Your View - Ottawa

• Ottawa council votes to hike property taxes 4.9 per cent
  

  Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien backed away from his promise to keep taxes frozen when he took part in a unanimous city council vote to hike the city's property taxes almost five per cent.

  Councillors cheered and applauded as O'Brien voted "yes" to the 4.9 per cent increase during Wednesday's budget meeting.

  O'Brien said the amount was far from his oft-repeated election slogan of "zero means zero," but it was the right thing for the city.

  "We are facing some harsh realities," the mayor said, "and this is too good a city for me to let a stubborn position sit between us and the quality of life that every citizen in Ottawa is asking for."

  The total includes two increases that O'Brien previously supported:

  * A 1.44 per cent increase to fund police services.
  * A two per cent levy to pay for maintenance and repairs to the city's aging infrastructure.

  The remainder is a 1.46 increase to regular property taxes. The items will all be charged to a household based on the value of their property, but will appear as separate lines on the municipal tax bill.

  During the next four months, the city is to look for ways to reduce administration costs. Savings found could be used to lower the final tax rate that is set in April, said a City of Ottawa news release.

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• What should Mayor O'Brien do?
  

  Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien has been charged with two counts under the Criminal Code after a nine-month investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.

  The charges concern allegations that O'Brien offered to help his former mayoral rival Terry Kilrea get a job on the National Parole Board if he dropped out of the race.

  The mayor has denied the allegations and they have not been proven in court.

  The mayor is under no legal obligation to resign.

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  What should Mayor Larry O'Brien do? Should he resign or stay on as mayor?

• Ottawa charity declines Sens Foundation help amid anti-abortion flap
  

  An Ottawa charity facing controversy over its anti-abortion philosophy says it does not want to hurt the positive image of the Ottawa Senators Foundation, and will therefore turn down funding raised at Ottawa Senators games.

  First Place Pregnancy Centre said it recognizes "the incredible work and generosity" of the Sens Better Halves, the wives and girlfriends of the Ottawa Senators, who chose the centre as one of three charities they would support by selling raffle tickets at Senators home games between Nov. 29 and Dec. 22.

  "However, we do not wish to interfere in even the most indirect way with the Foundation's positive image and valuable contribution to our community," said Terri Mazik, the centre's executive director, in a statement Thursday.

  The centre describes itself as a "non-profit and non-political" agency that offers support to people facing unplanned pregnancy.

  The raffle — which offers the chance to win a Christmas tree decorated with Senators items including some signed by the players — had been surrounded by controversy after Planned Parenthood Ottawa, a pro-choice group, went to the media accusing the the centre of not supporting a woman's right to choose an abortion.

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• Are spare change meters a good idea?
  

  Mayor Larry O'Brien is encouraging generous Ottawa residents not to reach for their wallets as they pass the scruffy panhandlers who beg for spare change on the city's cold sidewalks.

  Instead, the public should save their loonies and toonies for special coin banks or "kindness meters" similar to parking meters that will be installed in the Byward Market this week, O'Brien told CBC Radio host Shelagh Rogers on Friday's edition of Sounds Like Canada. The money will be distributed to groups that help the poor.

  "It goes to the shelters, it goes to the social service agencies, it can provide food and accommodation to the people, so it's a different way to help these people," O'Brien said.

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  What do you think of this idea?

• Broken water main disrupts flow of water, traffic in Ottawa's south
  

  Thousands of residents in Ottawa's south end have a good excuse to avoid laundry and dishwashing over the next few days — they're being asked to conserve water and avoid a major north-south arterial road as much as possible as crews work to repair a broken water main.

  It may take until the end of the week to fix the 1.5-metre-wide pipe on Woodroffe Avenue near Hunt Club Road, leaving 80,000 residents in Barrhaven, Manotick and Riverside South with reduced water pressure, city officials said.

  Three lanes of Woodroffe Avenue near Hunt Club Road had reopened by noon Monday after a morning closure caused by a huge geyser that shot out as a pipe ruptured while crews were trying to repair it.

  Residents should put off laundry, automatic dishwashing and other non-essential water use Monday and Tuesday and avoid Woodroffe Avenue, said Dixon Weir, Ottawa's director of utility services.

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  How has this situation affected you?

• Homes for children with disabilities: Your story
  

  Institutions are closing, group homes are full and waiting lists grow ever longer.

  CBC is taking a closer look at families that have children with disabilities. Where will their children go now that it's time to leave the nest?

  Rideau Regional Centre for people with disabilities is due to close in 2009. People who've lived there all their lives are moving out. At the same time, children with disabilities who were raised at home are also on the move.

  Tune in to CBC Radio and CBC TVs News at Six starting Wednesday, November 7th and visit our No Place to Go website for stories on this issue.

  We also want to hear your story.

  What are you doing to find a home for your child with disabilities? What is your experience in looking for a home for your child with special needs?

  We invite you to leave your phone number if you are open to hearing from CBC by phone. The number will not be published.

• Coveted employee faces years-long immigration delay, Ottawa company says
  

  An Ottawa company says it's worried about losing a prized Bangladeshi employee to international competitors after federal immigration officials told him they need to catch up on applications submitted five years ago before looking at his 2005 request.

  Arif Mohiuddin has been running World Bank projects in Nigeria and Sierra Leone since being hired four years ago by transport services company CPCS Transcom Ltd., said Carolyn Mackenzie, vice-president of marketing.

  "He's become a really important part of our team and we really don't want to lose him," Mackenzie told CBC's Ottawa Morning on Monday, adding that her firm is competing for talent with companies around the world.

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• Acclaimed skin-whitening studies from Ottawa raise racism concerns
  

  Award-winning research by Ottawa biochemists into technology that makes dark skin fairer is renewing controversy about a type of cosmetic product worth billions in Asian markets.
  
  Two graduate students at Carleton University, Pratik Lodha and Eman Ahmed-Muhsin, have been developing Gloriel, a skin-lightening cream based on Nobel Prize-winning gene-silencing technology.

  The product won $5,000 as a finalist in the 2007 Student Technology Venture Challenge, an annual business competition for post-secondary students in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

  The research has also been awarded additional funding from Carleton University and the inventors hope to patent it in two years so they can sell the rights to a cosmetic giant such as L'Oreal.

  Lodha's inspiration for the idea came from India, where he is from and where skin-lightening creams are a billion-dollar industry.

  Critics have accused the industry of racism and imperialism. Ranni Moorthy, a U.K.