Ottawa

It's incredible that this is still a problem after ten years.

Last month, employment in Ottawa-Gatineau fell 3.5 per cent from the year before, a drop of roughly 32,000 jobs.

For the Ontario side of the capital region alone, it was the fourth straight month in which annual job growth shrank by more than 5 per cent. This makes it the deepest slump outside of the early pandemic period since records began in 2011, including the drop that occurred in 2013 when the former Harper government slashed 15,000 federal civil-service jobs as part of its deficit-reduction plan.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ottawa-has-the-worst-job-market-in-canada-faring-worse-than-cities/

So I’ve been following some FOSS/linux software groups around the world like GPUL in Galicia and Chaos Computer Club & Modal Collective in Germany and I’m a little jealous of what they’ve been able to build in their associated cities/regions. For example GPUL is organizing GUADEC (The GNOME community’s annual conference) this year in A Coruña, and they regularly run workshops to get people into FOSS software development at their local university UDC. They’ve also organized (or helped organize) previous events like XDC (The X.Org developers conference for wayland/x11/mesa and related technologies).

Likewise the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) promotes open source software and runs similar events including the annual Chaos Communication Conference. What they put together seems like a great "CS Club" but outside of a university and open to the public. The Modal Collective in Berlin hosts a regular (every 3-4 months) un-conference + hackathon event (called Boiling the Ocean) working on a few different open source projects like GNOME, Postmarket OS & p2panda.

I'd love for something similar to exist in Ottawa. I've followed some groups here like OCLUG (Ottawa-Canada Linux user group), and Ottawa Systems (https://ottawasystems.xyz/) and they meet some similar goals but not exactly what I'm thinking. (I have some notes below on those events)

To me it would be awesome if we could have something like the Boiling the Ocean events in Ottawa. A semi regular event where there is presentations about FOSS tech and a hackathon to contribute to the related projects. I'd love to know if there are more people in Ottawa that would be interested in similar events. Perhaps if there is enough of us we can try to organize something. Ideally there are some people in Ottawa already familiar with some of these technologies. I spoke with some of the organizers of Boiling the Ocean and they told me the original group started with ~5 people who were already GNOME, PMOS, and Linux contributors but now they have a regular group of ~15-20 people.

For some additional context, I professional work on Mesa3D (https://mesa3d.org/) on a few different graphics drivers like turnip, anv, broadcom, lavapipe/llvmpipe. I would be happy to try and introduce people to working on graphics drivers (in fact I tried to do a little bit of that at Ottawa Systems with my own presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdT2ic39HA). I'd also like to learn more about Linux kernel development, I'm really interested in the new "Mobile Linux" stuff like Postmarket OS. I think it would be fun to work on getting Linux running on mobile phones and making the Mobile Phone experience on Linux better. I'm also a regular GNOME user and would be interested in contributing to some of the software I use regularly.

Besides people who might be working on FOSS on their own I know we have a few companies (big or small) working on stuff that touches FOSS like:

• Ciena runs Linux on a lot of their networking hardware
• QNX runs Linux on top of their hypervisor and have been contributing to the linux graphics stack to support virtualisation in this setup
• WindRiver has their own Linux distro
• Xilinx/AMD does linux work in Ottawa (I think mainly on the kernel side for xilinx HW, not for AMD GPUs / CPUs)
• There is Credil (https://credil.org/) in Gatineau who seem to be an open source consultancy
• Shopify to my knowledge works on a few open source projects related to their frontend and backend
• like mentioned above we have people from Anubis and Mozilla in the city
• Also from OCLUG know we have people from Redhat and Lenovo who work on Linux

Maybe you already work on FOSS, you work at one of these places, or you know someone who does he might also be interested in this idea :)

About the other groups: OCLUG from what I've seen focuses more on the Linux user side not really on the developer side. They also used to be a larger but seems to be shrinking now (from an outsiders perspective). The group runs a monthly meeting that centres around a presentation and discussion, typically on more Linux user like topics.

Ottawa Systems is a little closer to the other groups I've mentioned, running a semi-regular event. But its just presentations and its not strictly focused on FOSS. The event has been great for meeting people in the developer community in Ottawa though, like I found out the developer of Anubis (https://anubis.techaro.lol/) is from the Ottawa region here, and we also have Mozilla developer here too!

I also saw hack613 runs some events at the maker space that could be similar to what i'm suggesting here but the schedule seems pretty sparse right now.

Perhaps there is some existing groups in the city that are closer to what I'm thinking about.

I put together a sign up sheet to try and organize a hackfest style event where we would come together to work on a FOSS project together. Please sign up if you're interested! https://cloud.fryzekconcepts.com/index.php/s/tyWLFqb2JQPHoH5

A few councilors are pushing the idea of refunding OC Transpo riders for cancelled or delayed trips. What do you think of the idea?

Patients at The Ottawa Hospital who crave ginger ale to settle their stomachs are being told it's no longer on the menu. The hospital says it's dumping the sugary, carbonated drink because it has "limited nutritional value."

Hospital says sugary, carbonated ginger ale has 'limited nutritional value'

Who the heck is actually for this aside from OC transpo exec, and downtown business owners?

Drives me crazy reading comments where people complain that it's about time these lazy workers go back to the office.

The crab in a bucket mentality is pathetic.

For the record I am not directly affected by this, aside from being a victim of the increase in traffic.

The Ottawa Police Service is reminding drivers that telling an officer “I thought I was doing 150” will not overturn a stunt driving charge on Highway 417.

The police Road Safety and District Traffic Unit said an officer observed a driver going 164 km/h on Highway 417 at Carp Road on Monday.

The Canadian Museum of History and the Canadian War Museum will cut 67 positions over the next three years as part of the federal government’s comprehensive expenditure review and to address its own “structural deficit.”

Spokesperson Avra Gibbs-Lemay confirms to CTV News Ottawa the museums’ permanent workforce will be reduced from 371 to 304 employees.

The museums of history and war are the only federal museums in the national capital region that have confirmed they will need to cut positions as part of the comprehensive expenditure review. 

The Canadian Museum of Nature will not be required to cut staff.

A spokesperson for Ingenium said there are no planned job cuts at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and Canada Science and Technology Museum.

According to a spokesperson, the National Arts Centre was exempted from the comprehensive expenditure review.

Just noticed this at https://bookstore.worldofmaps.com/:

World of Maps is Hiring!

That's right, we are looking for a new part-time employee to join our team!

Shifts are Saturdays 10am to 5:15pm; Sundays 11am to 4:15pm; Mondays 10am to 4pm.

This is a customer service job and includes:

• directing customers to the right section of the store or website
• point of sale
• printing maps or posters
• taking orders
• contacting customers

Perks include: learning to use the large format printer, employee discount on cool maps, bragging rights.

Start date is February 1st, 2026

Email a cover letter and pdf of your resume to info@worldofmaps.com, or drop it off in person!

Plans are underway to celebrate the city’s 200th anniversary and include a special Ottawa Bluesfest concert with a strong lineup and reduced ticket prices. 

“Ottawa’s 200th anniversary is a chance to showcase to people visiting Ottawa who we are as a city – this is a destination that is creative, collaborative, and welcoming. Working with the City, festivals, Indigenous and community partners, we’re empowering projects that showcase Ottawa’s character and hospitality across every ward, throughout all seasons, and with the diversity of voices that weave together to make the fabric of Ottawa […]”

Before the cameras were installed four years ago, roughly 17 per cent of motorists followed the posted speed limits. ... In the last year before the cameras were banned, compliance reached 87 per cent.

Within a week of the cameras’ removal, that fell to 62 per cent, and three weeks later, it had dropped to 50 per cent.

...

Carlucci says it’s time for drivers to reflect and consider one simple question.

“Why are you speeding in a school zone?”

In the video, a large black and tan dog can be seen chewing the glove, which then begins smoking. The dog jumps off the couch and watches for a moment before leaving the room, while flames spread from the glove to a blanket on the couch.

From the video description:

Following the success of Dude, Where's My Bus? (2024), The Train to Nowhere shifts focus from buses to rail, centring on the Line 2 expansion of Ottawa’s Light Rail Transit (LRT), a project that many commuters hoped would mark a turning point for transit in the city. The documentary follows Petti as he documents the circumstances surrounding the expansion, the project's transition to a hot-button political issue, and the broader impact on riders who depend on the various systems every day.

If you’re out partying, please drive home safely through the light dusting we’re currently having :P

So I recently followed a short rabbit hole to something that seems worth sharing. There's a small group of artists/DIYers in Ottawa who participate in something called the Third Culture Collective. Looks like there's some local bands involved (moridori is one that was on my radar), and some rumbles that more is coming re: the site.

Found it by way of a homemade sticker for one of the members at a small business I frequent here. Seems neat, open to aligned participants and of possible interest to Fediverse loving locals. Who knows - maybe this is just the kind of thing someone reading this is looking for!