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.
On Monday, June 30th, 2025, CAFES' Executive Director, Angela Keller-Herzog, spearheaded a rich feedback submission with the Peoples Official Plan Coalition (POP) to the City of Ottawa on the draft Climate Resiliency Strategy, known as Climate Ready Ottawa (CRO).
The City’s draft CRO provides a critical opportunity to reduce risk, protect health, and strengthen community wellbeing in the face of the climate crisis. The POP feedback document highlighted opportunities to make the CRO more actionable, inclusive, and community-informed. Our detailed feedback submission dove into several strategic outcomes surrounding flood preparation, extreme heat, the economy, resilient buildings, protecting drinking water, stormwater management, tree canopy, wetland conservation, parks, power outages, and more. We additionally addressed suggestions for implementation, best-practice benchmarks, and performance metrics.
Many of our comments, recommendations, and ideas were pulled from the CAFES Climate Resiliency Community Dialogues from 2023, in which we led 11 dialogue sessions with over 300 participants in collaboration with community groups and the City of Ottawa.
Ultimately, CAFES and POP commend the City for its leadership in climate resilience planning. We recognize this climate strategy builds on years of foundational work and cross-departmental collaboration and we look forward to seeing how our recommendations contribute to a more climate-ready Ottawa.
This item is expected to be coming to the October 21st, 2025 City Environment and Climate Change Committee (ECCC). Stayed tuned!
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 May 12th, about a hundred people gathered on Parliament Hill to call on the newly-elected federal government to sign onto and implement the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. This demonstration concluded “The Pilgrimage for the Planet,” where dozens of cyclists of faith and non-faith backgrounds completed a climate-friendly pilgrimage from Montreal.
The demonstration occurred just before the new federal cabinet was announced to tell policymakers to prioritize climate action in the new government.
The pilgrimage, organized by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, was co-sponsored by CAFES as well as Fridays for the Future Ottawa, the Centre Oblat, the Laudato Si’ Movement, ORCIE, and KAIROS Canada. The demonstration featured a live performance by The Earth Dwellers, a local Ottawa band.
The pilgrims travelled to Ottawa by bike to “[embody] the shift away from fossil fuels,” according to main organiser Etienne Eason.
“We’re in Ottawa to let the federal government know we’re ready to walk this journey together, the journey to a fossil fuel-free future,” he said.
Following the demonstration, CAFES Executive Director Angela Keller-Herzog participated in a press conference alongside representatives from faith and secular organizations to voice support for fossil fuel non-proliferation.
“Today, as representatives of faith institutions and civic organizations stand side by side, we affirm something powerful: religion and science are fully aligned,” she said.
Watch the full press conference here.
Ever heard someone say that Canadian wildfires are no big deal, that natural gas exports reduce emissions, or even that more CO2 is good for the planet?
With a recent investigation by Canada's National Observer revealing that AI chatbots are being used to flood municipal councils with climate misinformation, countering these pervasive myths is more important than ever.
For CAFES, addressing climate misinformation is key to our work, and we've created several resources to empower you to respond to climate misinformation in your daily life.
The CAFES Climate Misinformation team has prepared a webpage to equip you with credible information debunking common myths surrounding climate science, renewable energy and batteries, transportation, and urban planning. We further provide resources to support you in advocating for meaningful climate action in municipal policy-making spaces.
In addition to the webpage, CAFES Executive Director Angela Keller-Herzog recently penned an op-ed in the West Carleton Online addressing misinformation surrounding the proposed South March Battery Energy Storage System in West Carleton. Check it out!
February 28th, 2024: CAFES Launch of the CAFES Climate Misinformation Resource Page!
Congratulations to the members of the CAFES Climate Misinformation team! Much work, editing and collaboration has gone into this new resource for the climate-aware community in Ottawa. Check it out here!
Where did this project come from? It may be news to some, that there's been concern about the widespread dissemination of climate change misinformation is taking place in different spaces. This resource was created to equip and empower you, to address climate denial and climate misinformation in your everyday life during conversations with family, friends and co-workers.
More than ever we need people to feel empowered to speak up, and confidently address the spreading misinformation and disinformation causing delay and confusion on climate action. This is the first round of issue briefs but it won't be the last. This project is ongoing, and there will be more research to come!
