Archive 1997-2016
By Chad Paulin
After years of uncertainty, the Plant Pool project may finally get off the ground — if it can clear some hurdles first.
The City of Ottawa’s proposed 1999 budget sets aside $2 million to help pay for a new recreation complex. But that funding comes from federal payments the city isn’t guaranteed to receive.
By Rita Trichur
McNabb Park public school could be given a new lease on life because of a contract signed by the City of Ottawa and the now defunct Ottawa Board of Education 33 years ago.
The joint-use property contract doesn’t expire for another 49 years. This means the new Ottawa-Carleton District School Board could be forced to pay for its share of the building’s operation and maintenance costs until 2,019 — whether or not the school is in active use. Patrons would have full access to the gymnasium, main hall, preschool room and community room, spaces shared with the adjoining community centre.
Putting school closures off a year may not be enough to save Ottawa’s downtown Catholic schools.
As suburbs rapidly expand, downtown schools could still be sacrificed for new suburban schools.
The Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board announced the recommended closure of 10 schools Nov. 5, including Centretown’s St. Mary elementary school. The board at a meeting this week decided to delay any closure decision until next March.
It didn’t even make the front page. Miriam Chrétien, 6, and her little sister Audrey, 3, shot to death in the wee hours of the morning of Sept. 30, 1998.
Shot. By their father. Rene Chrétien, 32, who then turned the gun on himself.
And the Ottawa Citizen didn’t even put the story on the front page. Relegated to the City section, the Oct. 1 headline read “Distraught father kills self, 2 daughters.” The article clarifies, stating Chrétien was “distraught over the breakup of his marriage.”