I recently accepted a position with a contractor at OPG as a scaffolder and will be starting my training there soon. I was wondering if anyone has experience transitioning from working for a contractor to becoming an OPG employee directly. I’ve heard a lot of great things about working for OPG and would be interested in learning more about the opportunities and potential pathways to transition over.

Hi there Ontaio,

My wife and I have a 3 month gap coming up between selling our house and moving into a new build and will be at an AirBnB for that time.

I know that I need to change Drivers + health card etc. within 6 and 30 days, but can you use an AirBnB address for these?

Preferably around Ottawa area, but can expand a bit further. Need it for my son ASAP.

I took some photos this morning from Eagle's Nest Park in Bancroft. It's a really amazing time of year. Highly recommending coming here, but if you cannot, just make sure to go out and explore Autumn in your area.

Right now is the best time of year for Ontario. Beautiful Scenery, No Bugs and decent temperature.
Cheers!

Hi everyone,

This is my second month paying a Hydro Ottawa bill, and I’m honestly struggling to understand how the delivery charge is calculated. I’m trying to use as little electricity as possible, but my bill still feels surprisingly expensive, and I’m starting to feel a bit helpless.

Here’s a breakdown of my latest bill for August 1–25 (24 days):

• Total electricity consumption: 185.83 kWh
• Electricity charges: Approximately $20.21
• Delivery charges: $36.51
• Regulatory charges: $1.23
• HST: $7.54
• Ontario Electricity Rebate: -$13.62

What confuses me most is that my actual electricity usage is relatively low, yet the delivery charge is almost twice what I’m paying for the electricity itself.

I also noticed that my previous month's kWh consumption was higher than this month's, but the delivery charge is still high. I don’t understand what determines the delivery fee or why it seems so disproportionate to my usage.

I understand that delivery, regulatory, and other fees are separate from the cost of electricity, but I didn’t realize they could make up such a large portion of the bill.

I’d really appreciate any tips from other Hydro Ottawa customers. I’m new to this and just trying to understand what I can realistically do to bring my bill down.

Thanks in advance!

My mother has dementia and keeps falling and breaking bones. She falls about 4 times a day now and breaks a new bone every week. The hospital keeps putting pressure on me to take her home but because I can't watch her 24 hours a day I can't keep her safe.

I know that hospitals are not supposed to discharge people if they would be unsafe at home, but I'm not sure how the process works for transitional care units (rehab centers)? I feel like the hospital social worker and health at home care coordinator are not being honest with me and just want to clear a hospital bed.

We are on the waitlist for LTC with regular status and want to change to crisis status. But the care coordinator is refusing to do an assessment unless we let her move back home! It seems like the health at home care coordinator is on the side of the hospital (pushing for me to take her back).

I've read a few posts here about hospitals doing an unsafe discharge but I haven't found anything about how TCUs work. Are they allowed to force an elderly person with dementia back home even if they are falling and it is unsafe for them? Or does that standard only apply to hospitals?

What usually happens if a patient is still a risk to themselves even after spending 3 or 4 weeks in a TCU? What happens to them after that?

Anyone have any experience of getting a car battery replaced through CAA? I have an older car with a dead battery, typically I would get it towed to the local garage since I don't want to do the replacement myself. But I see that CAA offers a mobile battery service that will come to me. Anyone have experience of this service? How is the price/quality?

Today is the day. The Rebuilding Ontario Place Act exempts the province from environmental and heritage legislation and limits legal claims arising from the redevelopment. The appeal argues the second part crosses a constitutional line.

The reason this isn’t a Ontario story: Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, Quebec, Yukon and the federal government have all intervened alongside Ontario. Whatever the Court says about how far a legislature can go in limiting review of its own conduct applies to every province.

Worth reading the Canadian Constitution Foundation’s intervention in particular — they’re not usually on the same side as Greenpeace and the CCLA.

Will courts in Canada be rendered useless?

Will this story be covered in Canadian press?

We will find out today on Ottawa at the Supreme Court!

Hi everyone! Like I said, I can't get a straight answer to this at all, so I'm looking for one here. I'm a 31-year-old trans woman at a school for my Masters in Toronto. Originally I'm from Montreal, and I use a Quebec health card for the doctors I see, which are almost entirely through my university clinic. I'm applying for funding for gender affirming surgery, and I consider this pretty life changing and necessary surgery, and the best way to do it (with the quickest wait time) is if I have an OHIP card, so I have been thinking about changing from my Quebec health card to an OHIP one. If I apply for gender affirming surgery funding with a Quebec health card, it will be a waiting list of 3-5x as long as the OHIP wait time (already over a year) because of where Quebec politics are right now.

Now, having an OHIP card would actually make some things a lot easier, like blood tests and some other elective procedures. I just would have to reapply to the Quebec health insurance plan (RAMQ) if and when I ever move back there. However, I am dependent on Quebec student loans (from the Aide financière aux études/AFE) for funding for my Masters program here.

If I apply for an OHIP card will that change my residence such that I will be ineligible for Quebec student aid? Does anyone know if switching to an OHIP card for the next year will invalidate my ability to get those loans over the next year?

Thanks!

Due to many circumstances, I have an expired driver's licence (>1 year) and an expired passport that are not acceptable documents for getting a Photo Card. On the Ontario website, it states that a Canadian Citizenship card issued before 2012 can be acceptable to apply. However, the photo on my Citizenship card is of me as a baby (issued 2003). I'm assuming I will still have to provide supporting documents such as my health card to verify my signature, but would this be enough documentation to go through with the application? Should I just apply for a new passport instead?

Coming on here to receive some advice as a sister of a runaway 17 year old brother.

Long story short, my brother went to school and never came home. He told the school he was being abused at home and the school sent him to a youth shelter.

He has a history of running away and demanding to go to the shelter. For context, he was in the shelter last year for about 2 months until the people working on his case kicked him out and told him to go home as there was no reason for him to be there.

Another instance was earlier this year when he ran away at night. He ended up calling the Ottawa police who basically gave him a meal and told him we cannot do anything and he’s off on his own as he has a documented pattern of doing this. Later that night he was texting my dad back and forth saying he’ll only come home if he gets to play video games all day. My dad said no but he came home late at night because he had no other options.

The main reason he does this is because he has a severe gaming addiction. He’s also on antidepressants and his mental health is not great. His doctor is aware of this and told our dad to only allow him 2 hours of screen time aside from school work. He’s compliant for the most part but he definitely does not like this rule. But it is for the best given everything he has done (stole 5 Chromebook from school, threatened a kid from school and got suspended, reporting abuse at home even when there is none, etc.).

Anyways, he started grade 12 last month. School was getting harder. He’s on an IEP, encouraged to go the teachers classroom during lunch. He has every resource available to him as my dad requested all this for him so that he could do well in school. My dad and I are constantly monitoring his school work, helping him with his homework, my dad follows up with his teachers on his progress, etc. everything that needs to be done to support him is being done. He’s also the type of kid that if he tries, he does well. The problem is he doesn’t try and also doesn’t have the intention do school without some pressure. Especially since this is his last year of high school and with college application opening up soon, my dad wants him to focus a bit more so that he can get into college. Anyways, so during high school my brother had trouble doing a full load of classes per semester. So to make it easier for him, he did the tougher courses in the summer to lighten the load. So right now, he’s ahead and he has 2 spares in school and 3 classes. 2 of the classes are in person. One of the classes is online which he’s meant to do during the spare or whenever he has free time at home. So since he has half the school day free, he’ll just play games all day, chat around, etc.

My main point is he’s lost his mind completely. He has no idea what he’s doing with his life. He’s playing every trick in the book from spreading lies, saying he’s being abused, saying his home is unsafe, etc. He’s also being influenced by this guy who’s also living at the shelter. This guy is assuming 20 and has been at the shelter for quite a while. He knows the ins and outs of it and has been giving my brother tips on how to stay. We’ve reported this guy to the police for trying to influence a minor because that’s all we could do.

Fast forward he’s been in the shelter now for over 2 weeks. And all he’s done within those 2 weeks is play video games and chat. There are 2 rules to stay in the shelter which is to either continue school or work yet he’s doing neither. It’s impossible for him to even attend the school in person because the shelter is downtown and the school is in a remote area excluded from bus services. The shelter knows he has a pattern of doing this but continues to offer him shelter, Ontario works funding, provides visa gift cards, etc. They have zero knowledge on whether he does his school, what he’s doing day to day. He tells them he’s doing his school work and they believe it. We still have access to his google classrooms, VLE, etc. and we can clearly see he’s not even logging into the school portal or doing the work. Just 2 days ago, he received funding and he used that to buy a gaming laptop from Kijiji. We’ve provided screenshots, emails, anything you can name to show what he’s doing but nothing is getting taken seriously.

Since then my dad has been continuously going back and forth with every person possible to bring him back home or stop the shelter from enabling him to continue what he’s doing.

We’ve contacted
CAS
Police
Detective
Youth Police
Case workers
MPP office + going back and forth with their ombuds lawyer)
Cathy Curry (city councillor)
School principals

The ottawa police detective told us that the sheltering system is completely broken and that she’s on our side. She told my dad to keep fighting it and document everything as we go. She’s also aware of the sheltering system enabling kids as she sees it in her day to day work and with many other families struggling. So we’re working with everyone possible. The issue is since he’s 17 he blocked us everywhere and also blocked everyone from providing us any info about him.

What else can we do? How can we escalate this even more? Who else can we contact to put pressure on the shelter, on CAS, the school, etc. to respond to our messages and concerns. We requested a family meeting with him with all parties present, but he denied. CAS/police encouraged him to go home and he denied. Before all of this even happened, my dad wanted him to go to therapy or counseling and he refused.

We requested the shelter, case, worker, etc. to let him stay but deny/restrict access to his internet and unnecessary fundings in cash because that’s the only thing keeping him in there. I can guarantee that he would leave the shelter and return back home if that rule was applied. But they refuse to answer our emails.

Please don’t comment saying to just let him be and let him figure it out. He doesn’t think properly and needs proper guidance. I’m looking for every possible outlet.

If there’s any questions, I’ll do my best to answer.