In terms of breaking news, it wasn’t that surprising when it was announced Wednesday afternoon that Ontario’s school kids are going back to in-person learning on Monday. Instead, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore were pressed for some assurances: Will schools be safe when the children return on Monday, and are school’s prepared if they’re not? Continue reading “Lecce and Moore Acknowledge Uncertainty, But Schools Will Still Open on Monday”
With all things COVID back on the front burner, it’s easy to temporarily forget everything that happened in the last few years around fighting systemic racism and embracing social justice. The City of Guelph is trying to make progress towards a more equitable and representative system seriously, but let’s ask the person who knows best: Is the City of Guelph making real progress on tackling issues of systemic racism? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #306 – Taking the System Out of Systemic Racism”
On Tuesday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott announced some new measures to buttress the province’s healthcare workforce as the ravages of Omicron continue to pile up. Alternatively though, the story of the day was not about hospitals, it was about schools. The official announcement about the return to in-person learning in Ontario schools is tomorrow, but today the news about about more nurses got drowned out. Continue reading “Elliott Announces More Hospital Help as Everyone Worries About Schools”
Let the first Committee of the Whole of 2022 commence! You can click here for the amended agendas from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: Committee of the Whole Meeting for January 10, 2022”
The auto parts manufacturer Linamar is Guelph’s biggest private employer, and according to legend, it all started in the basement of Frank Hasenfratz with a one-man machine shop in 1964. On Saturday night, it was announced that Hasenfratz, still the executive chairman of the company he started almost 60 years ago, had passed away. Continue reading “Linamar Founder Frank Hasenfratz Passes Away”
There are 137,000 stories in the Royal City, and this is some of them. Looking at a week’s worth of media releases from the Guelph Police Service, there’s a lot gong on in our little city crime-wise speaking, so let’s run down some of the charges, issues, and requests for information from the Guelph Police Service over the last seven days. Continue reading “POLICE NOTES: Last RIDE, Book Bust, and Still Missing”
On day two of the new light lockdown for many businesses in Ontario, Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner appeared on a virtual press conference with Guelph entrepeneur Court Desautels, the CEO of The Neighbourhood Group. The point of the conference was to call on the Ontario government to do more for small businesses, even after an announcement from Queen’s Park to that effect, both Schreiner and Desautels say it’s not enough. Continue reading “Schreiner and Desautels Call on Ontario Government to Do More for Restaurants”
The first planning meeting of the year only has one item on the agenda, but it’s kind of consequential when you consider that it covers all matters of Guelph land use planning over the next three decades. After many meetings in the last year looking at growth issues in the Royal City, council will finally consider the finished document and determine how Guelph will grow over the 30 years (28 years technically). Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 17 Meeting?”
On Thursday morning, the leaders of two different unions representing healthcare workers demanded that the Ontario government bring the legislature back early to deal with the urgent human resources crisis in the province’s health facilities, and they had some powerful optics to back them up. All three of Ontario’s opposition leaders joined them on the call to demand more action from Premier Doug Ford. Continue reading “Ontario’s Opposition Leaders Unite and Stand With Health Workers”
It’s been a long week of bad news and it’s only January 5, whether or not the following news is bad may depend on your point of view though. On Wednesday, Wellingt0n-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health announced that they’re changing who can just drop by a vaccine clinic, and who has to go through regular channels to book an appointment. On the bright side, if you still need a first shot, this is your time! Continue reading “Public Health Changes Who Can Drop-In, and Who Has to Book For a Shot”
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