Getting back to work after a week off for the Victoria Day holiday, council dived into some controversy. Promised since the beginning of the month, council dug into the question of where to put a daytime, or perhaps where not to put it. There was also some additional discussion about the renewed Code of Conduct and the Community Climate Action Plan, but for all the details check out this recap!

Regular Meeting of City Council – May 27, 2025

It was a busy and sometimes contentious night at city council for the last meeting of May.

First, council met in closed briefly to review the appointments of the new Advisory Committees of Council. It was a mix of new and old names on the seven new committees, but there are still some gaps that need to be filled, including the Accessibility Advisory Committee which only had five new members confirmed by council.

After that, council jumped into the report “Addressing Gaps in Daytime Sheltering Options for Persons Experiencing Homelessness.” At Committee of the Whole, Councillor Rodrigo Goller announced his intention to direct staff to avoid the main streets of downtown when it comes to the placement of a daytime shelter, and he was backed up by wardmate Councillor Carly Klassen and Mayor Cam Guthrie.

Activists heard the message and signed up to delegate, all of them speaking out against the idea that there should be exclusionary areas downtown where there are already multiple services available, plus a sense of community. Some people, including Dean Mitchelmore – who’s taken over running The Bench from the late-Edward Pickersgill – said that a shelter anywhere other than downtown would be a non-starter because no one unhoused is going to lug all their stuff crosstown between the evening shelter and the daytime one.

After hearing from the seven delegates, council went in closed session for 30 minutes for legal advice and then emerged to continue the meeting with two new additional recommendations from Goller, who said that he had put them together in consultation with the staff and the legal department. The first amendment asked staff to score any request for proposals if the potential location for the shelter avoids Wyndham, Cork, Carden, Macdonell, Quebec, or Wilson. The second asked any RFP to come back with detailed materials like a floorplan, staffing roles and job descriptions, operational policies and code of conduct, health and safety management, conflict resolution, and a summary of their intention to implement a “good neighbour” approach with the surrounding community.

According to Goller, this approach was meant to award points based on this and other criteria, but some of his council colleagues felt it was either redundant and/or a governance overreach to be so prescriptive in an RFP. The point was also raised that this sets some organizations on a backfoot, especially likely applicants such as Guelph Community Health and Royal City Mission who will lose points for being inside the area identified in the amendments. On the flip side, many argued that this was a good compromise as it didn’t bar a shelter from setting up in any specific area while also setting a list of expectations for any facility opening. Councillor Ken Yee Chew tried to play peacemaker by saying there’s enough downtown for everyone.

Before the vote Mayor Guthrie said that he’s never looked at setting up the shelter on the outskirts of town and called out anyone who suggested that he did. He also added that this is about protecting the business (emphasis his) improvement area for economic activity and about the City doing its due diligence since they’re raising taxes for the effort. The two recommendations were voted on separately, with the first one passing 10-2 and the second one passing 11-1.

But council wasn’t done on this topic yet, Councillor Erin Caton had some amendments of their own. Caton sought five additional points-based conditions including access via transit, suitable topography to maximize accessibility, placement in areas with the highest need of service, and close access to Welcoming Streets. After more back and forth, the only additional condition that a majority of council was willing to add was the transit one.

Next was the Community Call to Climate Action. Again, the only new information came from a pair of delegates, eMERGE’s Evan Ferrari who talked about his concerns that the City’s climate action plan wasn’t ambitious enough, and some guy complaining about transit service.

Council took the bait on that second part and talked a bit about transit and how to get more people on Guelph’s buses. Staff said that there will be more information about the future of transit at a council orientation meeting on June 17, but there were no firm commitments about creating more frequency or more direct routes. Council approved the original recommendation, plus an additional motion from Goller asking the Ontario government to amend the Building Code to more easily allow heat pumps as part of new builds and adapt a tiered building energy performance standard like the one they have now in B.C.

Things started moving more swiftly from here. Council officially declared one of the Ward 6 seats vacant, which then opened the door to a discussion about how best to fill it. The staff recommendation was to pursue an appointment process followed by a special meeting to fill the vacant seat on July 23, and council adopted the recommendation. Look for information on how to apply to be shared on the City of Guelph website soon.

Last, but not least, Caton asked that the Code of Conduct report get pulled to add a couple of amendments to the policy based on collaborations with the integrity commissioner. One defining a municipal forum on social media, one about exercising restraint in blocking people on a public forum, and the addition of a duty for a member to monitor that public forum. After some questions of clarification, the amended Code of Conduct was approved.

Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.

The next meeting of city council is the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday June 3 at 2 pm. You can see the agenda on the City’s website here.