Larry O’Brien

St. John Ambulance

Yesterday I hosted the St. John Ambulance organization to celebrate their 125th anniversary at City Hall. What a great group that exchanged swords over 900 years ago for saving lives today. It was a good lunch and they gave me a photo taken of two of their trained heroes and I at Westfest.  We are lucky to have the organization in Ottawa serving our community. God bless them.

Council Today

Today at Council we deal with three very important issues -job cuts, waste solutions and an independent transit authority.

First off -Plasco.

Their technology shows some very good potential and we should give them a chance to prove themselves.  If it works it will change the world of waste management forever. We have too much garbage and not enough electrical energy!  Plasco technology “should” convert garbage to power with 78 % efficiency.  This is higher then the 65 % target California has established as the definition of meeting goals that have a higher net gain then simple diversion and recycling. If the vote is cast in their favour today, we sign an agreement that states if they meet provincial standards we will use the technology to produce electricity for Ottawa and eliminate landfill sites at long last. 

Secondly, we need to set clear targets for management to reduce staff levels by 500 by the end of 2009. Last night I saw the CUPE 503 ad on A-Channel stating we are going to cut front-line such as snow plowing. Absolute hog wash!!!!  The unions are fighting me on this because they know we can do it with very little effect on the City and they don’t like that idea. Their job is to protect jobs and grow the employee base at City Hall.  They are wrong!! Today let’s give the management clear direction to cut staff levels and some grades of service if needed.  The motion passed 10 to 1 at Committee and should be an easy win today.

Thirdly, we need to ask the management to draw up a plan for an independent transit authority. Now we need to follow through and produce a plan we can debate in the fall when we discuss governance in greater detail.  Staff are able, willing and ready -let’s give them the chance to show us a better way.  Interesting in this case the union is actually on our side and wants the same thing -a single organization to drive improvements in service deliveries with OC Transpo.