It was the last council meeting of the year, and it’s been a wild ride, but there were at least a couple of surprises left for civic policy nerds before Christmas Break. Yes, as expected, council discussed the final, final design for St. George’s Square as council sought the ever nebulous “wow” factor. In addition to that there was some push back from council about changes to conservation authorities and a twist ending for fans of bike lanes. For the last time in 2025, here’s the recap…
Regular Meeting of Council – December 16, 2025
A lot of direction was given to staff at the last closed meeting of the year, but council did approve new appointments to the Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Transportation Advisory Committee, and the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee when they started the open session.
The first major piece of discussion was the final design for the new and improved St. George’s Square, updated from a plan tacitly approved by council back in the July and sent back to staff to increase the “wow factor”. The new design will increase flexibility, be more reflective of heritage with more natural materials and design elements, and it will incorporate a potential tribute to Robert Munsch, but it did lose the self-cleaning public washroom feature. Staff said that they will looking to find a more “discreet” place for public washrooms, although the underground infrastructure will still be installed.
Stacey Laughlin, Downtown Revitalization Advisor, said that following a deeper dive into public engagement, the new design balances the needs and wants of businesses, residents and visitors to downtown. There will be a stage-ready area in the southwest corner that can be used for many purposes, the Family Fountain has been moved closer to Old Quebec Street and will be installed in a smaller octagon, and more trees and modified materials have been added to create a more natural feeling. No “substantial” budget alterations are predicted from these changes. Mayor Cam Guthrie made an off-hand remark about not liking it when he hears that staff don’t listen to staff direction because they clearly listened in this instance.
There were three delegates on hand to talk about the project; one voiced support for a statue of the Paper Bag Princess, one had concerns about not just ponying up the costs now for a permanent stage, and the third didn’t like losing the 24/7 public bathroom. As for council, there was an exploration of the public art approval process, for both a Munsch tribute or other kinds of art, otherwise there was near universal praise for the redesign. With the “wow” having been adequately secured, the recommendation was approved unanimously.
There was one delegate on hand to talk about 2025 Third Quarter Budget Monitoring Report, essentially to note that savings created by a grant for the South End Community Centre from the provincial government could be put towards other recreation facilities, and yes, he meant winter maintenance for bike lanes. Guthrie pointed out that budgetarily speaking you can’t take capital funds and reinvest them into an operating line item.
After a break, council heard a special recommendation from Councillor Christine Billings who sits on the Grand River Conservation Authority board. In a response to the provincial government’s passage of Bill 68, which created the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency and amalgamated the GRCA with other authorities into the new Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority, she presented a counterproposal.
The recommendation asked the Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks to review the GRCA’s idea to re-organize conservation authorities around source protection boundaries, and to address municipal concerns about the loss of local autonomy. Billings said that the GRCA plan gives the Ontario government the efficiencies they’re looking for while letting municipalities still exert direct control. The Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority will have 81 member municipalities and span from Guelph to Windsor, which means that the benefits incurred by one authority can now be collected by another who have not made as many wise investments. It puts all kinds of assets from land to infrastructure to financial reserves at risk too.
GRCA CAO Samantha Lawson was on-hand to express many of the same concerns stemming from Bill 68 including more downloading onto cities and towns. While Guelph does pay a portion of the GRCA budget, the lion’s share comes from the provincial government and Bill 68 allows the Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency to levy their costs onto municipalities. The implementation of that part of the bill has been delayed till 2029 as its being reviewed at Queen’s Park.
Council approved the recommendation, with Mayor Guthrie noting that there are a lot of municipalities that are deeply concerned about the implications of Bill 68.
Finally, the winter maintenance of bike lanes. One of the bylaws at the end of the agenda temporary closed bike lanes in the city as consequence of council’s decision not to fund winter maintenance of bike lanes a few weeks back. Mayor Guthrie announced that he had found a compromise and produced a directive using his Strong Mayor Powers to make it happen: Provide the needed $650,000 through $349,000 from the 2026 tax levy, and $301,000 that will come from the Environment and Utility Reserve. All it would cost is two new bylaw positions and the $250,000 that was supposed to be deposited into the 100RE reserve.
Guthrie explained that he doesn’t like raising taxes and that shouldn’t surprise anyone. He conceded that there were many good points raised by critics about what cutting maintenance on bike lanes would mean, and he hadn’t concerned those outcomes. He noted that this was a really tough budget, and all things considered everything had to be on the table in order to make the city affordable. “This shouldn’t have been one of them, and I want to acknowledge that,” Guthrie said. “I’m sorry, and I mean that.”
Deputy CAO Colleen Clack-Bush said that the City has already restored winter maintenance on bike lanes, apparently just in time for a mid-December warm up.
With that, council rose for the holiday break. And to all, a good night!
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Guelph Politico 