Ottawa

Just like the weather, it’s been an up and down start to the season for many of Ottawa’s restaurants and outdoor patios.

Ottawa Centre MP Yasir Naqvi says he’s hoping federal agencies such as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will play a role in funding projects that would convert decaying downtown office buildings into apartments or other uses like hotels, schools and performing arts spaces.

Founder and CEO Paul Vallée confirmed that he and former Tehama executives Rob White, Kevin Haaland and Mick Miralis led a successful $2.9-million bid to buy the firm’s assets under a court-supervised auction process.

At just 12-years-old, Mya Beaudry is finding success as the founder and CEO of a fast-growing hair accessory business that celebrates her First Nation background.

The Ottawa-based cleantech firm, which posted revenues of $5.6 million in its most recent quarter, has landed a pair of new contracts worth a total of nearly $3 million.

Claridge Homes chief financial officer Neil Malhotra said higher mortgage rates, rising construction costs due to inflation and a new bylaw that hikes the fees developers pay to the city in lieu of parkland at highrise building sites have combined to make large-scale development projects a risky proposition.

Ottawa’s business improvement areas, which have been on the frontlines of many challenges, have been recognized by a prestigious award from the Ontario BIA Association.

Ross Meredith, the general manager of the Westin Ottawa and the Delta Ottawa City Centre hotels, said he thinks it will “probably take a few years” for the Ottawa tourism sector to see pre-COVID levels of overseas visitor spending.

As director of communications for Ottawa Tourism, Jantine Van Kregten spent 20 years showing off the best of the capital city.

The national housing agency says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for the fourth month of the year was 16,673 units, up six per cent from 15,715 in March.