Uploaded on 2014-12-05 by dianeharper

Knowledge - Ottawa is both Canada's capital and a centre for the high tech industry in Canada. It is in a bilingual region with three universities and several community colleges. As a result, it attracts many immigrants, students, and people from across the country who want to work in government ministries or in high tech. When I first moved here, I knew very few people who were actually born in Ottawa. As the government has downsized and moved some of its functions to regional centres across the province, many government workers have left. Similarly, the high tech industry suffered a major downturn a few years ago, so many have moved to southern Ontario, which is now the main Canadian hub for this industry. Suburbs - Ottawa's population has grown significantly in recent decades, and most government jobs were concentrated in downtown Ottawa/Gatineau (the city in Quebec, right across the river); high tech jobs are concentrated in Kanata, in the far west end (formerly a separate city). Ottawa is surrounded by a greenbelt (nice stock of environmental green space) but developers jumped the greenbelt and began building on farms in rural areas. Eventually, these were amalgamated into the city. We now have major transit issues as there is little parking in the core, roads are crammed, and the public transit system is designed with a single hub downtown. Major efforts are underway to improve the stock of public transit with an LRT system and bus routes to more hubs, to facilitate the flow of commuters across town, not just downtown. ![Parliament Hill, above the Ottawa River, from one of the bridges between Ottawa and Gatineau][1] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14178032337389941.jpg