MARK YOUR CALENDAR: The April FCA General Meeting will be held on Wednesday April 20 at 7 pm via Google Meet. A prime topic will be a status report on the City’s Solid Waste Master Plan. The Master Plan is to guide how solid waste (including recycling, compostables, etc.) is to be managed over the next 30 years. More information can be found at https://engage.ottawa.ca/solid-waste-master-plan. An agenda for this meeting will be sent later this month.

2. Some 60 people attended the March 16 FCA General Meeting, which had as its main topic a presentation on the City’s development of a Community Benefits Charge Bylaw – a copy of this presentation can be found at http://fca-fac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/FCA-CBC-Presentation-March-162022-2.pdf As well the FCA board reported on a letter sent to the Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing on the report from the Ontario Task Force on Housing Affordability, which proposes sweeping changes on local planning decisions (this letter is at http://fca-fac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/220317Hous.pdf ). The Provincial Government has recently announced it will bring in legislation to implement some of the Task Force’s recommendations – more on this at the April 20 FCA General Meeting.
 
3. The FCA’s Planning & Zoning Committee met last March 2 and confirmed the FCA’s position on the City’s proposed High Performance Development Standards for new housing. The P&Z Committee also established a working group on the City’s Parkland Dedication Bylaw review (for more information on this please contact Bob Brocklebank at rbrock0564@rogers.com ). A working group established last month on the Committee of Adjustment met and will be developing a workshop for FCA members on best practices at the Committee of Adjustment, expected in May. A second workshop on developing recommendation on Committee of Adjustment procedures & policies for the new City Council is expected to be held later in the fall (for more information contact either Jill Prot or Nancy Wilson at Cityviewassociation@gmail.com ). The next meeting of the P&Z Committee will be held on Wednesday April 6 – for more information contact Robert Brinker at brinker@fca-fac.ca.
 
4. The FCA’s Transportation Committee met last March 3 and discussed the status of the City’s Transportation Master Plan, the Brian Coburn Drive extension issue in Orleans, and the City report on e-scooters. The next meeting of this committee will be on Thursday April 7. For more information contact John Verbaas at verbaas@fca-fac.ca.
 
5. On March 30 the FCA held a workshop on How to Organize an All-Candidates Meeting, in anticipation of the upcoming provincial election on June 2, and the municipal election on October 24. A copy of the presentation is at http://fca-fac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/220330Cand.pdf. For those contemplating organizing such an all-candidates meeting in your community, the time to start is NOW.

6. Synapcity is developing a series of 90 minute introductory sessions on how the city works, called  CitySmarts. As part of this initiative, Synapcity would like to identify residents who are not actively engaged in community associations and the civic life of the city. Those individuals would be invited to participate in a focus group to determine their knowledge or understanding of the city, concerns in their neighbourhoods or wards, and barriers to engagement they might encounter. The information gathered in the focus groups will be used to inform the design of CitySmarts. If your community association is interested in partnering with Synapcity to create such a focus group in your community, please send an email to hello@synapcity.ca letting them know, and put in the subject line “CitySmarts focus groups”.
 
7. The FCA Annual General Meeting will be held this June featuring reports from the Board and the Treasurer plus election of officers (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, up to 8 Directors). In addition FCA presents awards – for Lifetime Achievement, City Builder, Media (eg community newspaper, etc.), and Achievement. If you would like to nominate someone in any of these categories, please send an e-mail to nominations@fca-fac.ca. And please ensure your community association has voting status at the FCA AGM by renewing your association’s membership, if you haven’t done so already(!).
 
8. The FCA is getting bigger and needs help. As a result, the FCA Board is seeking a part-time administrative assistant (one-year renewable contract) to assist with FCA activities. For more information go to http://fca-fac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/JobPostingAdminAssistant-2022March.pdf