City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the July 18 Meeting?

Enjoy it while it lasts, because this is the last city council meeting before everyone breaks for summer vacation (and the AMO conference in August). On the agenda are the reports from committee, including a new council meeting calendar for 2023, plus the final passage of key policy items, an update about supportive housing in the city, and maybe, a surprise labour relations motion (?).

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 July 15. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.

NOTE #2: The meeting will be the open to the public, but if you would like to follow it from home, you will still be live-stream the meeting on the City of Guelph’s website here.

CLOSED MEETING:

Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Guelph and the Canadian Union Public Employees Local 241 and Local 973 – Because this is a matter of labour relations it will have be discussed in closed session before bringing forward any motions in the open session.

PRESENTATION: Update on Supportive Housing Advisory Group (Mayor’s Task Force) and Next Steps – Dominica McPherson, the director of the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, will present this report, which was not included in this initial release of the agenda, but will likely be attached to the amended agenda when it’s released next Friday.

2023 Council and Committee Meeting Schedule -Following up from Committee of the Whole, the clerks’ office has prepared a new calendar with times that reflect the current monthly council calendar while keeping the idea of holding council meetings on Tuesdays. The only exception is during Ramadan when start times will be at 10 am to better allow for the breaking of fast at sundown. (In 2023, Ramadan is from mid-March to mid-April.)

The other point of conversation from committee, doing public engagement to see if there’s public support for a permanent council shift to 10 am start times, the clerks have crafted a motion to recommend staff consultation based on the Community Engagement Framework plus a comparator/best practice review and meeting management data. The clerks will then bring the findings back to the Governance Committee in time to approve the 2024 council and committee calendar.

Community Benefit Charge and Parkland Dedication By-laws – This will be the final passage of the new Community Benefit Charge, which will cover infrastructure like parking that is not covered by recent legislative changes to development charges, and the new Parkland Dedication Bylaw. Both items came before council for the statutory planning meeting back in April, but there have been no substantial changes to either policy in the last few months. The only alteration to the motions referred to this meeting is that both new policies will go into effect on September 18 instead of immediately.

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