On Wednesday, June 11th, 2025 CAFES held a special Joint Caucus meeting to discuss ideas for the City of Ottawa's "A Green and Resilient City" service review feedback opportunity, and on July 29th CAFES submitted a detailed recommendations document to the City. The purpose of the City's service review is to examine municipal services that contribute to creating a greener, more resilience city - while focusing on service efficiency and identifying cost-saving opportunities.
CAFES' Joint Caucus on June 11th was organized in order to gather ideas and insights from our network on city services related to green infrastructure, tree canopy and greenspaces, waste reduction and diversion, the circular economy, urban density, emissions reporting, climate resilience, public transit, environmental stewardship, and equity. Following the caucus discussion, CAFES created a detailed submission outlining our recommendations - including specifying precisely which city services our recommendations fall under, and how they save the city money. Check out our submission below, and please feel free to use these recommendations to inform your own submissions on Engage Ottawa.
Members of the public are currently able to go online to Engage Ottawa and share your ideas - visit the link here to submit your comments. You will have to create an account or login to Engage Ottawa to contribute to this particular opportunity.
After almost two years of community discussion and city committee and council votes, a second BESS project is likely to be coming to Ottawa. City Council voted to support a municipal support resolution for the Trail Road BESS project in late 2023, and for the more controversial South March BESS on June 11th, 2025. Both projects still need to pass through the numerous requirements of obtaining municipal zoning by-law amendments and site plan approvals.
BESS projects will bolster the grid's capacity to meet Ontario’s growing electricity consumption, help with peak load (so we don't need to build more polluting gas peaker plants), help balance the intermittent power generation by wind and solar. BESS can also be developed fairly rapidly.
CAFES delegated to the City's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) in support of the South March BESS project after carefully listening to the community and weighing the concerns and benefits. Unfortunately some of the local discussion was filled with misinformation presenting BESS as highly flammable, toxic, air and ground water polluting system. Based on several months of research, the CAFES Climate Misinformation Team produced a Backgrounder with more balanced information which was communicated to residents, Councillors, and interested individuals. It is important to differentiate between valid community concerns and questions, and misleading messaging that seeks to instil fear, uncertainty and delay. CAFES has been consistently advocating for better consultation processes so that concerns can be discussed in a constructive way.
CAFES has been interested in the BESS technology since it was solicited in the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) procurement tender in 2023. Sensing the need for community engagement and public education about our evolving electricity grid, CAFES co-hosted a learning and community dialogue event in Kinburn, West Carleton with the local councillor Clarke Kelly in March 2024. Striking up a working group, members of the CAFES network worked out a set of recommendations for the permitting and zoning of BESS installations and submitted this to the City's official plan and zoning amendment exercise in October 2024. Seeking to connect community and industry, CAFES then convened a BESS Lunch and Learn Event in January 2025 in Kanata North. CAFES delegated at city committees multiple times, and published an op-ed in the West Carleton Online concerning misinformation and poor consultation around the project. In addition, CAFES helped organize the June 10th, 2025 Ottawa Energy Symposium as a community partner, and conveyed the CAFES position to council with a letter before the final June 11th vote.
The June 11th City Council vote to award the municipal support resolution to the large South March BESS project by a 20 to 3 margin was a win for a preferred, less-polluting energy technology. It was important and significant that the CAFES network was able to spread the word, combat misinformation, and encourage council to support the project. However, there is a strong sense in the community that a fulsome local consultation has still not taken place. The project proponent Evolugen's project website and Open House on February 23rd, 2025 answered some, but not all, questions. CAFES has been encouraging the project proponent, community associations, the local MPP, and the local councillor to convene more information sessions on the project and transparently share the results of the project studies with the community. There are still a lot of questions and concerns by neighbours on this project. The project proponent must answer these, identify where there are risks that can be mitigated, or provide information to assuage concerns.
Another area where community dialogue is hopefully in the making around the two proposed principal grid use BESS projects is regarding the significant economic and community benefit packages that the two BESS projects promise to bring -- valued at over $250,000 per year. CAFES, in collaboration with a 4th year class of Carleton students, released a study on Community Benefits Agreements for renewable energy projects, to shed some perspective on these arrangements.
Thank you to everyone who helped in the working group, emailed your councillors, spoke with your neighbours, helped to organize or attend events, delegated at committee, and supported the BESS projects.
CAFES had an invigorating day attending the Ottawa Energy Symposium on Tuesday, June 10th, organized by the Ottawa Board of Trade and supported by us as a community sponsor.
This dynamic event explored the future of energy in Ottawa by hearing from industry leaders, government officials and innovators as they discussed what local customers need, the latest developments in energy infrastructure, and how new solar and storage technologies are helping to power up our city for tomorrow. We also learned how local organizations are adapting to the evolving energy landscape and what that means for Ottawa’s business community.
We listened to several fantastic panels, which covered topics on how AI, real estate, and electrification are reshaping demand; how infrastructure investment unlocks economic potential; how distributed energy is reshaping Ottawa’s grid; and how tools are driving Ottawa’s low-carbon transition.
The event speakers included:
It was wonderful to connect with others, learn from experts, and to be part of such engaging discussions on the National Capital Region’s sustainable energy future.
This event was sponsored by Hydro Ottawa, Brookfield Renewable, Ottawa Climate Action Fund (OCAF), Envirocentre and KMPG, and CAFES Ottawa was a community partner.
On Thursday June 5th, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) will meet to discuss Evolugen's application for the Marchurst Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Municipal Support Resolution (MSR). CAFES is urging citizens to give a 5-minute delegation in support of the City of Ottawa Council giving an MSR to Evolugen for the Marchurst proposed project.
CAFES has carefully looked at the concerns expressed by the anti-BESS residents, including safety and ecological concerns. We have studied the literature on the risks and benefits of the BESS technology. We have interrogated the Evolugen project proponent on a number of points requiring clarification. We have attended the February 23rd Open House. We have come to the conclusion that the Marchurst site selected by Evolugen is low impact locally with very low risks. At the same time, the benefits of BESS are considerable and numerous, both for residents of Dunrobin, for residents of West Carleton and for the households and businesses served by the grid in the greater Ottawa area.
If you wish to speak, register your request to make a delegation with the committee coordinator Christopher Zwierzchowski (christopher.zwierzchowski@ottawa.ca). Requests to speak must be submitted before 9:00am on the day of committee, and visual presentations must be submitted by 4pm on June 4th.
After the ARAC deliberation and recommendation, the MSR vote will go to City Council on June 11th for a vote. If you wish to support the BESS project, please consider writing to your own councillor before June 10th, urging them to vote in support of the Marchurst BESS MSR.
The CAFES Climate Misinformation team has prepared responses to common concerns and misinformation about BESS projects. These responses will enable you to counter BESS misinformation in a productive, research-backed manner. Check them out now!
CAFES has long been active in advocating for a more enabling planning and zoning regime for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in the City of Ottawa.
Most recently, CAFES delivered an impactful public delegation during the Planning and Housing Committee meeting on February 5th, 2025. You can watch the recording of the committee meeting here (CAFES starts presenting at 59:40) and check out our presentation below. We are concerned that the City’s permitting rules are too restrictive and this will prevent energy storage projects to come to Ottawa.
Prior to this, in October 2024, CAFES made a formal submission when the City made a proposal to amend the Official Plan and pass a Zoning By-law Amendment, and again submitted an alternative proposal when this came to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) on January 23rd, 2025. Watch the ARAC committee recording here (CAFES starts at 1:49:30) and see our presentation at this link.
Our successful lunch and learn event at the Kanata North Technology Park on January 30th, entitled “Ottawa’s Electric Future”, was incredibly successful with about 100 residents, community leaders, not-for-profits, business leaders, tech people, engineers, Ottawa Hydro and City Councillors attending. The session was opened by Councillor Cathy Curry, speaking both as Kanata North Councillor and as acting Deputy Mayor. The launch of the Dunsky BESS Report was well received. You can read more about this event here.
Stay tuned for a full CAFES project report on our BESS advocacy work - coming in March 2025!
After almost two years of community discussion and city committee and council votes, a second BESS project is likely to be coming to Ottawa. City Council voted to support a municipal support resolution for the Trail Road BESS project in late 2023, and for the more controversial South March BESS on on June 11th, 2025. Both projects still need to pass through the numerous requirements of obtaining municipal zoning by-law amendments and site plan approvals.
BESS projects will bolster the grid's capacity to meet Ontario’s growing electricity consumption, help with peak load (so we don't need to build more polluting gas peaker plants), help balance the intermittent power generation by wind and solar. BESS can also be developed fairly rapidly.
CAFES delegated to the City's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) in support of the South March BESS project after carefully listening to the community and weighing the concerns and benefits. Unfortunately some of the local discussion was filled with misinformation presenting BESS as highly flammable, toxic, air and ground water polluting system. Based on several months of research, the CAFES climate misinformation team produced a Backgrounder with more balanced information which was communicated to residents, councilors, and interested individuals. It is important to differentiate between valid community concerns and questions, and misleading messaging that seeks to instill fear, uncertainty and delay. CAFES has been consistently advocating for better consultation processes so that concerns can be discussed in a constructive way.
CAFES has been interested in the BESS technology since it was solicited in the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) procurement tender in 2023. Sensing the need for community engagement and public education about our evolving electricity grid, CAFES co-hosted a learning and community dialogue event in Kinburn, West Carleton with the local councillor Clarke Kelly in March 2024. Striking a working group, members of the CAFES network worked out a set of recommendations for the permitting and zoning of BESS installations and submitted this to the City's official plan and zoning amendment exercise in October 2024. Seeking to connect community and industry, CAFES then convened a BESS Lunch and Learn Event in January 2025 in Kanata North. CAFES delegated at city committees multiple times, and published an op-ed in the West Carleton Online concerning misinformation and poor consultation around the project. In addition, CAFES helped organize the June 10 2025 Ottawa Energy Symposium as a community partner, and conveyed the CAFES position to council with a letter before the final June 11th vote.
The June 11th, city council vote to award the municipal support resolution to the large South March BESS project by a 20 to 3 margin, was a win for a preferred, less polluting energy technology. It was important and significant that the CAFES network was able to spread the word, combat misinformation, and encourage council to support the project. However, there is a strong sense in the community that a full-some local consultation has still not taken place. The project proponent Evolugen's project website and February 23 2025 Open House answered some - but not all questions. CAFES has been encouraging the project proponent, community associations, the local MPP, and the local councillor to convene more information sessions on the project and transparently share the results of the project studies with the community. There are still a lot of questions and concerns by neighbours to this project. The project proponent must answer these, identify where there are risks that can be mitigated, or provide information to assuage concerns.
Another area where community dialogue is hopefully in the making around the two proposed principal grid use BESS projects is regarding the significant economic and community benefit packages that the two BESS projects promise to bring -- valued at over $250,000 per year. CAFES, in collaboration with a class of Carleton students released a study on Community Benefits Agreements for renewable energy projects, to shed some perspective on these arrangements.
Thank you to everyone who helped in the working group, emailed your councillors, spoke with your neighbours, helped organize or attend events, delegated at committee, and supported the BESS projects.
