdown of garbage in the existing landfill), and adding recreation facilities for the community. With all of that, they are still planning a new landfill component, requesting 400,000 tons a year for 10 years. This is not a reduction in quantity from waste going to the previous landfill. I support using alternative measures rather than having a landfill, and will be working towards that objective. Ill also be supporting my colleagues in pressuring the provincial government (which controls commercial and industrial waste, which makes up 70 per cent of waste in Ottawa) to mandate recycling for businesses so that the target of 60 per cent recycled is reached (its presently about 13 per cent in Ottawa). I would appreciate hearing your views on this issue. The west end councillors will be working with staff to develop the Citys recommendations to the province, which is the approval agency for waste facilities.

Cleaning the Capital

Thank you to those who have registered to clean up our community. It was great to see people out with garbage bags picking up along the roadside. If you havent yet registered, please do so and do your bit to keep our community looking great.

Young At Art
Visit the Kanata Civic Art Gallery in the Mlacak Centre from Wednesday, May 5 to Friday, May 21 to view the incredible art that has been submitted by the youth in our community. Ill again chose one piece of art for a special award which will be presented at the awards night on Sunday May 16 at 7:30pm in the Mlacak Centre.

Huaweis grand opening

I was pleased to attend the official opening of the Research and Development Centre for Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, in their facility in the Kanata North Business Park. This is the first R & D facility for Huawei in Canada. There are presently 70 workers there, many former Nortel staff, with the company forecasting a growth to 250 employees within two years. Huawei has 95,000 employees worldwide with 17 R & D centres. Having a Chinese company locate an R & D facility within Ottawa is the result of the work of OCRI in showcasing

Ottawa as a high tech City. I worked with OCRI to get memorandums of understanding with technology industrial parks in Beijing and Shanghai during my trips to China, and the Mayor visited the headquarters of Huawei in Shenzhen during his recent visit.

Open Data
The IT Sub-Committee has recommended that Ottawa be an open city with information readily available to all through an Open Data process. This means that data would be in a form that could be used by anyone to create Apps applications that make it easy for the public to find city information. For example one app might provide information on all soccer fields or the location of water fountains. Ive recommended a contest for those who prepare Apps with $50,000 worth of prizes. Other cities have stated that they received $2.5-3 million dollars in value from such a contest. The recommendations will be at the Corporate Services Committee on May 4th and Council on May 11th for final approval.

Libraries closed
Please note that all libraries will be closed on May 3 & 4 to finalize the implementation of a new data control system for all libraries.

Coming Events
May 1. KBCA Cleaning the Capital. Have you registered your team yet? May 10 15. Police Week Activities May 15. Beaverbrook-wide garage sale. May 16. Awards Presentations for Young at Art, Mlacak Centre, 7:30 p.m. May 17. Ward Council, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Mlacak Centre.

Serving the residents and businesses in Kanata North

To receive the Kanata North Newsletter, to deal with a concern or make a suggestion contact me at 613-580-2474, email Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca or through www.mariannewilkinson.com.