And we’re back! Almost. Your weekly city council fix will begins again with September’s Committee of the Whole the day after Labour Day, and there will be some interesting things on the agenda including a new update on the COVID situation, some more trail talk, a progress report on our energy saving measures, and a change to business licensing for payday loan establishments.

NOTE #1: 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 Friday September 3. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.

NOTE #2: The meeting will be closed to the public, though it will be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.

CLOSED MEETING:

Information Technology Security Assessment Results and Actions – This will be discussed in-camera because it’s a matter “relating to the security of the property of the municipality or local board.”

Community Energy Initiative Update – This item will be discussed in-camera because it involves “personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose; and a trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations information, supplied in confidence to the municipality or local board, which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization.”

STAFF RECOGNITIONS:

AMCTO 2021 E.A. Danby Award goes collectively to James Krauter, Greg Bedard, Rita Pezzano, Mathew Thomas, Mike DeManche, Claire Lin, Mike Bartholomew, David Boyle, Jeremy Smith, and Helen Chen.

Managing the Impacts of COVID-19 – Christopher Beveridge, Director of Health Protection at Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, and Acting CAO Colleen Clack-Bush will give committee the quarterly update about the local COVID-19 response and recovery. The report was not available with the initial release of the agenda, but will be included with the revised agenda next Friday.

Business Licensing: Payday Loan Establishments – Back in 2018, the Provincial government made it so that municipalities can limit the location and number of payday load establishments within their borders. A new license especially for these businesses is being proposed to better keep track of their locations, and to disperse and reduce the number of payday loan businesses in the city, while making sure that they’re observing the minimum distance of 1,000 metres between them. According to the staff report, “payday loan establishments are most frequently in neighbourhoods where economically vulnerable people live,” and currently there are three payday loan business in Ward 4, two in Ward 2, one each in Wards 1, 3 and 6, and none in Ward 5.

Third Party Trail Agreements – With the approval of Committee, the Guelph Hiking Trail Club will manage three informal City trails: the Rapids Side Trail that runs from Mac Ave and ends at Herb Markle Park, the trail connection to Marianne Park from the James Street trail, and the Speed River Trail from Silvercreek Park to the pedestrian crossing at Roland Street. In doing this, GHTC accepts liability and full responsibility to manage and maintain these informal trail routes on an ongoing basis on behalf of the various landowners, including the Grand River Conservation Authority, but any improvements or modifications to the trails will still have to be approved by the City of Guelph.

Specified Auditing Procedures Report on Compliance with Long-Term Care Services Agreement – After the Elliott Community’s one-time request last year for a 24 per cent bump in their budget, and because their Long-Term Care Services Agreement has been in effect for six years now, the City asked for a review of Specified Auditing Procedures. KPMG performed the audit and came back with a number of recommendations that the Elliott’s Board of Management can follow up on and initiate.

Our Energy Guelph Two-Year Progress Report – Executive Director Alex Chapman will deliver this annual report to committee, which will update everyone on what OEG has been up to in order to promote Guelph’s quest to get to net zero and 100 per cent renewable by 2050. At some point, city council will have to renew the remainder of the five-year funding model for the Our Energy Guelph office; the City funded 100 per cent of the budget for the first year, and it’s commitment will be incrementally decreased to 50 per cent by 2024.

NOTE: Items from Committee of the Whole will have to be ratified at the regular council meeting at the end of the month, which in September is on Monday the 27 at 6:30 pm.