City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the September 16, 2025 Meeting?

It’s kind of early for the regular meeting of council for the month, but we’ve arrived here just the same. At this meeting, council will follow up on the agenda from Committee of the Whole and dive into some new appointments for a couple of advisory committees, plus some appointments of their fellow councillors. Also, look for some community recognitions, and a discussion about road maintenance standards. Let’s look at the details…

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 September 12. 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:

1) Appointments to Transportation Advisory Committee and Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee – As usual, any appointments will be discussed in-camera before being approved in the open session under section 239(2)(b) of the Municipal Act, regarding “personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees.”

2) Non-union Municipal Employee Group Compensation Review – Seeing as how this is a matter regarding “labour relations or employee negotiation”, confidentiality of those affected requires a discussion in closed.

COMMUNITY RECOGNITIONS:

1) Navika Renganathan for the Canadian Youth Chess Championship 2025 – U8G

2) Hal Bond who was recently inducted into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame

3) Nathan Skoufis for taking part in the 2025 World Taekwondo Championships

4) The U14 T1 Guelph Royals, who are 2025 14U AA Ontario Baseball Association champions.

September 2025 Public Appointments to Advisory Committees of Council – In closed session, council will choose new members of the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee, and the Transportation Advisory Committee who then approved for appointment in the open session.

City Council Appointments to the Board of Trustees of the Elliott and the Well Interference Committee – Deferred from June, as council decided to wait on the appointment of the new Ward 6 City Councillor before filling these vacancies, council will finally decide on who among them will fill these open spots on key committees left from when Dominique O’Rourke was election to the House of Commons in April.

Road Network Maintenance, Levels of Service – A report to council from July outlined how the City of Guelph aligns with Ontario Regulation 239/02 – the Ontario Minimum Maintenance Standards (OMMS). Now Guelph typically meets or exceeds the OMMS requirements, which set minimum standards for municipal highways, covering roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, signals, signs, and streetlights under various conditions, so what’s the deal? Councillor Rodrigo Goller is bringing four motions to council asking the Ontario government to set province-wide standards for snow and ice management, and to establish an advisory committee to establish best practices for protecting water and ecosystems while asking City staff to reduce the use of road salt as much as possible.

Consent Agenda items from the Committee of the Whole meetings on September 3. (Items can be pulled by a councillor seeking additional information, otherwise all items will be voted on as a slate without further debate.)