April’s Committee of the Whole meeting will cover some long-term money matters from the Corporate Services agenda, and some insights into staff’s thoughts on new traffic measures, plus the Province’s plans to expand the Greenbelt under Infrastructure, Development and Enterprise Services.

NOTE #1: This is a special Tuesday meeting of Committee of the Whole due to the Easter long weekend. 

NOTE #2: Delegates will be able to appear at this meeting via telephone, but you do have to register with the clerks office before 10 am on Thursday April 1 instead of the usual Friday deadline because of the long weekend. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.

NOTE #3: The meeting will be closed to the public, though it will be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.

CLOSED MEETING: The Baker District Redevelopment Project will be discussed in-camera because this subject is about a “proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board; and advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege.”

STAFF RECOGNITIONS:

1) Tara Baker, General Manager for Finance/City Treasurer, for AMCTO’s Municipal Administration Program.

2) Mark Ellis, General Manager of Human Resources, who’s been named Vice President of Finance and Stakeholder Relations with the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association.

2021 Debenture Issue – Council needs to grant staff it’s authorization to get the debt financing for the Baker District Redevelopment, South End Community Centre and the F.M. Woods water treatment facility.

2022 Budget Planning – More communication through the year, more staff education, a better website, and more citizen engagement were the some of the recurring themes of the post-2021 budget feedback that staff collected. This coming year, the budget process will start in May with a council workshop to cover the finer points of multi-year budgeting, and the new budget policy will be approved at the Committee of the Whole meeting in June. The budget process will unfold later this fall like usual, but staff will present a two–year 2022–2023 operating and capital budget along with accompanying forecasts to 2025 and 2031 respectively.

Response to Growing the Size of the Greenbelt -Back in February, the Provincial government opened the door to expanding the Greenbelt and asked relevant parties for their feedback, including the City of Guelph. Staff will present the response they’ve prepare for the Province, including their advice to use a watershed-centric approach to identifying lands to add to the Greenbelt, not moving forward with an urban river valley designation, and to create policy that balances necessary growth with the protection of the water supply. Staff are also recommending that making “settlement areas”, as in areas already identified for building or are built up already, a part of the Greenbelt, is not appropriate.

Transportation Engineering Program 2021 – An information report released earlier this month outlined the City’s 2021 Transportation Engineering Program, which includes plans for new pedestrian crossings, all-way stops, and the installation of the City’s first six red light cameras. In terms of those red light cameras, staff are still looking for the best locations, and they will be activated sometime in the third quarter of this year. In terms of specifics, the the report included the locations for new all-way stops, new traffic signals, new pedestrian crossings, and where the installation of new traffic calming measures are a priority. Ward 6 Councillor Mark MacKinnon asked that the report be pulled for council discussion, and he will speak to it at committee.