Upcoming Events
June is Let’s Bike Month in Ottawa
EnviroCentre
This June, join thousands of Ottawa residents in celebrating Let’s Bike Month 2025!
The City of Ottawa has been partnering with EnviroCentre to support our yearly cycling campaign for 16 years! With thousands of participants, hundreds of teams, and dozens of events throughout the month, Let’s Bike Month is one of the largest and longest-running cycling campaigns in Canada.
Thanks to our amazing community sponsors, Let’s Bike Month will be giving away thousands of dollars’ worth of prizes to participants throughout the month of June, JUST for riding their bike. To be entered into our prize draws, you just need to have logged a ride during the month of June. You can see a list of prizes and sponsors here!
If you’d like to join the Convent Glen Orleans Wood team and participate in Let’s Bike with your neighbours, sign up or join our team at the link above!
Summer ‘Community Connections’ Events
CGOW.ca/fe (Weekly Community Cafe)
Sunday Mornings in June, starting on June 8th at 9:30 until noon at Voyageur Park
The CGOW.ca/fe will be starting out in June with a pilot project on Sunday mornings between 9:30 and noon, beginning with the Voyageur Park location. There will be a coffee bike cart (with our CA Board member Arnold playing barista) that will be serving freshly brewed coffee and treats at an affordable price, with all proceeds going to help fund and grow more community events for all of us.
Pop-up Park Picnics
The first Pop-up Park Picnic will be on the third weekend in June (21st-22nd; TBD), at Hiawatha Park.
Details to come.
Our second initiative will be Community Pop-up Park Picnics that will be hosted in every corner of our catchment over the course of the summer. These will be family centric events with free hot-dogs and treats for the kids and a gathering of family and friends to welcome summer in our neighbourhood. This is another excellent way we can work to connect families together and enjoy the best of our many parks and amenities.
Pedal and Play rides into June
Weekly Family Bike Rides in Convent Glen North
In short, we will be starting from a planned time and location each weekend and exploring our community on two wheels (bike, scooter, etc.), before ending up at a pre-determined local park or other destination. Once we arrive at the destination, the kids can stay and play, have a snack, and we can all get to know each other better.
Native Plant Sale – Heart of Orleans Market – July 6
Environment Committee
The CGOW Environment Committee is hosting a native plant sale to help you start or expand your native garden.
Our little group of volunteers gathered on a (reasonably) mild day in January to do some winter sowing and have been nurturing the seedlings ever since.
We have cardinal flower, wild bergamot, purple echinacea, and many more.
Sunday, July 6th 9:30 am – 2 pm.
Heart of Orleans Market
290 Centrum (between Mexi’s and the Taproom)
Yoga in the Park
The weekly summer Yoga in the Park series is back for another season. Show up every Wednesday, 7:00 PM at Decarie Park in July and August. Stay tuned for more details if you’re interested but also that’s pretty much all you need to know.
Save the Date – 2025 Community BBQ – Sunday, September 7th
Rain Date September 21st
Golden Fries will be hosting us again. More details to come!
Recent Event
Recap of May 24th Clothing Swap
On May 24th, the Environment Committee hosted our first Clothing Swap and it was a huge success! Over 100 people came out to swap or shop new-to-them clothing and accessories. An estimated 1,500 lbs of clothing and accessories were donated for this event, including everything from snowsuits to prom dresses and everything in between. Our volunteers are working with community support organizations to ensure the donated clothing is put to good use!
Thank you to our incredible community for your support of this event! Whether you swapped, shopped, or helped get the word out, you helped support a circular economy and reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry. Thank you!
In The News
Letter to the City of Ottawa about Orleans Blvd
From the Board of Directors
As part of the latest round of consultations for Ottawa’s updated Transportation Master Plan in April and early May, the city was looking for feedback on its priorities for road projects (including active transportation infrastructure).
The Community Association continues to endorse the prioritization of Orleans Blvd as an active transportation corridor, and especially as a key way to connect the community via active transportation across the 174. Read our full letter to the city.
What it will take to fix Ottawa’s ‘stroad’ problem
By Sadeen Mohsen, Ottawa Citizen – Published on May 22, 2025
Streets were designed so that slower speeds would be required to be safe around businesses, neighbourhoods and high-pedestrian traffic. Roads were designed to move vehicles as quickly as possible through traffic and support high-speed environments. A stroad attempts to do both at the same time.
Similar to other stroads across Ottawa, a large portion of Innes has houses, grocery stores and local businesses alongside it. The posted speed limit is 60 km/h and the roadway and is stretched over four, sometimes more, car lanes.
Environment Committee
Invasive Plants and Your Garden
Nadia Ouellette, Environment Committee
Invasive plant species harm us and our environment. After habitat loss, they are the second largest contributor to endangering native plant species. Invasive plants are defined as species that are alien to an environment, cause economic and environmental damage and harm human health. Their shared characteristics make them hard to control. For example, they can grow in a variety of environments and often have high rates of reproduction. One invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) plant can produce 3 millions seeds!
Suburban Robservations
Rob Attrell, Board Director
Outreach Committee
Modernizing Orleans: Integrated Transportation and Zoning for a Sustainable Future
This is overview of my (heavily researched) feedback on the latest draft of the city of Ottawa’s Transportation Master Plan. You can find the summary of this feedback here: Modernizing Orleans, and more detailed analyses of the following in their own separate sections.
- Cycling: Cycling Infrastructure in Orléans, Ottawa: Status and Opportunities
- Transit: Improving Transit in Orléans: Toward a Walkable, Transit‑Oriented Community
- Transportation and Zoning: Zoning in Orleans – Tying Zoning Principles into Ottawa’s Transportation Master Plan
- Specific recommended priorities and project scope: Priorities for Orleans for the 2025 Transportation Master Plan Consultations
Cycling for a Better Ottawa: Shared Roads, Safe Streets, and Sustainable City Planning
When city council and planners design and approve new safe and connected bike infrastructure and make better use of road space, they’re making smart moves for a greener city, and the benefits for everyone are clear to see. On a route with safe cycling options, when all road users follow traffic rules and respect one another, everyone is able to share the available space better, leading to smoother trips and safe, polite interactions. As more of these bike lanes and safe intersections are built, people are getting better at sharing the road safely.
Matt’s Musings
Matthieu Gagnon, Vice-President
Who I Am and Why I’m Here – Matthieu
I grew up the hill in Chateauneuf. My family has been in Orléans for generations. According to SFOPHO, my maternal grandmother’s family arrived in 1864. I grew up hearing stories about Orléans before the developers arrived. I have experienced being a child, a teenager, and an adult in this community.
The Problems with St-Joseph
A couple of weeks ago, after the fatality on Innes Boulevard, a journalist reached out to our association to get a community perspective on the collision, which led to this piece by that journalist on the road safety issues of stroads like Innes. I wanted to take the opportunity to present the other problems with our community’s main stroad: St-Joseph Boulevard.
Reflections as a Road Victim
On April 7, while riding on Beechwood to get to work, I suddenly ended up in an ambulance with no recollection of how I got there. According to the police and/or paramedics, an OC Transpo driver had given their right of way to a driver turning left on Acacia. The driver turned without ensuring that nobody was riding on the bike lane, and I got left-hooked.
In Other Community News
Community Roadmap Update
We’re most of the way through spring, and starting to plan out this summer’s activities. Have a look at our seasonal roadmaps and see what events and activities you might find interesting. If you’d like to volunteer with the Community Association on any event here or suggest a new one, please reach out: Contact Us.
If you’re interested in participating in an upcoming planning session for community activites and events this summer, please reach out [email protected].
Community Association Starter Kit
Here is a decent list to get you started on engaging with your community, but of course there’s also lots you can do that doesn’t involve the association at all, and of course this all might just not be your thing, and that’s OK too (although I didn’t think it was mine either and it definitely is). This list isn’t in a particular order, but I did think about their order while sorting and grouping them.
Community Submissions
If you want to share something with the community, feel free to let us know about it at the link below. We’d be happy to publish letters from the community in our newsletter and on our website.
Other Community Newsletters
April 2025 Newsletter – Laura Dudas
The Beat – Heart of Orleans Newsletter
Orl̩ans Connect РWeekly Orleans Newsletter
Thanks to Our Sponsors
Check out our sponsors or get information about becoming one at cgow.ca/sponsors.
Gold-Level Community Builders
Almanac Urban Mill & Bakery
Almanac is an urban mill and bakery in Ottawa’s East End, and Gabrielle Prud’homme is the owner who calls Convent Glen home.
Dominion City Brewing Company
Dominion City was established to make great beer and bring people together in community. Today, their beer reflects the people and land that make it possible.
