● Ottawa councillors ask for federal money to be spent on cycling .

Four Ottawa councillors representing the downtown area have asked that the city increase its spending on cycling and pedestrian infrastructure by using some of the infrastructure money provided in the recent federal budget.

City councillors Mathieu Fleury, Jeff Leiper, Catherine McKenney and Tobi Nussbaum made the request in an email to Ottawa’s acting deputy city manager for planning and infrastructure.

In their email, they say “We would like to recommend that the city prioritize funding for the pedestrian and cycling infrastructure plans in its submission for funding to the Green Infrastructure Fund, thus allowing for their full and cost-effective implementation within the next four years.”

Currently, $70 million is suppose to be spent on cycling and pedestrian infrastructure over the next 15 years according to the city’s transportation master plan.

If your city councillor is not one of those listed above, you may want to contact him or her and suggest that he or she make a similar request of the city. (If you’re unsure who is your city councillor, click here.)

For more information about this, see the story in the Ottawa Citizen or the Ottawa Sun. (The exact same story in both papers, word for word. Makes you realize that Ottawa is only being served by one English language newspaper.)