City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the June 14 Meetings?

Its a rare triple-header at the council chambers, and another special Wednesday night meeting. So what’s going on? First, the external auditor will present the audited financial statements from 2022, and then there will be two presentations as council sits as shareholder. What happened last year with Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. and Guelph Junction Railway? We’re going to party like it’s… six months ago.

NOTE #1: Delegates will be able to appear at these meetings via telephone or video, but you do have to register with the clerks office before 10 am on June 9. 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.

NOTE #3: There’s going to be three meetings on this night starting with a council meeting at 5:30 pm and followed by the two shareholding meetings at 6 and 6:30 pm.

Special Meeting of City Council

2022 Audited Consolidated Financial Statements – If the audited, consolidated financial statements from 2022 are being stuffed into a side meeting before two other meetings, it must be really bad news, or really boring news. In this case it’s the former.

While expenses increased year-over-year by $46.7 million – or 10 per cent – in 2022, the blame goes to inflation and a return to pre-pandemic economic conditions because there was also an increase in net financial assets by $11.6 million, and reserve funds grew by $4.7 million. The City’s revenue increased by $15.2 million in 2022 versus 2021, which is owed to more people taking the bus and more people using recreation and culture programs.

“In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of the Entity as at December 31, 2022, and its consolidated results of operations, its consolidated changes in net assets and its consolidated cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards,” the audit report itself reads.

See the complete agenda on the City of Guelph website here.

City Council as Shareholder of Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc.

2022 Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. Audited Financial Statements – The comprehensive income from GMHI shrank from $4.8 million in 2021 to $2.9 million in 2022. Why? Two reasons; one was the decrease in the equity share of earnings in Alectra, but the biggest piece was the sale of the remaining district energy assets in July last year. GMHI paid dividends of $3.7 million to the City of Guelph, which is a little bit more than what the City received the year before.

2022 GMHI Annual Report to Shareholders – The business of GMHI last year is mostly financial. As mentioned above, GMHI sold the remaining district energy assets to Cascara Energy last year, so the sole responsibility of the organization from now on is managing the City of Guelph’s 4.63 per cent stake in Alectra.

See the complete agenda on the City of Guelph website here.

City Council as Shareholder of Guelph Junction Railway Limited

2022 Guelph Junction Railway Audited Financial Statements – GJR earned net comprehensive income of $1.6 million for the year, an increase of $584,000 (55 per cent) over 2021, and a positive variance of $822,000 from what was budget. That’s from the audited financial statements for 2022, which also noted that the value of property, plant and equipment increased by $1 million last year too. Coming back to the City of Guelph is $164,000 in dividends for last year, which is slightly higher than the amount confirmed by the GJR board earlier this year.

Guelph Junction Railway 2022 Annual Report – Aside from the financials, other details from GJR about 2022 include the installation of new track to service new customers, and the clearing of 391 tons of old scrap ties in the Township of Puslinch, which was gratefully acknowledged in a letter from Puslinch CAO Glenn Schwendiger provided in the package. In 2023, GJR will continue to look for ways to expand the service and work with community partners to exploit potential trail connections.