City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the March 26 Meeting?

We come again to the end of the month and the regular council meeting. It’s been a pretty laid back month compared to last, and this meeting’s agenda fits that theme as council will revisit the very uncontroversial Committee of the Whole agenda, and then add another matter about whether not council should support the idea of subsidizing new pipelines. So let’s get into a very issues-oriented, nerds only kind of agenda.

NOTE #1: Delegates will be able to appear at this meeting in-person or via tele-presense but you do have to register with the clerks office before 10 am on Friday March 22. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.

NOTE #2: In addition to meeting in-person, this meeting will also be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.

NOTE #3: In order to support those observing the Holy Month of Ramadan, this meeting begins at the special time of 10 am.

City of Hamilton Resolution: Support for the Decision of the Ontario Energy Board to End the Gas Pipeline Subsidy – Councillor Leanne Caron is bringing this to Guelph council for some of their considerations, a motion approved by Hamilton council last month to endorse the Ontario Energy Board’s decision to let the subsidies for new methane gas pipelines to stand and to have the Ontario government make no further intervention. According to Hamilton council, the funding of new pipelines is “inconsistent with the City’s
climate targets and will result in higher carbon emissions, higher energy bills, higher
future decarbonization retrofit costs to get off fossil fuel heating, and a continued
financial drain as dollars leave the province to pay for fossil fuels extracted in other
jurisdictions.” Perhaps Guelph council will agree…

Consent Agenda items from the Committee of the Whole meeting on March 5. (Items can be pulled by a councillor seeking additional information, otherwise all items will be voted on as a slate without further debate.)