City waives garbage limit for three west end wards starting Monday

A downed tree is seen behind caution tape at Britannia Park on Thursday, July 2, 2026. Photo by Spencer Colby /POSTMEDIA

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The City of Ottawa is waiving its three-item limit for garbage on curbside garbage days for three Ottawa wards after a record-breaking Canada Day storm left residents picking up the pieces.

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Starting Monday, Bay, College and Knoxdale-Merivale residents will be able to dispose of storm debris with no item limits.

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“At this time, there are over 3,200 reports of flooded basements across the city,” Public Works general manager Alain Gonthier wrote in a memo sent to the mayor and city councillors Friday announcing the changes to curbside collection.

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As part of the city’s “Special Collection” operation, Wards 7, 8 and 9 residents can also put out two items of construction waste bins starting Monday, according to the memo.

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“We will continue to assess the situation in the coming days and will adjust as needed. We will do everything we can to support affected families,” Sutcliffe said.

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In the aftermath of the historic Canada Day storms and flooding, thousands of Ottawa residents had their basements flooded and were left without power.

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Ottawa’s West End area, including Nepean, experienced the heaviest concentrated rainfall and localized flooding, according to Hydro Ottawa spokesperson Josée Larocque.

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As of Friday, Hydro Ottawa crews were still managing power outages, including in the Bay, College and Kitchissippi wards. Larocque said other wards have also been impacted, including Knoxdale-Merivale.

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“With the current volume of requests being received, it is anticipated that collection of storm-related debris may take many weeks,” Johnson said on social media Friday. “Big thanks to city staff for blowing up their regular operations to make this response happen for the ward’s hardest hit.”

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Once the initial round is completed, Johnson said the Special Collection operation will continue to collect debris throughout the city based on service requests received by 3-1-1.

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“I know this has been really hard,” Johnson said.

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“Check in on each other. Remember these are just normal people picking up our garbage, so let’s not take advantage of this situation too much because we really want it to be related to this storm and show good faith, because … this is wild.”

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