The regular council meeting agenda looks light, but looks can be deceiving as the ghosts from Committee of the Whole on new bus routes and harm reduction housing will likely come back to haunt. Plus, what is this mysterious motion about intervening on a Supreme Court Case?

Note: If you want to register as a delegate for any of these items on the Committee agenda, then you have to get in touch with the City Clerk’s office by 10 am on Friday November 22.

CS-2019-94 November 2019 Public Appointments to Advisory Committees, Local Boards, Agencies, Commissions and Associations – One year into the present term of council, several local board, committees, and agencies are refreshing their ranks, or re-affirming some of the people already in their ranks. The 14 different groups getting some new and old faces includes the Planning Advisory Committee, the Guelph Museums Advisory Committee, the Economic Development Advisory Committee, the Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Transit Advisory Committee, and the Board of Trustees of The Elliott. Most these terms end in November 2020, but a couple of the terms are extended to November 2022.

Motion of Support for the Municipal Intervention Application in the Supreme Court of Canada Case Opposing the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (Carbon Tax) – There’s no report accompanying this notice in the meeting agenda, but we can likely infer that the City of Guelph will be looking to be an intervener, along with other municipalities, in the case of Ontario’s appeal to the Supreme Court. The case in question was the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal earlier this year that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act is constitutional. An intervener is “a person or organization who does not have a direct interest in a particular court or tribunal proceeding, but is granted intervener status on a discretionary basis because their involvement would be helpful to the determination of the issues.”

PS-2019-24 Harm Reduction Housing Update – At the Committee of the Whole meeting, council voted 12-1 to look at the potentiality of establishing 10 container homes for harm reduction housing at 106 Beaumont. There has been some concern from area residents that this is a fait accompli, but the motion does have to be approved again at this meeting, and Mayor Cam Guthrie has preemptively announced a new motion on his blog. Guthrie’s motion will ask staff to look at city-wide properties instead of Beaumont, to gather responses for outside agencies on capacity and resourcing, and to ask staff for a report on the matter by Q2 2020.

Consent Agenda items from the Committee of the Whole meeting on November 4. (Items can be pulled by a councillor seeking additional information, otherwise all items will be voted on as a slate without further debate.)

CAO-2019-18 Internal Audit Work Plan – 2020-2022
PS-2019-23 Allocation of New Buses
CS-2019-19 Transparency and Removal of Barriers Related to Non-Council-appointed Working Groups
CS-2019-78 Guelph General Hospital Capital Funding Request