Ottawa's Green Bin Program - Time for City Council to Lead

An Open Letter to Ottawa City Council and Residents
RE: Residential Solid Waste Service Level Review Recommendations

This open letter is being posted on my blog, The Fifth Column ( http://the5thc.blogspot.com/ ) and being sent via email to the the following city councillors:
Jim.Watson@ottawa.ca
Allan.Hubley@ottawa.ca
Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca
David.Chernushenko@ottawa.ca

There is a time for politicians to follow and a time for politicians to lead. If one of our goals is to make Ottawa a Green City then Ottawa City Council will have to provide leadership to make it happen.

We will never become a Green City if City Council punishes those that are doing the right thing and rewards those that are part of the problem.

There have been issues raised regarding animals getting into Green Bins and maggots in Green Bins. I have never had these issues with our Green Bin, probably because the Green Bins are more secure than most garbage cans. However, I have had them with our garbage containers, but very few times over 30 years living in Ottawa. The fact is that the colour of the container has nothing to do with these problems.

These problems relate to organic waste so the best way to eliminate or reduce them is to increase how often the organic waste is picked up and that is what the recommended plan does.

So the solution is really simple. Residents just need to use the system the way it is designed. Recyclables go into the Blue and Black Bins, organics into the Green Bin and what little is left, mainly non-recyclable excessive packaging, goes into the garbage (which could be picked up monthly as far as I am concerned).

As far as using the Green Bin being more costly or complicated, it need not be. We do not need to listen to those that see this as an opportunity to sell us more products like specialized bags that contradict the very idea behind the Green Bin of eliminating and reducing unnecessary waste. Nor do we need to listen to the media that think they are being helpful by suggesting all sorts of complicated solutions to non-existing problems.

We do not use a bag for our kitchen container, indeed rather than the container that came with the Green Bin we use a kitchen garbage can without any liner and dump it into the Green Bin when full. This is more convenient as it is larger and needs dumping less often. We rinse it clean about once a week.

The Green Bin would probably not need lining either but we have cats and find the kitty litter does stick to the plastic so we line it with old newspapers. I put newspapers along the bottom and up the sides a bit and then all along the sides from the top to cover the inside completely. I did have to slightly compromise my "not buy anything new" policy by using a very small amount of masking tape to help hold the newspaper to the sides of the bin at the top. That was a ten minute job the first time and under five minutes each time since and it does not need to be done each week as often the lining remains in the bin after dumping.


You can also use outdoor composting bags by cutting them down a few inches but that again requires more unnecessary consumption and waste.

It is very clear that there really should not be any controversy here. All that is required is for people to use the waste reduction and collection system the way it is designed to be used.

Unless the City wants to abandon any hope of being a Green City, City Council must support those that are doing the right thing, not those that are part of the problem.


To read more about my views on the Green Bin Program please see The Fifth Column: Why Sabotage The Green Bin Program

Mayor's Task Force Misses The Point

According to the Ottawa Citizen

"The mayor's task force on governance found that city council does not operate effectively and cannot provide the strategic leadership the City of Ottawa needs because of systemic problems with governance," says the report from the panel, which includes former Carleton University president Richard Van Loon and is headed by University of Ottawa government expert David Zussman.

The Citizen article further states:

To combat this, the task force recommends creating an executive level in municipal government, the mayor and city councillors who chair various standing committees, to set a firm agenda.

Zussman said this group would then drive the city-wide political agenda at council, making it more likely that other councillors would take a larger view of the issues before deciding how to vote.

The mayor's task force misses the point, or perhaps it was supposed to miss the point. There is no structural problem. The city has functioned well in the past and will function well in the future. The problem will be fixed at the next election, or possibly sooner, depending on the verdict in the mayor's bribery trial.

The problem of lack of leadership and lack of vision is because the city has a mayor who has no clue about politics and leading a municipal government. It has been clear from the start when he refused to learn about the city administration or even attend a city council meeting before being elected.

It has cost the city dearly, especially when compared to what could have been if the voters had chosen differently and elected a proven leader knowledgeable and skilled in municipal politics with a long record of accomplishments.

Detroit and Ottawa - Sisters in Shame

The Ottawa Citizen reports that “Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty surrendered to police Monday, hours after the county's top prosecutor charged the pair with perjury, obstruction, conspiracy and misconduct, connected to allegations they lied under oath about their affair.”

The Detroit Mayor’s response was familiar to Ottawa residents: “Kilpatrick said in a written statement Monday that he would not step down from his duties and that he intends to fight the charges.”

However, unlike in Ottawa, Detroit City Council did the right thing and “voted 7-1 last week to call for Kilpatrick to resign”.

Of course they are not the only ones calling for the mayor to do the right thing. This column in the Detroit Free Press echoes the views of many Detroit residents when it states:

And let them begin without Kilpatrick as mayor. Count me among those who have seen enough of this distraction, who do not want to witness the indignities of the city's highest elected official on trial, who do not believe Detroit's many problems can or should be managed by a man facing serial felony charges.

I actually like the mayor and deeply respect the good things he has done for Detroit, the momentum he seems to engender just by filling a room with his energy and charisma. I desperately wanted him to succeed, as the first member of my generation of Detroiters chosen to lead.

But that's all moot now, a pipe dream being crowded by bitter realities. No matter what Kilpatrick says, he cannot help but be consumed by the effort to fight these charges.

His word already means nothing. And the damage to his ability to lead has been done, no matter what the legal outcome.

Love is, in part, knowing when to let go. So is true leadership. Kilpatrick can best show his love for Detroit, and the leadership the city once had faith in, by letting go of the stranglehold his flourishing scandal has on all of us.

These are words that perhaps Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien might also want to pay heed to.

Of course, O’Brien’ supporters will point out that there are significant differences in the charges facing the two mayors, That is certainly so. For one thing the charges against the Detroit mayor do not call into doubt the validity of his election.

The Two Issues in the Chalk River Nuclear Safety/Radioisotopes Affair

Stephen Harper is starting to remind me of Larry O’Brien. They both seem to have no concept of the role of government and public policy beyond the Do What I Say I’m the Boss School of Leadership.

There are two issues involved in the Chalk River nuclear safety/radioisotopes affair.

The second issue is whether Parliament should have passed legislation requiring restarting of the reactor. What Parliament essentially said was that the shortage of radioisotopes justified lowering the normal safety standards for the reactor. It is Parliament’s role to balance competing interests. While many of us disagreed with the legislation, it was within Parliaments role.

The first issue is whether the government should have attempted to influence and intimidate Linda Keen and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission into not doing their job and then fire her for doing her job.

The government claims she was fired for lack of leadership. If Linda Keen has demonstrated anything it is leadership. The government may not have like the leadership she provided but it is ludicrous to suggest she did not provide leadership.

It is the role of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to set and enforce safety standards in the nuclear industry. That is what they did in the case of the Chalk River reactor. When Atomic Energy of Canada Limited failed to do required safety upgrades the Commission it did it’s job and ordered the reactor shut down. It is not the role of the Commission to let outside factors or interests influence it’s decisions. Indeed it would be derelict in it’s duty if it let outside interests, or political intimidation, influence it’s decision-making.

If anyone lacks leadership it is Stephen Harper who does not understand the difference between leadership and intimidation.

Bossership vs Leadership - Part II of The Larry O'Brien Saga

On Wednesday, September 12, 2007 I stated in: Bossership vs Leadership - The Failure of Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien:

"Ironically many voted for Larry O’Brien because he was not a politician, but his lack of political skills have been his downfall. He may, or may not, be a great private sector boss, who is used to making the decision and telling everyone else what to do, but he obviously lacks the political skills necessary to build the consensus and coalitions necessary to get things done in municipal government."

Apparently he has finally figured this out as the Ottawa Citizen reports that: Mr. O'Brien, a former CEO, said he's realized that the autocratic approach often taken in business simply doesn't work in municipal government. "The one thing I never had to do in business was compromise to get ideas through," he said. "It's not like that here."

I wonder how long someone with such a slow learning curve would last in his private sector company.

Bossership vs Leadership - The Failure of Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien

It is not a year into his mandate yet, but clearly his record is clear. Larry O’Brien is probably the biggest disappointment in Ottawa history. While a majority of voters clearly believed we needed a change from Bob Chiarelli’s mediocre leadership, this is not what they expected. Indeed, the most disappointed are his own supporters. But even those of us who opposed O’Brien did not expect this. In fact, some of us realized that he could not do too much damage with just one vote on council and hoped that his hyped high tech private sector background might even provide some innovative ideas. But there were none. While we expected policies and leadership in a direction we disagreed with, this complete failure of leadership was not expected..

Rather than recap all the failures of our new mayor I will refer you to Dawg's Blawg: Bull in a china shop, where he does an excellent job of summarizing them.

In hindsight we should not have been surprised. For all they hype about his background as a high technology leader, in reality he was the boss of a gloried temporary help agency that made his money by taking a cut of the salaries of people who worked for other companies or the federal government.

We had our first clear clues that Larry O’Brien was not up for the job when he admitted to never attending a City Council meeting, and made no effort to attend any, even after announcing his candidacy, and saw no need to learn the structure of city government until after he was elected.

Ironically many voted for Larry O’Brien because he was not a politician, but his lack of political skills have been his downfall. He may, or may not, be a great private sector boss, who is used to making the decision and telling everyone else what to do, but he obviously lacks the political skills necessary to build the consensus and coalitions necessary to get things done in municipal government.

Larry O’Brien is simply not a leader. He has clearly demonstrated that. He was clearly a boss masquerading as a leader. It is easy to get people to follow you when you are the one signing the pay cheques. But when, as mayor, he started hiring people not accustomed to being “yes men” he saw his key staff resigning in droves, as he refused to listen to the people he hired to give him advice.

What Larry O’Brien has done is demonstrate clearly that mayors are not as powerful as people think. The mayor is just one member of council. We forget that sometimes because we see the accomplishments of great mayors of the past in this city and others. In fact their accomplishments did not come because they had power, not because they were the bosses. Their accomplishments came because they showed leadership. Larry O’Brien has clearly not shown any leadership as Mayor of Ottawa.

It appears that Larry O’Brien may even be recognizing his own failures as a leader and giving up on trying to be the leader and trying to be the boss instead, by attempting to take over the role of the City Manager. That is not his role. If Larry O’Brien does not want to lead this city he can sit back and fulfill his ceremonial duties and let City Council run the city without him.