It’s the first Committee of the Whole meeting of the year, and there’s a lot on the plate in a variety of areas. The Chief Administrative Officer will layout here priorities for the year ahead, which presumably includes the launching of the city-wide review of parking that’s on this agenda. Also, a long-awaited policy involving water is here, and the always popular conversation about how much our local politicians should be paid. Here’s the preview!
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 January 30. 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.
STAFF RECOGNITIONS:
1) Transportation Engineering Data Analyst Reza Aminghafouri who’s completed his PhD in Transportation Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
2) Project Manager for Transportation Planning Kate Berry for receiving her PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification.
3) Economic Development Analyst Bhavleen Kaur has completed her Certificate in Economic Development.
4) Senior Economic Development Officer Bill Bond also completed a Certificate in Economic Development.
5) Culture and Recreation Staff plus the Paramedic and Fire Staff received their AED Awareness.
2026 Chief Administrative Officer Performance Objectives – Once the objectives are approved at the regular city council meeting on January 27, CAO Tara Baker will present them at this meeting. Obviously, there’s no sneak preview in this agenda.
Internal Audit Work Plan 2026-2028 – It promises to be another busy year for the audit staff with some left over work from last year reviewing Building Permit Approvals and Inspections and Fleet Maintenance, plus new work looking at non-payroll employee benefits and IT asset management. Perhaps most timely, a value-for-money and operational review of winter road and sidewalk maintenance that will assess whether services are delivered economically and effectively.
Council Remuneration Review – It’s election year! And that means the time has come to decide how much the next council is going to be paid. Based on a market review conducted by staff, it was determined that the mayor’s salary currently lags behind in the market by 10.1 per cent and councillors’ pay lags by 32.8 per cent. In terms of hard numbers, that means staff is recommending that the proposed salaries for the next term of council is $187,067 for the mayor and $70,218 for each councillor. (That’s a 17 per cent raise for the next mayor and city council.)
Water and Wastewater Servicing Allocation Policy and Bylaw – Long promised, committee will finally get a look at this “use it or lose it” water policy as part of the changes committee needs to approve as a result of changes to the Municipal Act approved by the Ontario government under Bill 185. So the policy establishes a transparent, first-come-first-served process that requires formal capacity checks to confirm and reserve servicing capacity for planning and building applications, with defined reservation and lapsing periods (that’s the “use it or lose it” part). It delegates administrative authority to staff, sets out extension and appeal processes, and introduces annual reporting and early warning thresholds to council as available capacity declines. The idea is to protect water levels, prevent over allocation, and get development started faster.
City-Wide Parking Strategy Terms of Reference – After being focused on downtown parking concerns the last few years, from minimums to modernization, the City is now aiming to begin a city-wide parking management strategy, which is, in part, also responding to changes in Bill 185. This strategy will look at residential permit systems, downtown parking and paid on-street parking, winter parking, parking impacts from new development and additional dwelling units, technology and enforcement tools, EV charging, transit integration, and curbside management. An RFP for a consulting team will go out sometime in the second quarter, but a finished review and bylaw update might not come back to council until sometime late in 2027.
Guelph Politico 