The City of Ottawa is trying to make many services more convenient by opening a new section of its website.

A new section called Service Ottawa began Wednesday, letting residents report potholes, paying a parking ticket and other activities they used to do over the telephone or in person.

Ottawa councillor Tim Tierney said the ease of use will help the city do its job better.

"A lot of people just assume we know about a pothole or burnt out street light, and that's not usually the case," he said.

"I think that would make it a lot easier," said Amanda Farley. "It's a good idea."

Parking tickets can now be paid from the comfort (and privacy) of your own home.

"It's not nice to have to pay, then to line up again and have to wait to pay," said Patrick Redmond.

Residents can even report a neighbour's noisy dog, with a tracking number so you can track the city's response.

"My neighbour's barky dogs, I love (them)," said one person. "My neighbours are very nice, that wouldn't be a problem. But I think parking tickets primarily would be the important one."

"It's easier for people to do that rather than phone and get a nine-option menu that's very annoying," said another.

Minor hockey coaches said the tedious process of booking ice times would be a lot easier now.

"You phone the City of Ottawa, you're put on hold or you have to be transferred to somebody's extension, they don't always call you back the same day and if there's ice time available the following day you might miss out on it," said Bob Paquette.

"You'll be able to go on the website and see what's available, if they update it as soon as certain ice is booked or if people cancel it's going to be readily available."

On the first day the website went live, the city had 64 service requests from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.:

  • 23 reports of potholes
  • 21 people wanting a garbage/recycling schedule calendar
  • 10 requests for sidewalk and path maintenance
  • 6 requests for road maintenance
  • 2 reports of noisy dogs
  • 1 complaint of drain covers in the road
  • 1 inquiry about green bin collection

With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua