Changelog

The Ottawa River's live level and flow at Britannia, from the official federal gauge, and where today sits against the past month. After the one-in-100-year floods of 2017 and 2019, it pairs the numbers with the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board's forecast and the City and conservation-authority warning channels — and it's clear it's a gauge, not a flood warning.

Ottawa has four publicly-funded school systems overlapping the same streets — English public (OCDSB), English Catholic (OCSB), French public (CEPEO) and French Catholic (CECCE). Answer two questions and the tool points you to the right one, with each board's own school-finder and registration pages. It's honest about who can enrol — the French-language boards admit families with French-language education rights under the Charter — and it never claims your designated school: only the board's locator, by address, does that.

Britannia, Westboro, Mooney's Bay and Petrie Island in one place: parking (only Britannia's lot is free), washrooms, food, the dogs bylaw and this summer's lifeguard hours — plus a plain explanation of why there are no daily water-quality advisories anymore and how to judge the water after rain.

Line 1's restored two-car service, the June 20 beach opening, Adisoke and Lansdowne 2.0 — the city's watched dates on one page, each saying how firm it is.

Hourly modelled air quality for downtown Ottawa, built for wildfire-smoke summers — with Environment Canada's official AQHI one tap away.

Ottawa starts with three tools. Common questions answers what the city keeps looking up: the three-item garbage limit and yellow bags, the March 2026 collection-day change, winter parking bans and what being towed really costs, the honest route to a family doctor, OC Transpo's reliability, the Skateway, beach water and school boards. Who to call carries verified numbers grouped by problem — 3-1-1, OC Transpo, Health811 and Health Care Connect, 211, the Ottawa Food Bank, police non-emergency and 988. Locals' picks is new ground: the questions Ottawa keeps asking itself — affordable groceries, the best shawarma, cafés, honest repair people, surviving February — answered by residents and ranked by votes. Reading is public; adding a pick takes a free account. Picks are reviewed regularly, and anything that looks like spam can be reported from the tool page.