Roadside garbage collection has been a cause for concern in Ottawa according to an analysis of the city’s 2017 monthly 311-request datasets.

From the beginning of the year until October there has been just over 29,000 complaints to Ottawa’s 311 service concerning garbage.

Kaitlyn Leigh, a resident of Barrhaven, has accounted for five of those complaints and argues that the city needs to do a better job when collecting garbage.

Her frustration comes from multiple instances where Leigh returned home from work to find remaining debris and bins sprawled out among her front yard.

“They’re just lazy, they pick it up and toss it in without caring if the bags rip or if they leave anything behind,” said a frustrated Leigh outside her home.

Leigh’s complaints are no stranger to Barrhaven as the ward has accounted for the highest amount of roadside garbage complaints in Ottawa so far this year. Their 1,921 complaints are 140 more than the next closest area in Kitchissippi.

This comes as no surprise to Leigh who moved to Ottawa in early 2016. She says that it has become a trend in the area and that she and her neighbours are growing tired of picking up after the garbage collection workers.

“If we follow the schedule and place the correct items in the correct bins we shouldn’t have to wake up and find it on our lawns,” said Leigh.

When it comes to garbage, 311 requests can be made to the city if there were items left behind or if a street has been uncollected. Which is another type of complaint that Leigh was forced to make.

After Easter weekend, Leigh made another call to Ottawa 311 to report that her street had been uncollected. She was told that there had been a mistake in the schedule after the holiday and that it would be picked up the following week.

“The most annoying part of it was having to stash the garbage and wait a whole week for it to be picked up again,” said Leigh, “I never understood why they couldn’t have sent another truck out the pick up what they had missed.”

Almost 45 per cent of the garbage-related requests this year have involved organics. Kina Leclair, the city of Ottawa’s senior communication officer, says that often times animals can get into green bins overnight causing a mess to be left behind. Her advice for homeowners is to make sure the bins are secured or if possible take them out the morning of collection day.

“It’s the best way to avoid the mess and to avoid having unwanted animals getting into your garbage at night,” said Leclair.

Garbage complaints account for over 11 per cent of the city’s total 246,000 service requests that have been recorded until October of this year.

The city has remained fairly silent on the issue however Leclair has stated that the city tries to attend to as many issues as possible. However, with the overwhelming number of complaints each month it becomes difficult to keep up.

“We encourage those who have an issues to keep reporting to the city and we’ll do our best to resolve it,” said Leclair.

As of October in 2016, the city had exactly 1,000 less complaints concerning garbage than they’ve had this year. But the city feels as tough this trend will not continue in the years ahead.

Being a homeowner in Ottawa isn’t cheap. For those like Brent Rizzo, who rents out his properties to students, it can be difficult keeping up with the cost of maintaining each home.

In a recent analysis of the Statistics Canada census, there was a slight decrease in the amount of homeowners who spent over 30% of their income on housing costs between 2011 and 2016.

In 2011, there were 4,098 homeowners who were forced to spend over a third of their income. Meanwhile, in 2016 that number has dropped 2% to 4,003. The spending that is tracked includes monthly payments, rent and any repair costs that a home might need.

Rizzo does not fall into the 2% that have seen fewer costs as his continue to rise each year. So much so that he is being forced to raise the price on houses that he rents to students.

“It’s unfortunate, I’m a fair guy but each year my budget gets tighter and tighter,” said Rizzo on the porch of his home in Barrhaven.

Rizzo says that although many may struggle with house payments his real issue lays in house repairs. Since 2012, the amount of money he spends on fixing his houses increases significantly each year. Three of the houses that he rents were built earlier than 1945 and are starting to become a serious problem for the 57-year-old.

“Things break down after time, whether it’s the furnace or the water pump. Replacing those can be costly and it’s happening more frequently,” said Rizzo.

A major issue for Rizzo was the amount of rain that has experienced in 2017. Ottawa has felt a record number of rainfall throughout the year. By October the city had surpassed the 12-month record set in 2006. The worst of those months was July where nearly 250 millimetres of rain came pouring down.

Rizzo called this year’s span of April to July the “summer of torture” as him and his sons had to repair leaks and shingle damage on two of his houses. Although he does all home repairs he says that the price is becoming too much.

“Doing the work ourselves saves us money, but a downside of owning a house in Ottawa is how much they get beat up by the rain and snow,” said a frustrated Rizzo.

He also mentioned that because of the impact of the weather he needs to raise his price of rent next May to make up for the costs.

Below is a map highlighting the differences of owners who spent 30% or more of their income on housing costs from 2011 to 2016. Purple means a percentage increase, while brown represents a decrease.

All blank areas were not tracked by the latest census.

One of the areas affected by the largest increase in high housing costs is Heron Gate, which is located within the Alta Vista ward. In the 2011 census there were no recorded homeowners that spent over 30% on housing costs. However, in 2016 that number grew to 55, which is the largest growth in a particular area throughout Ottawa.

Rizzo is no stranger to that statistic as he rents out a home on Walkley Road and has seen the area develop.

“It’s a very nice area filled with development and lots of apartment buildings. I find students aren’t as willing to live there because of how expensive it can be,” said Rizzo.

Places that show a reduction included western wards such as Stittsville-Kanata West and West Carleton March. Also within the city, much of Rideau-Rockcliffe saw a lower amount of homeowners who had spent 30% of their income on housing costs.

Dog bites are becoming an issue in the Rideau-Vanier ward of Ottawa according to the City of Ottawa’s 311 database.

There have been 69 reported 311 calls for dog bites within the Rideau-Vanier ward, which covers most of the ByWard Market and the western part of Vanier. This is the highest total for any ward within the city, edging out Alta Vista who sits in second with 63 calls.

Any owner of a dog who has bitten or attacked someone could face charges under Ottawa By-Law.

That is the situation that Scott Wilson, who had recently moved to Ottawa, found himself in when his Labrador Retriever bit a person who was walking by his Cathcart Street home just north of the ByWard Market.. According to Wilson, a man had approached and greeted his dog who was chained up in his front yard before getting bitten on accident.

“She’s a playful dog and loves attention. I think she just got too excited and accidentally bit down on his hand,” said Wilson.

The bite cut open the man’s hand and as Wilson described “needed nothing more than a Band-Aid.” Unfortunately, it went further than that and Wilson was eventually disciplined for the incident.

To avoid a possible court date, Wilson and the city came to an initial agreement that forced him to use a muzzle on his dog whenever he took it out in public but later the charge was dropped.

“It was overkill, and quite frankly it was embarrassing. He’s a gentle dog and there really was no need for it,” said Wilson on having to use a muzzle.

Wilson’s case was just another statistic added to the alarming amount of 311 calls across the city. Since 2016, there have been 898 calls about dog bites and 369 of those calls have been made in 2017 to this point.

The least number of calls concerning dog bites were Osgoode with 20 and Stittsville with 16. The two wards combined makes up just 52 per cent of the total number of calls that have been reported in the past two years.

Wilson says he can see why the Rideau-Vanier ward has a problem with frequent dog bites. He explained how often he sees dogs unattended on the porches of homes with no leash to contain them at all.

“Add in a high volume area where people often walk instead of drive and you have a problem on your hands,” said Wilson

In terms of discipline, Wilson was let off easy as the city’s by-laws get much stricter based on the severity of the bite.

According to the Ontario Dog Owner’s Liability Act if a dog were to attack a person the owner may have to pay a fine to help their recovery from any injuries. Other resolutions may involve posting signs warning of a vicious dog or even building a fence around the property to contain the dog.

Ottawa’s Animal Care and Control By-Law states that in cases of serious attacks or bites, a dog may be seized and “destroyed” or in other words put down.

Females were hospitalized 66 per cent more than males last year due to some form of self-injury according to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In a yearlong period from 2015-16, 11,730 females were hospitalized across Canada from self-injury compared to just 7,746 males.

CIHI defines self-injury of a 15+ year old who deliberately injures their body, which is a result of suicidal or self-harming behaviours.

“Self-injury could be described as something that causes tissue damage,” said Dr. Sanjay Rao, who is a lead clinician at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Clinic and a professor at Ottawa University.

Rao argues that people use self-injury as a way to relieve themselves of stress as well as providing a distraction to everyday life. He even mentions that for some it can be enjoyable.

The gap between males and females as well as the number of hospitalizations has grown since CIHI started tracking the data in 2010. In fact, there were nearly 1,500 more self-injury hospitalizations in 2015-16 than in 2010-11. Females accounted for over 1,100 of the increase.

For Rao, the reasoning for the glaring gap between males and females is simple but he argues that the difference is actually bigger than what the statistics show.

“Females tend to significantly self-harm more. They are more likely to do it, therefore they are more likely to get admitted,” said Rao.

He says that women self-injure three to four more times than men do, but not everyone goes to the hospital for his or her injuries.

“The data on self-injury is not easy to get and not as accurate because often times people will not tell you that they are self-harming,” argues Rao.

Erin Christine, a Carleton University student who has experienced self-injury in her past, says that the expectations that girls have makes them more likely to experience mental health issues.

“Girls have expectations on their physical appearance, academic performance and just overall capability,” said Christine. “I think that girls often feel that they can’t meet those expectations which eventually leads to anxiety, depression and self-injury.”

Although she did not comment further on her own self-injury experience she described it as an outlet when she couldn’t control her pain and as a way to express the pain she was feeling inside.

Ottawa is no stranger to self-injuries as in 2015-16 there were a reported 453 female hospitalizations compared to 270 from males in the Champlain LHIN region. This total was higher than any year stretching back to 2013.

Rao stresses that this is not just a Canadian trend but rather something that concerns him worldwide. His theory is that as the world connects socially, people will continue to self-harm because they tend to follow the actions of others.

But for Rao and his fellow clinicians at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, self-injury is the most significant sign that that someone needs immediate help.

“We can have so many ideas on how to prevent suicide but when someone is self-harming that’s the most obvious risk,” said Rao. “That’s when we need to start worrying the most.”

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, men are four times more likely to die from a suicide attempt but women are three times more likely to attempt an act of suicide.

When asked about this statistic, Christine replied with a plea for more mental health awareness in places where youth are affected the most.

“Mental health impacts all aspects of your health overall. It’s underfunded in schools and needs to get the point where it can become an open topic.”