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Northern lights are expected to illuminate Ottawa's sky Friday evening as a powerful geomagnetic storm ushers in the weekend.

On Thursday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a geomagnetic storm alert in anticipation of this rare event.

Geomagnetic storms are classed by severity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme). The upcoming storm is classified as a "severe" G4, according to the SWPC. It's the first G4-level alert declared by the agency since January 2005.

Robyn Fiori, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada, said the storm actually arrived in Ottawa around 1:30 p.m. Friday.

"I definitely think there's a chance that we'll still see some Aurora tonight, and it's also possible that activity will reduce during parts of the day and then maybe start up again [Saturday] night," Fiori said.

The sky over Ottawa is expected to start clearing around 7 p.m. and clear completely by 11 p.m., according to Environment Canada.

Fiori advises Ottawa residents interested in viewing the northern lights to get out of the city and find an area of clear sky with minimal light pollution.

"The Aurora is something you can actually see from quite far away. In some cases, you can see it when it's up to 3,000 kilometres away from you, so your exact location isn't quite as important as the sky just being clear and the light pollution being reduced," Fiori said.

Fiori said geomagnetic storms typically last from one to six hours, but based on observations, this particular storm is predicted to last longer.

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As the City of Ottawa looks to take over responsibility for parking ticket disputes next year, one councillor wants to look at a sliding scale of penalties that would give low-income drivers a break.

Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard is asking city staff to examine options, like gearing fines to the driver's income or the value of their vehicle.

"The person that drives the Ferrari and parks at Lansdowne, they may be much more able to afford a parking ticket or may even take that on just knowing they might get a parking ticket there, than someone who's going to a protest for basic income," he said.

"We've had people in our office very upset and crying about going to a basic income protest and getting a ticket there. Their ability to pay was much less than that person in the Ferrari."

He made the proposal just after council's finance and corporate services committee voted in favour of a new penalty system that would take parking ticket challenges out of the courts.

City staff said the current system is "jammed up," and replacing justices of the peace with council-appointed adjudicators will mean faster disputes for residents. Menard also saw it as a chance to experiment.

He said the sliding-scale model is already used for speeding infractions in Finland. While basing fines on income could require co-operation with federal bodies, like the Canada Revenue Agency, Menard thinks there might be alternatives.

"There's other proxies, the blue book values of vehicles for example, that could be looked into," he said. "That's why we're asking staff to explore the options."

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A bit of Sunday rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of thousands of walkers and bikers who turned out for the CN Cycle for CHEO, raising a record-breaking $2.175 million for childhood cancer research and care.

“We didn’t just break the record, we smashed it,” Steven Read, president and CEO of the CHEO Foundation, said in an interview.

Now in its 17th year, the CN Cycle for CHEO features 15 km, 35 km or 70 km cycling routes, along with two km and five km walking routes for people of all ages.

Tamy Bell was the top individual fundraiser, raising more than $61,000. She’s the mother of Griffin Bell, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2018 at just 16 months old. He died in March, at the age of six, after a lengthy battle with the aggressive childhood cancer.

Bell was also part of Griff’s Gang, a 613-person team that raised a record-smashing $323,469.

“Last year, he was with us,” Bell said, her voice cracking with emotion as she addressed the large crowd, who stuck around for the speeches despite the rain that returned after a short pause during the event.

“He ran the whole five K.”

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What happened: The federal government is set to mandate workers back in the office three days per week, Le Droit reported. The increase by one day per week to the current hybrid work schedule has come as a surprise to the federal unions, who said they were not consulted.

While it wouldn’t confirm that an announcement was imminent, the federal Treasury Board told CTV that it was “committed to hybrid work” and “continue to assess how hybrid work is implemented and optimized across the public service, adapting as necessary.”

Labour strife? The recent public service strike was largely fought over hybrid working policies for public servants. The Public Service Alliance of Canada said it had heard nothing from the government, and said any changes without consultation would be a betrayal of the agreement made just last year.

“If the Treasury Board does decide to move in this direction, then it completely flies in the face and goes against all the commitments they made at the bargaining table to work with the union to achieve flexible hybrid work arrangements for public service workers,” a PSAC spokesperson said to CTV.

Local reaction: Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the move by the federal government to adopt widespread hybrid working arrangements since the start of the pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the downtown. But, perhaps hoping not to anger a significant bloc of voters in the city, he has stopped short of calling outright for workers to return to the office five days a week.

“We need to work with the federal government on a solution, and many solutions to make sure that we have economic prosperity in the downtown core, that small businesses and restaurants and shop owners are protected, that our finances as a city are protected,” Sutcliffe said according to CTV.

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The public got its first look at Ottawa’s comprehensive zoning bylaw amendment Monday, a massive overhaul of building and development regulations that one councillor likened to a tsunami of change.

It is the largest overhaul of Ottawa’s zoning bylaws since amalgamation in 2001, and will forever change the way the city grows and develops. An early draft was delivered Monday to a joint meeting of the planning and housing committee and the agricultural and rural affairs committee.

Inside the 96-page draft are the answers to questions such as, how many units can a developer build on a single lot? How close can a building be to the property line — how high can it be? How much park space is required? How will the city’s tree canopy be protected in the face of a housing building boom? How many parking spaces must be provided at a new apartment? (The draft agreement recommends none. Doing away with parking minimums is seen as a way to use land more efficiently and encourage residents to use public transit or other methods of getting around instead of private cars.)

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Oh to see Sutcliffe's face when he gets the news!

As the number of tenants being forced out of their homes soars, an Ottawa city councilor wants the city to do more to prevent bad-faith evictions.

The city has seen a significant increase in the number of N13 forms being used for evictions – which require a tenant to move out so a landlord can do major renovations and charge a higher rent.

According to a renoviction report by ACORN, the number of N13’s filed in Ottawa from 2021 to 2022 jumped 545 per cent.

Coun. Ariel Troster now wants the city to explore an anti-renoviction bylaw. Looking to Hamilton, the first city in the province who is requiring a renovation licence for landlords and allowing tenants to return to their units at the same rent.

"Our office has been absolutely inundated with calls," said Troster, who is putting forward a similar motion to the city's planning comittee.

“We have no provincial tenancy control right now, which means, in between tenants, a property owner can raise the rent as much as they want. Citywide, this is leading to a massive problem that's driving people into homelessness.”

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By the end of the day after the solar eclipse, there were no signs of residents rushing to get treatment for eye damage, say spokespeople for Ottawa hospitals.

After Monday’s eclipse, “my eyes hurt” was trending on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting some people had damaged their eyes. But, if that was the case, there was no sign of it in Ottawa.

Spokespeople for CHEO, The Ottawa Hospital, Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton all said they had not seen cases of people with eye damage coming to the hospital as of Tuesday evening....

Ottawa motorists will be paying three cents a litre more to fill up the gas tank on Monday, when the federal carbon tax hike kicks in.

As of April 1, the federal government is increasing the price on carbon pollution by $15 per tonne to $80. The federal carbon tax will be 17.71 cents a litre on gas in Ontario.

Canadians for Affordable Energy President Dan McTeague says the average price of regular gasoline in Ottawa will increase three cents from 159.9 cents a litre to 162.9 cents a litre on Monday.

Motorists will also see a 3 cent a litre hike in Kingston and across eastern Ontario.

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Ontario's premier called on the federal government to require public servants to work in the office more frequently to revitalize the city's downtown — but neither the government department responsible for public servants nor one of its main unions appeared moved by the request.

"They have to get people back to work," Premier Doug Ford said during a press conference on Thursday in Ottawa, standing next to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.

"It sounds crazy. I'm begging people to go to work for three days — not that they aren't working at home, but it really affects the downtown."

Ford popped by Sutcliffe's monthly city hall breakfast Thursday where he served up a wide-ranging funding plan for the capital over the next decade — one that would also require significant federal investment. The "new deal for Ottawa" offers up to $543 million over 10 years from the province for housing, travel, public safety and other areas.

Up to $20 million is on offer for economic recovery and downtown revitalization.

Ottawa Fire Services says no injuries were reported after a fire broke out in a commercial building along Bank Street in the Glebe Sunday morning.

Firefighters say they received multiple calls around 7:59 reporting black smoke coming from the top of a two-storey building located at 785 Bank St..

When crews arrived on scene, two minutes into the initial call, they found fire in the ceiling of the second floor. That was when they began opening up the ceiling to put the flames out. Crews reported significant fire in the attic of the structure at at 08:21, the fire department said.

The fire was declared under control at 10:03 a.m..

"A 'fire watch' has been set up to monitor for any flare ups," Ottawa fire said in a post on X.

Ottawa fire spokesperson Nick Defazio told CTV News Ottawa the fire was contained to the building.

However, smoke made its way into the grocery store at the back of the building, prompting crews to use high pressurized fans to ventilate it out.

Defazio said crews had asked Hydro Ottawa to cut the power to the building, as a precaution.

Firefighters asked people to avoid the area between Second and Third avenues while they were on scene.

The investigation into what led to the fire is ongoing.