On November 14th, 2025, CAFES, Ecology Ottawa, and the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club, led by Ontario Nature and Friends of Stittsville Wetlands, sent a letter to the City of Ottawa urging Council and staff to strengthen municipal protections for Ottawa's wetlands.
Wetlands play an enormously critical role - they provide habitat for a huge number of species, store carbon, protect against erosion, stabilize shores, recharge groundwater, mitigate flooding, filter and clean water, provide resources for food and medicine, and provide important cultural and recreational opportunities for people and communities.
However, wetlands are consistently threatened by climate change, invasive species, changes in hydrology, land conversion (predominantly to agricultural lands), development, and expansion of the urban boundary.
In 2024, many wetlands in Ontario lost their protected status when the Province changed the scoring system that determined which wetlands were granted as Provincially Significant Wetlands (PSW). Noteably in Ottawa, this resulted in losing protection for 55 hectares of the Goulbourn Wetland Complex, and today in 2025, the City's proposed Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendments would further reduce municipal protections for another 74.6 hectares of Goulburn and 19.7 hectares of the Richmond Fen.
In fact, Ottawa and surrounding areas of eastern Ontario have had the highest rate of wetland loss recorded in the province from 2000 to 2020. The City must avoid these losses by ensuring all types of wetlands, not just those with PSW status, are strictly protected under municipal planning policies. This would also align with Climate Ready Ottawa, the City's climate resilience strategy. The Goulburn complex in particular received the highest possible score for flood protection and providing clean water. As we know, many areas of the City are especially vulnerable to floods and we have been seeing record-high rainfall from climate change in recent years.
As CAFES continues to expand our city-wide policy advocacy efforts, we also recently attended the Public Open House on the Bear Brook Watershed. The City is conducting a watershed study on the area to assess current watershed conditions and to gather community priorities for how to maintain watershed health into the future. Ironically perhaps, invited by watchful CAFES members at Greater Avalon Community Association, on Mon Oct 17th, CAFES ED Angela Keller-Herzog attended the E1-South Orleans - Wall Road Third Public Open House, only to learn that this urban expansion will wipe out several wetland areas and replace them with a municipal stormwater pond. Will this work? Has the water budget of the sub-watershed been calculated? Is this the most cost effective approach to manage water? Does anybody ever calculate the value of habitat for biodiversity lost? We have so many questions.
If you want to learn more about municipal wetland policy and existing conservation efforts, be sure to attend the CAFES Trees and Greenspace Caucus on Tuesday, December 2nd from 12:00 - 2:00pm via Zoom. We will be having special presentations from the City of Ottawa, Ontario Nature and Friends of Stittsville Wetlands followed by group discussions and community networking. Register here!
You can read the full letter below, and consider contacting your Councillor to express your concerns. You can also visit Friends of Stittsville Wetlands for more info, and check out Ontario Nature's resource page.
City Environment and Climate Change Committee Meeting - Tuesday Sept 16th at 9:30am
The City of Ottawa's next Environment and Climate Change Committee Meeting (ECCC) on Tuesday, September 16th will be important. While the agenda has not yet been posted, we are anticipating a belated release of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories from the past several years, an update to the City's implementation of the Climate Change Master Plan (CCMP) as well as its audit, which should include recommendations on prioritization and accountability.
We are also anticipating a report on the urban tree canopy (fingers crossed) and discussion on the management of invasive plant species by the City, which follows a staff inquiry by Councillor Marty Carr at the February 2025 ECCC. Staff have come back with a short report on the inquiry, outlining existing City efforts on invasive species and plans for new staff positions to manage an invasive stewardship program. On Wednesday, September 3rd, CAFES is hosting an in-person community dialogue event on invasive species at the Jim Durrell Centre to gather community input ahead of the Sept 16th ECCC. RSVP here!
Finally, the ECCC meeting may also cover updates on solid waste management.
We encourage everyone to mark your calendars for this date. Please consider making a public delegation on one or more of the above agenda items, to urge the City to do more.
Attend the CAFES Climate Caucus - Tuesday, September 9th 12-2pm
Want to learn more about the climate-related items, connect with like-minded others, or prepare your public delegation? Come to CAFES' next Climate Caucus on Sept 9th from 12pm-2pm via Zoom. Register here to attend. By this date the documents for the ECCC will be available, and our caucus will include updates and group discussions on the emissions inventories, CCMP and the audit.
Join CAFES and our members Fridays for Future Ottawa, Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN), World Changing Kids and Ecology Ottawa for the Draw The Line March Saturday, September 20th, 2025!
Draw the Line is a national Day of Action taking place on September 20th in communities across Canada. In Ottawa, this action continues the tradition of a September climate march. The Day of Action is also part of a larger international movement calling for climate action and economic justice worldwide. You can find out more about the march and its demands here.
There will be separate start locations in Ottawa and Gatineau, but the contingents will converge in downtown Ottawa. The Ottawa contingent meets at 11 am on the corner of Elgin and Wellington, while the Gatineau contingent meets at 11 am at Maison du Citoyen.
Draw the Line has brought groups together from across different sectors, joining forces to take united action toward the shared call - "For People. For Peace. For the Planet".
In Ottawa, this united approach is bringing together a broad coalition to help organize the march. The growing coalition includes seniors groups, labour unions, student associations, faith organizations, environmental groups, and many others from across the Ottawa-Gatineau region. Working with so many other passionate, action-driven organizations has been an exciting experience, and we are looking forward to sharing more details with you as we get closer to the march.
If you are part of a group that wants to join, or you individually are interested in volunteering, organizing, or making a donation - join up! Email fridaysfutureottawa@gmail.com for all inquiries.
RSVP here to attend the March on September 20th!
Today, on Monday, June 30th, led by CAFES, the Peoples Official Plan Coalition (POP), submitted a rich set of recommendations to the City of Ottawa planning team on draft 2 of the New Comprehensive Zoning By-law. A major feat!
The focus of the POP submission is zoning that supports a dense, liveable, walkable, green, 15-minute caring city as an important alternative to sprawl, inequality and lack of connectivity. We want to see this demonstrated though provisions for affordable, equitable housing opportunities that fit the demographic need, enabling zoning for car sharing services, an emphasis on care facilities and amenity areas, emergency and temporary housing options, anti-renoviction and anti-demoviction measures, soil volume and permeable space requirements on residential lots for trees, neighbourhood zone setback minimums, better priority for shade trees in mainstreets, hub zones, minor corridors and mixed-used zones, soft landscaping in parking lots, adequate stormwater services with links to trees, no development in flood-prone areas, and the adoption of a clear food systems lens.
See the full submission at the end of this post. Our most active collaborators in the POP coalition have been CAWI (City for all Women), Ecology Ottawa, the Federation for Citizens Associations (FCA), Greenspace Alliance, Just Food, Strong Towns Ottawa , Walkable Ottawa and Wastewatch Ottawa. Yey team!
The draft 2 public consultation period has been open throughout the months of May and June, with several public open houses taking place in person and online from late May to early June. Some of the major topics discussed at the consultations included changes to Neighbourhood Zones, height transitions in Mainstreet Zones, communal parking lots in neighbourhoods, and changes to permitted uses in Industrial Zones.
You can still submit your written comments on draft 2 before July 1st to NewZoning@ottawa.ca.
Draft 3 is expected to be released on September 8th, 2025 and will go to Joint Committee and Council on December 17th, 2025 and January 28th, 2026, respectively. The final version of the by-law is expected to be enacted in Q1 2026. Visit the Engage Ottawa Zoning page to view draft 2 of the by-law and accompanying documents and to stay updated.
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CAFES has been engaged in the New Comprehensive Zoning By-law since January 2024 when a group of experienced volunteers formed a working group and co-wrote a recommendations paper on how zoning can regulate trees. We have since taken an active role within POP to lead submissions on draft 1 and draft 2 of the by-law, while continuing to update our own position paper. If you have questions or comments about trees and zoning, please contact Erica at eshardlow@cafesottawa.ca
It's time to have your say on Draft 2 of the new Comprehensive Zoning By-law! From now until June 30th, the public consultation period is open for you to submit your comments, concerns and ideas to the city's planning team.
The city is holding three public consultation open houses - the first one was just last night on Thursday May 29th. The open houses will include presentations from city planning staff on the major changes from Draft 1 to Draft 2, which includes changes to Neighbourhood Zones, height transitions in Mainstreet Zones, communal parking lots in neighbourhoods, and changes to permitted uses in Industrial Zones. At the end there will be a question and answer period. Public attendance will likely be high and it will be best to come prepared with your questions. See details below for the next two open houses:
You can also submit your comments in writing to NewZoning@ottawa.ca. Again the deadline is June 30th. At some point in June, there will be focused surveys coming to Engage Ottawa as well - stayed tuned for those and watch for more updates on the Engage Ottawa Zoning page. Draft 3 is expected to be released on September 8th, 2025 and will go to Joint Committee and Council on December 17th 2025 and January 28th 2026, respectively. The final version of the by-law is expected to be enacted in Q1 2026.
Continue reading below for a background on CAFES' involvement with Draft 2 with respect to trees, and the new Zoning By-law as a whole.
On Monday, March 31st, 2025 the Joint Planning and Housing and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee met to receive Draft 2 of the New Comprehensive Zoning By-law. Erica Shardlow, speaking for the CAFES network, provided a public delegation in support of zoning metrics that protect and regulate the space for canopy trees through required soil volumes, soft landscaping minimums and setbacks on residential lots. The March 31st committee meeting can be viewed on Youtube here.
CAFES' comments and recommendations on Draft 2 are summarized in the following points, and you can see our full presentation below.
CAFES has been engaged in the New Comprehensive Zoning By-law since January of 2024 when a group of experienced volunteers formed a working group and co-wrote a recommendations paper on how zoning can regulate trees. We have been continuing to update our paper throughout the development of the new by-law and submitted version 3.0 to the city in October 2024. Also in October, we submitted a detailed recommendations document on Draft 1 as part of the Peoples Official Plan Coalition (POP).
If you have questions or comments please contact Erica at eshardlow@cafesottawa.ca
