City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the June 25 Meeting?

In the third meeting of a three-meeting night, council will consider the most packed agenda of all. Council must revisit a couple of complicated agenda items from Committee of the Whole including the fate of the Drill Hall and the expansion of reusable containers in lieu of single-use plastics. Also, are the City’s 2023 financials really as good as we were lead to believe. KPMG will have the answer…

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 June 21. 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.

CLOSED MEETING:

Bargaining Mandate Report: Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1189 – With transit operators and staff seeking a new deal, council will look at the work so far to reach one. But since this is a matter concerning “labour relations or employee negotiations”, it must be discussed in-camera.

Appointment to the Board of Trustees of the Elliott – All appointments to local boards are first discussed under Section 239(2)(b) of the Municipal Act for “personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees.” Any formal appointment from these discussions is then moved in the open session.

Drill Hall Responses to Expressions of Interest and Planned Future Use – Back at Committee of the Whole, council decided not to put the Drill Hall up for sale, but to give the Guelph Centre of Visual Art more time to get their ducks in a row. About that, it seems that the GCVA has concerns about the end of the year deadline to organize those ducks, so they’re recommending that the deadline for a report be pushed back to Q1 2025.

Paramedic Service Response Performance 2023 and Performance Plan 2025 – This report was previously shared at the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee meeting earlier this month. Compliance in 2023 was mostly pretty good despite off-load delays at the hospital, which have mostly been addressed, and the general increase in call volumes. There are still struggles in rural areas due to the relative size of the county, but staff are not presently recommending any changes to performance targets for 2025.

2023 Audited Consolidated Financial Statements – Matt Betik, Partner at KPMG, returns to council like he does every June. The report notes that there were no significant changes from the Audit Planning Report previously presented to Council. Also, there’s no significant control deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting were identified, and no audit differences were identified by KPMG.

Single-Use Items Strategy Phase 2 – At Committee of the Whole, council passed an additional motion to have area eateries accept reusable container for takeout food in addition to reusable cups for beverages starting on March 1. At the time, staff didn’t have any objection, but given the additional burden being put on businesses, staff are asking for some leeway to do more engagement. The March 1 deadline is still in there, but staff want to bring a report back in advanced before they proceed.

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