Current Events forecast future trends

I recently spoke to information agents at city hall. I was asking them for the contact information for the Director of City Open Data and Business Intelligence.

The response I got was bureaucratic, “ you have to fill out a freedom of information request form” they said. 

 Rather than just looking up the information in a directory I had to jump through hoops. What I wanted was to access this information through the city web site. Unfortunately in 2026 you cannot get there from here.

After getting over the initial flabberghast I thanked them and left to ponder the matter.

I have been promoting the use of Arificial Intelligence in city management for some time now. It is pretty clear that this is a contentious matter. In my Unpublished opinion piece about implementiong AI at city call, half agreed with me and the other half disagreed.

So many decisions at city council claim that their decisions are informed by data. 

My concern is that the recent decisions regarding Road Safety, for example,  are based on five years of data. 

What happens when the five years are not indicative for current trends because of anomalous patterns due to covid?  Those decisions will be poorly informed. Further, informing decisions on historical information, however data driven risks overlooking immediate events. It is current events that truly dictate future trends.  This might include the loss of a crossing guard to a distracted driver.

Another problem can be the use of larger numbers to numb the impact of smaller but more recent events. Staff will say, “numbers are high but since the city is growing the number per 100,000 citizens is dropping”.

Bill 56 which caused cities to remove automatic Speed Enforcement cameras was a real surprise to me. It was so obvious to many that the cameras caused people to slow down. It is also apparent after half a year that their removed caused drivers to speed up.

My view is that even though fines were no longer legal, it still makes sense to reach out to drivers to inform them that they were speeding and that their behaviour was unacceptable. (use email or letter). 

You could also accumulate the information for use when their driver’s licenses were to be renewed.

My view is that even though the sudden provincial decree to stop using speed camera fines stopped the revenue flow it did not prevent us from using the cameras to reach out to the speeders and tell them that their speeding was not appreciated and unacceptable.

All that data about the speeders could be used to inform driver's licence renewals and insurance renewals.

Rather than throwing up our hands and saying "C'est la province... pas ma faut" find ways to use the data!

Not only will purely data driven decisions lead to worse decisions they will also lead you to questions that are irrelevant and the waste of time.

There is a group in Ottawa that consists of Business Intelligence experts that gather and discuss decision support technologies including Artificial Intelligence. We need to team our city staff up with this group to help find ways to improve not only the AI infrastructure but also the manner in which that data is used to make better decisions.

Soon it will all be clean

 

My goal in politics is not to be re elected. I want to get in there, get stuff done, then get out.

I want to clean things up!

Mr. CLEAN gets rid of dirt and grime and cleans  in just a minute

Mr. CLEAN will clean your whole house, and everything that's in it 

For more polemics

https://unpublished.ca/opinion/on-the-95

https://unpublished.ca/opinion/on-the-95

A killing field

 

Another cyclist killed? Pas de problem!. Tulips are popping up and bikes are coming out of storage. It is not without some trepidation that some venture out onto the streets.

You can't get the straight statistics from OPS but it is a killing field out there.

I remember when I told my friends I was planning a cycle trip to Italy. "Aren't you worried about the crazy Italian drivers?" they urged.

When I landed in Rome, put my bike together I cycled from the airport in via Porteneuse in traffic

 What I discovered was that in Italy, even the biggest trucks cross the centerline to pass cyclists. What's up? Cycling is Italy's national sport.

Meanwhile in Ottawa, out on Robertson road the impatient drivers of Black pickup trucks seem to be trying to take you out.

During the last municipal election in 2022 the newly minted MPP McKenney was running for mayor with a promise of $250 million for cycling infrastructure. 

What we got was Suttcliffe's balanced approach including his recent voting against, heaven forbid, sidewalks in Manor Park.

It is not cycle friendly out there. Cyclists realizing this have gone commando. You may be shocked to see a cyclist ACTUALLY following the rules of the road. Why? This is an unfair competition which puts a cyclist against distracted drivers and 2000 pounds of glass and steel.

The answer is physical seperation, education and a gigantic chill pill. To get the infrastructure  people in Ottawa are going to have to vote differently than last time, which is something, at least statistically, voters in Ottawa will NEVER do.

Içi on parle Franglais

Alter ego Jean-Pierre du Bordeleau

I was in Morocco and in a bazaar with my wife as she had a new leather belt made to order. The shop keeper was using his cultural courtesy, offering us mint tea while we waited.

In Morocco they speak both Arabic and French stemming from its colonial past and I was trying to speak to him in French. He said to me in broken in english, “ I am sorry sir, I don’t understand your English so well”

Well this wasn’t something new to me.

I realized that I was a poor student of French, having a father that made fun of the french accent at every opportunity with exaggerated rolling “R’s” and feigned gutteral pronunciations. He should have known better. He could speak fluent Ukrainian and a bit of Russian too. Learning languages is a gift of communication.

Maybe it was because we lived in Kenora, in central Canada, French was rarely heard except on CBC. In those days we had two TV channels broadcast, CBC english and… CBC french, from Winnipeg where a significant number lived in St.Boniface.

I tried to learn french in school but I simply did not hear the sounds correctly. Monteau? Monton? I could not hear the difference!

I once created a room full of hysterical laughter, at my expense by saying “papier ma shier” instead of “papier mashé”. The resulting embarassment kept me from even attempting to speak french for many years.

Once on a cycling trip in the very french Saguenay region I was confronted with a French only menu and ordered “sous marin” thinking it must be seafood. We had a good laugh when the sandwich arrived.

Lately I don’t really give a dam. I am watching french TV, listenting to french music and radio, and reading cereral boxes in french. Nothing is as important as speaking to someone in their native language. I realized I have enough trouble being undertood in English but it is still worth making an effort, no matter where you go in the world.

It helps that I live in Ottawa because I have ready access to Montreal, Gatineau, and a bilingual home town. Today I can hear and speak French everywhere.

A man was sitting in a cafe in Paris and ordered a bowl of soup. When it was delivered, he noticed there was a fly in it and called over the waiter. He pointed to the fly in the soup saying,” monsieur, Le Mouch!!!”

The waiter quickly corrected him saying, “Non, mais non, La Mouche”. Since Ottawa is a government town and the ability to speak french is a strategic advantage there is considerable snootiness about the level of one’s french speaking ability. I get around this by claiming “le niveau intermediate”.

I will keep on watching "French in Action" videos on You Tube. Some say Parisean french is different than Quebecois french. In my view any french is better than no french and in any case, the French are the very thing that keeps Canada Canadian and keep Canada from becoming a 51st state

Sidewalks are a good King thing...aren't they?

 

In a bizarre turn of events our councillor, King fights for NO sidewalks.

You cannot make this shit up.

Why? Likely the locals don't want people walking through their neighborhood...including those with disabilities...but they say "sidewalks will harm trees and are more urgently needed elsewhere on busier roads and near a local school."

Bottom line you see the impact of political expediency. In a wanton grab for Manor Park votes a DEI politician argues against accessibility.

It was stupid and lazy both intellectually, politically and ethically.

Wisely council shot down the motion in a 16-7 vote.

References:

More Information:

Manor Park sidewalks to go ahead after council vote

King failed in his bid to shorten planned sidewalks that have divided the Ottawa neighbourhood.  His sign in Manor Park urged people to reject a contentious plan to build sidewalks in the neighbourhood. (Francis Ferland/CBC).

Arthur White-Crummey · CBC News · Posted: Apr 08, 2026 5:29 PM EDT

Listen to this article

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city policy is to add  to local roads in tandem with other work to save money and gradually build out a pedestrian services.

"If we don’t take the opportunity to put sidewalks in when we do the street rebuilds, we are not going to have that opportunity again for 70 or 80 or 90 years,"  said Lieper.

Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr spoke of the importance of accessibility.

"We try to build things for everyone, so if we can build things that make a difference in one or two people’s lives, that is what is important here," she said. "I do think when there are people representing to us and telling us what their needs are, we need to listen."

In a bizarre twist of logic Mayor Mark Sutcliffe supported King’s motion seemingly in contradiction to his longstanding support of status quo administration. He called it a "difficult decision" and said he understands both sides of the debate. 

[If he found this difficult we have bigger fish to fry]

"I do understand the points that were made by my other colleagues on council who were saying, 'Look, we can't make an exception here, we have rules,'" he said. "We apply them universally and we don't want a situation where every neighborhood is different."

Thanks to:

Arthur White-Crummey is the municipal affairs reporter at CBC Ottawa. He grew up in Ottawa, spent years in Saskatchewan covering the courts, city hall and the provincial legislature.

Can you see the problem?

Where would the child go with their bike? No matter how quiet the neighborhood.

Raise Transit Levy and/or Fares or Cut Services

Why are staff estimates so far off?

The shell shocked councillors will maintain the status quo. They mean well - but are unable to do what must be done...calling it " unacceptable"

See above note as well on the state of public washrooms. I ALSO HAVE A SEPERATE PIECE ON MY BLOG.

Accountability demands their dismissal.

Take transit?

There must be better but less ambitious service, higher fares, higher transit levy? - its not happening!

( insert infuriated emojii)

On the 95..Transit Hell

review

On the 95⁸

I used to take the bus to work from Orleans all the way to Cognos at Uplands and Riverside.

The trip in the morning was often jam packed it also involved a transfer to the 87 at Hurdman Station.

On rainy days the windows would steam up. Sometimes the air was so heavy you could hardly breath. Sometimes somebody would fart. It could be horrid.

It was not unusual in those days for some woman, usually a student, to be talking very loudly about her breakup. There was no shame.

You might share the aroma of some deli treat, or possibly fresh fish wrapped in newspaper. Perhaps some guy, wearing a rather large back pack would be doing a pole dance in front of you.

Some days coming home late I would be overcome by a feeling of great desperation. Those were hard days. People were depending on me.

I met my good friend Diana on the bus just short of Cognos as I heard about layoffs. We consoled each other.

As I waited at Hurdman with my friend Sunita, an elderly man, about 80 was struck and killed by a bus at a cross walk. She came with me as I covered him with my own coat and hat.

I used to look forward to the spring when I could put my bike on the bus rack and cycle part way to the office, a beautiful ride along the Rideau River and blessed reprieve.

I wrote this poem which was later converted into a song by suno ai.

https://suno.com/s/KI9cXJSzsaj3hEcB