Summary

00:00:00 Habone Hassan

Welcome back to the city that I forgot Ottawa’s nightlife dilemma. I’m your host, Habone Omar Hassan and this episode of the politics of partying, we’re going to explore the political side of Ottawa’s nightlife. 

00:00:38 Habone Hassan

Ottawa, despite being the capital, often gets overlooked when it comes to fun activities relating to nightlife. Well, in the final episode of this series, we will look at other issues impacting our cities nightlife performance, such as noise regulations, bylaws and liquor licensing. Rideau Vanier, Ward of downtown core and hub for Ottawa’s nightlife.

00:00:58 Habone Hassan

We spoke with Ward Counselor Stéphanie Plante from Rideau Vanier to describe to us what it really takes for the city to have a thriving nightlife.

00:01:22 Stéphanie Plante

Hey, how are you?

00:01:23 Habone Hassan

Hello. Good, how are you?

00:01:25 Stéphanie Plante

Good, good.

00:01:26 Habone Hassan

I wanted to ask you a few questions regarding how do you balance the growing nightlife, with the needs of current residents of Rideau Vanier Ward?

00:01:36 Stéphanie Plante

So I would say the nightlife looks a lot different for us here in this ward because I have a lot of people where the nightlife is work, they are janitors, they are garbage people, they are nurses, they’re personal support workers. Yes, it’s true. We have like what you traditionally think of a nightlife. So go to bars and whatever, but we also I always tell people.

00:01:58 Stéphanie Plante

We need systems that respond to people who don’t have bankers hours right, who don’t work 9:00 to 5:00. We need daycares for people who work overnight.

00:02:06 Stéphanie Plante

We need a transit system that has buses at 3:00 in the morning. So when you get off your shift, you can get home. So yes, we have a night life, but we also have night life-ers, if that makes sense. And so I want to make sure those people are represented in those discussion.

00:02:21 Habone Hassan

As we all know, living downtown can be quite challenging as it is the hub for everything. Noise also gets overwhelming for the residents of that area. Currently, our noise restrictions are.

00:02:32 Habone Hassan

From 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM or up until 9:00 AM and on Sundays and holidays. We all know that 11:00 PM is the prime time to get it popping at a party. So what do Ottawans do? Let’s see what Councilor Plante thinks.

00:02:49 Habone Hassan

Regarding as well, noise regulation policies in Rideau Vanier like how do you adjust concerns with residents in that area that have noise complaints, usually regarding the nightlife? Yeah.

00:03:02 Stéphanie Plante

So, we

00:03:02 Stéphanie Plante

Don’t we get some? We don’t get a lot of noise complaints. I think there’s a couple of things with that. I think people understand.

00:03:08 Stéphanie Plante

And that if you live downtown, like the downtown is not the countryside, right? You’re gonna hear a few things. But I think it’s important to for people to realize, like, especially in areas like the Byward Market. Like, there’s 1500 people that live in the Byward Market. Those people need to sleep. Those people need to go to work in the morning. They may have kids.

00:03:28 Stéphanie Plante

So I’m very adamant that everybody kind of has to put a little water in their wine, but everybody also has to be conscious of the fact that we live in a neighborhood with people in it. It’s not just bars and restaurants. We have families here too.

00:03:43 Habone Hassan

Yeah, exactly. And like, are there any challenges to either like enforce those like regulations or do you see like any changes in the future regarding like noise regulations to be changed alongside of like the nightlife?

00:03:58 Stéphanie Plante

No, I haven’t. I haven’t looked into that and it’s not we have something called a bylaw review. So every four years they review certain bylaws that’s not on the docket for these four years.

00:04:09 Stéphanie Plante

I would look into it, but I would absolutely carve out exceptions for things like Canada Day, Panda, weddings. You know, anything special? Yeah. But I don’t, you know, I would say 360 days out of the year, people are pretty good.

00:04:27 Habone Hassan

Did you know that sometimes when there are events running within the community past the restriction hours, organizers have to get approval from their ward councillor to get an exemption for their event.

00:04:47 Habone Hassan

Now let’s dive into zoning bylaws. Just like noise regulations, these are another set of rules to follow when it comes to land use. In Ottawa, each area and neighborhoods are divided.

00:04:59 Habone Hassan

Into residential or commercial area.

00:05:02 Habone Hassan

Because of this divide, this has created a polarization of nightlife within downtown core, only leaving the suburbs bland and boring. Let’s hear from Councillor Plante’s opinion on this.

00:05:14 Habone Hassan

Regarding zoning laws in Rideau Vanier, how do like zoning laws in Rio veneer support or limit nightlife businesses that are currently in or do they have to? Do they have to move to redesignated areas for nightlife?

00:05:31 Stéphanie Plante

No, because nightlife doesn’t really fall under zoning, like zoning is exclusively the built use form of.

00:05:39 Stéphanie Plante

What a building looks like, right? I think you’re referring to bylaws, so do we reform our bylaws for nightlife? Well, that’s a good question. I think, for the Nightlife Commissioner, Mathieu Grondin. So, he will be coming up with some recommendations about that, because I think it’s important to remember that there’s not just a night Downtown, there’s nightlife all over the city.

00:05:42 Habone Hassan

Yeah.

00:06:00 Stéphanie Plante

And we do have in French, we call it “Salle de spectacle” like we have like concert venues all over the city. We have festivals, escapade, whatever, all.

00:06:09 Stéphanie Plante

The city. So it’s a good question because I’ll give an example like during Blues Fest like I live in Sandy Hill and I can hear them like it’s literally like a concert on my balcony. Like I can hear everything, but I don’t mind that. And I sort of take it as the price of admission. Right. You want to live downtown. You don’t want to sit in your car for 40 minutes a day commuting. Price of admission is couple times a year. You’re gonna hear some music.

00:06:30 Stéphanie Plante

Yeah, I’m not bothered by it. I like living near students. I like living near Vibrant things.

00:06:34 Stéphanie Plante

But if you’re like Mr. I just want peace and quiet. You may want to move just warning you.

00:06:40 Habone Hassan

Definitely.

00:06:57 Habone Hassan

The city is currently developing a plan for the next few.

00:07:00 Habone Hassan

Years to rebuild and change our current zoning bylaws. If you’re from Ottawa, you can surely tell a bit of changes have started, such as new businesses opening more in the suburbs like Orleans, Kanata, and Barrhaven. These businesses range from bowling alleys, roller skates, parlor to restaurants, bars and coffee shops.

00:07:21 Habone Hassan

This kind of diversity is nice to see for anyone who wants to do anything outside of partying or going to the club. Now let’s dive into liquor licensing. Well for those of you who love drinks well, getting a liquor license in Ontario is quite challenging for businesses.

00:07:38 Habone Hassan

Let’s ask our ward Councillor Stephanie Plante on her opinion on this.

00:07:42 Habone Hassan

Liquor licensing regulations. How does that impact the development of nightlife in Rideau Vanier?

00:07:48 Stéphanie Plante

So that’s also provincial. It’s the AGCO that gives out both cannabis and liquor licenses. So it’s people always say to me all the time, Oh my God, you have to like zone this for no alcohol, this, that and it’s like it’s not us, it’s like that’s all provincially regulated.

00:08:01 Habone Hassan

The steps to get a liquor license are quite detailed.

00:08:04 Habone Hassan

And yet tedious to keep both businesses and customers safe.

00:08:29 Habone Hassan

And recently we came across that there is going to be news that we’re going to have a new venue that’s gonna hold about 2000 people called history Ottawa and that will be at the same place of the formerly known chapters on Rideau with that collaboration between live nations and.

00:08:49 Habone Hassan

Drake, how do you think that will affect your award as nightlife seen in the future?

00:08:54 Stéphanie Plante

So.

00:08:54 Stéphanie Plante

So I don’t know that’s a good question. I think anytime you have that kind of investment and that kind of collaboration, it does elevate the discourse around what that venue could be. And I just remind people all the time, it’s not just a concert venue. We could have fundraisers there. We can have award shows there. We can have like launch.

00:09:14 Stéphanie Plante

Parties there. I would. I would be very you could have conferences there like I would just be very careful about saying Ohh Drake is investing in something and like every mumble rapper and their.

00:09:25 Stéphanie Plante

Friends are gonna come here and you know, whatever. Fetty Wap their way into our lives.

00:09:30 Habone Hassan

Yeah, that’s that’s really great. That would also like not only like improve the nightlife, but we’ll also have another purpose where it’s giving back to the same within the same of the Community as well.

00:09:43 Stéphanie Plante

Correct, yeah.

00:09:50 Habone Hassan

Ottawa, slowly but surely, is starting to become more fun from holding the record of the most boring city in Canada to hiring a Nightlife Commissioner to improve Ottawa’s nightlife scene. The news of the creation of History Ottawa.

00:10:03 Habone Hassan

Can be a newfound hope for its residents and hopefully attract more artists to host concerts.

00:10:10 Habone Hassan

Yep, that’s all on my end. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate this interview.

00:10:12 Stéphanie Plante

Hey.

00:10:14 Stéphanie Plante

And thank you for caring about our downtown. It’s really important.

00:10:17 Habone Hassan

As we learned in this series, Ottawa’s nightlife is quite the dilemma.

00:10:24 Habone Hassan

In this series, we heard from various voices such as students, professors, politicians, entertainers and business owners to give us a perspective on Ottawa’s nightlife. In the end, we can say that Ottawa’s nightlife is not completely dead. It is just starting.

00:10:49 Habone Hassan

Thank you for tuning in and listening to our podcast. The city that fun forgot Ottawa’s nightlife dilemma, and that’s a wrap! See you next time!