Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee

Note: The Darouze Motion of which Notice was previously given at the 30 November, 2023, Agriculture and Rural Affair Committee meeting was replaced with the following revised motion pursuant to Subsection 59(5) of the Procedure By-law. WHEREAS the City of Ottawa approved the Local Improvement Policy on 24 November 2021, which allows for residents to act collectively through a Local Improvement petition process; and WHEREAS the City of Ottawa passed the revised Ditch Alteration Policy, ACS2022-PIE-GEN-0001, on 6 July 2022. WHEREAS the ditch alteration policy describes the circumstances and requirements for the City to permit property owner-initiated alteration of drainage ditches and drainage courses; WHEREAS the ditch alteration policy prevents the altering or unauthorized filling of a ditch and actions are subject to enforcement; and WHEREAS non-compliant or unauthorized ditch alterations which occur after July 6, 2022, the rules set out in the Ditch Alteration policy will be enforced in accordance with the Use and Care of Roads Bylaw and/or Site Alteration By-law; and WHEREAS the City of Ottawa issued notice of violations on 18 November 2022 to civic addresses 4634, 4644, and 4652 Anderson Road for the removal of illegal ditch infills along each of their Anderson Road frontages; and WHEREAS the City of Ottawa provided a local improvement as an avenue to alter the ditch in accordance with the local improvement policy; and WHEREAS residents have not identified any flooding re

WHEREAS the agriculture industry operations in rural Ottawa requires the movement of agricultural products between multiple adjacent fields and across roadways; and WHEREAS the transportation of manure/livestock waste results in a significant number of vehicle trips, per location, between the farm storage site and the fields being serviced and results in traffic congestion, damage to farmlands due to weight of tankers, damage to roadways due to weight of tankers, odour complaints, mud/dirt on roadways and large uses of fuel and cost; and WHEREAS some farming communities make use of city ditches and culverts installed along the roadways to run drag lines from a manure reservoir directly to smaller and lighter spreading equipment across roadways and in adjacent lands; and WHEREAS these culverts are not readily available in all locations necessary in rural farm lands; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to investigate the feasibility of the use of highway right of ways and culverts to accommodate manure draglines and report back to Committee in 2024; and AND THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the investigation will report back on traffic safety, roadway/highway impacts and maintenance, surface water/drainage impacts, installation of additional infrastructure and a permitting system.

That the Rules of Procedure be Suspended to consider this motion such that it may rise to Council quickly in order for the timelines outlined in this motion to be kept to and such that the safety measures outlined in this motion may be introduced expediently. WHEREAS according to the Ottawa Fatal Collision Review Committee 2020 annual report, rural Ottawa has the highest percentage of fatal collisions, representing over one third (37%) of all fatal collisions and only 9% of all reportable collisions in the City of Ottawa; and WHEREAS the Ottawa Fatal Collision Review Committee 2020 annual report identifies a need to have increased enforcement resources to reduce speed collisions in rural areas of the City of Ottawa; and WHEREAS based on the pilot study conducted by the City of Ottawa in 2020-2021, automated speed enforcement (ASE) has been shown to be an effective tool at reducing speeding in school zones; and WHEREAS based on the result of the ASE pilot, Council approved the implementation of 15-25 new ASE cameras annually in front of schools and parks that meet the data-driven selection process; and WHEREAS Council directed staff to implement ASE at four locations outside of school/park areas and along high volume/high-speed roadways and report back to Council on the effectiveness of ASE at these types of locations; and WHEREAS of the 60 ASE locations that are existing, pending, or currently proposed by the end of 2024, only 8 are in the city’s rural area; and WHEREAS on Ma