Members of Guelph city council and senior staff will once again go to the other side of downtown to sit with members of the County for this month’s Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee. What’s on the agenda? Assets and managing them, some new projects, plus an update on childcare funding, supporting people who were homeless through the winter, and a formal answer to a long-standing matter of interest.
NOTE: This meeting takes place at 1 pm in the Guthrie Room at the Wellington County Administration Building on Woolwich Street.
Tender Award: Parking Lot Paving at 65 Delhi Street – Like any repair, upgrade or addition to a County-owned social housing project, staff must send out it out for tender and get the winning bid approved. In this case, Wyndale Paving Co. Ltd. of Brampton, gets the contract, and the honour, of paving this parking lot for the total tendered amount of $64,885.
Financial Statements as of April 30, 2025 – Now one-third of the way through 2025, both Ontario Works and Early Years (childcare) are either on budget or slightly below budget, which isn’t that surprising. What might be more surprising is that the operating budget for social housing is only slightly ahead of budget at this point while the affordable housing budget is more or less on target. Only the financial statements were included in the agenda, so staff will likely have further commentary in the meeting.
Asset Management Plan: Proposed Levels of Service Update – Like Guelph has, the County needs to approve an asset management plan per provincial mandate, and work is underway to determine what current level of service is needed when it comes to the County’s assets, which would include all social housing, and what it will need in the future. The finishing touches are being done on the AMP, and the staff will be working on linking the needs of the plan to budgetary commitments in the years to come.
301 Tucker St. Arthur, Canada-Ontario Community Housing Initiative Project – Ownership of this 25-unit property was transfer to the County last fall, but it looks like it needs some important capital repairs in the form of an exterior siding improvement. The budget is $218,000, which will obviously need committee endorsement before it goes to County council.
2024-25 Winter Response Plan Report Summary – This, the final report about the 2024-25 winter response plan, notes that of the 25 people assisted this winter, 24 of them were able to find permanent housing. On top of that, it looks like the program may have come in under budget; the planned spending was set at $662,300 but the total costs incurred so far comes in at $352,006. Invoices are still being collected though. Staff attribute more communication with partners and new accountability measures with the success of the program this winter.
Formal Response to the City of Guelph Council Resolution Regarding Structured Encampments – Last year, Guelph city council chased the idea of a structured encampment site for people experiencing homelessness not dissimilar to A Better Tent City in Kitchener. The idea was referred to the County staff for commentary seeing as how they are Guelph’s housing provider, and while the County answers all requests for consultation, sometimes the answer it no. After seeking feedback from people with lived experience, they’ve decided to reaffirm a focus on getting people into permanent housing situations.
New Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Funding – Along with the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program, aka: the plan to get to $10 per day childcare, there’s a par of the program to fund new spaces through infrastructure grants, which is what this report outlines. The County will be able to use this funding to develop new, community-based licensed childcare spaces that focus on inclusion, improved access to families in rural areas, Indigenous people, and kids with special needs, but while staff were looking forward to $3.6 million in funding for such projects, Wellington is getting about $1.6 million less.
Update on Hospital Offload Delays: Guelph Wellington Paramedic Service – Through a combination of efforts from Guelph General Hospital, Paramedic Services and the Ministry of Health, offload delays have significantly improved since the end of the first quarter of 2023. While delays are still occurring. increases in both staffing and efficiency have had an impact; the cumulative number of hours that ambulances were waiting to offload patients was cut in half between 2022 and 2024 while average wait times have failed from 248 minutes to 58. The service has still not quite reached their targets, but there has definitely been movement in the right direction.
Guelph Politico 