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The City of Ottawa is making it easier for volunteers to get the insurance they need to yank out invasive plant species in the city’s green spaces.
Invasive species aren’t native to North America and harm the ecosystem in some way. Buckthorn, dog-strangling vine and garlic mustard are all invasives found in Ottawa.
Volunteers who want to eradicate invasive plants can get into a stewardship agreement with the city’s forestry department, but they have to have liability insurance.
In February, Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr asked city staff why groups with a stewardship agreement couldn’t use Ottawa’s Community Partnership Insurance Program (CPIP), which provides third-party liability insurance to community associations and gardens.
“There are groups that want to do this work, but they do not want to have to be part of a community association, for whatever reason,” Carr told CBC.
“[Some people] want to do this as their sole activity. They don’t want to feel that they have to be part of a community association and … help make decisions on other initiatives.”
This month, staff informed councillors that groups with one of those stewardship agreements can also now use CPIP.
Groups who do this work tell CBC it’s an immense bureaucratic burden off their shoulders.
Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr said there’s a lot of green space in her ward, but much of it is covered in invasive species like buckthorn. (Isabel Harder/CBC)Insurance can be costly
For Michelle St-Germain, the Alta Vista Community Association has provided her group’s insurance. She chairs its land restoration committee, which includes volunteers who pull out invasive species and plant native ones.
She says it’s time-consuming to convince an association to support your group.
“Most associations can’t afford to pay that extra money for this type of insurance, so they limit it to activities that are really their core activities,” like family events and picnics, St-Germain said.
Though she’s been able to get her association’s support, St-Germain said she also has to go back each year to justify her work.
For a new group with no relationship with a community association, it could take six months from approaching an association to getting the city’s approval, she estimated.
Under the new rules, she’ll only have to apply once, to the city directly.
Michelle St-Germain, seen here in May 2025, is chair of the land restoration committee for the Alta Vista Community Association. (Courtesy of Michelle St-Germain)’Huge step in the right direction’
Lynne Patenaude, a Ottawa South Eco Action Network (OSEAN) volunteer, pointed out time spent on bureaucracy is time not spent on important work.
In May, OSEAN and a high school class planted trees near Mooney’s Bay. Patenaude said OSEAN wants to remove invasive species from beneath the trees, and this change should allow them to work with the city directly.
“We don’t have an issue working with the other community associations,” she said. “But it’s an extra layer of bureaucracy and administration … We like to stay more grassroots and focus on getting things done.”
St-Germain said she’s grateful it’s one less hurdle she and others will have to jump through.
“It’s definitely a huge step in the right direction and it will encourage a lot of people that weren’t able to do it before to come forth,” she said.
Carr said city staff are developing a program to get more people involved and reduce the administrative work even further.
“They’re looking at elements such as having community groups be able to have a little bit more stewardship over these lands,” Carr said.
“[That includes] training new volunteers, helping them so that the community doesn’t always necessarily have to go through a long bureaucratic process to have access to the right to clear these parks and green spaces.”
Carr said she expects an update on that sometime next year.
READ | City staff’s response to Coun. Marty Carr