April’s first council meeting will suffer no fools because it’s not happening until April 7 and for this meeting date we’re getting a two-in-one because there will the shareholder meeting of Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. before we get into the Committee of the Whole meeting. On the subject of the latter, look for discussion on water, traffic calming and taxis, plus another impact from provincial legislation, albeit without financial cost. 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 Thursday April 2. 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.
City Council as Shareholder of GMHI Agenda
CLOSED MEETING:
Appointment of Guelph Representative to the Alectra Board of Directors – The City of Guelph, through Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc., gets to appoint one person to the Board of Directors for Alectra Utilities, but like all appointments, this will be discussed first in-camera under Section 239 (2) (b) of the Municipal Act relating to personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees.
Appointment of Auditors for Alectra Inc. – This is so straightforward that there’s no report attached to the agenda. The shareholder will asked to consent to the reappointment of KPMG as the auditor for Alectra, which makes sense because they are also the external auditor for the City of Guelph as well.
SEE THE COMPLETE AGENDA ON THE CITY OF GUELPH WEBSITE HERE.
Committee of the Whole Agenda
STAFF RECOGNITIONS:
Nico Koenig, Transportation Safety Specialist received the OTC (Ontario Traffic Council) Planning Project of the Year Award 2025.
Katie Grant, Recreation Coordinator from Aquatics, graduated from the NexGen Municipal Leadership Program at Brock University.
Delegated Authority Bylaw Amendment Update to Bring-Your-Own events – As you may have heard, the Ontario government is changing the laws so that people can bring their own alcohol to more outdoor public events on private property including festivals, markets, concerts, and community gatherings. These changes go into effect at the end of April, and this amendment will give clerks the delegated authority to deem events as “community” or “cultural” per the new regulation. While the City’s designation is required for permit applications to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, it does not constitute full municipal approval as organizers must still meet all other regulatory requirements.
2025 Water Services’ Annual Report, Summary Report and Water Efficiency Strategy Progress Report – In the last 10 years, the City of Guelph and Guelph residents have saved about 2,738 cubic metres of water per day. Good news, right? While the City fell short of its water savings target in 2025, residential water use levels in Guelph remain relatively low compared to provincial and national averages. As for inspections, there were two non-compliances with regulatory requirements last year, but both of them were self-identified prior to this inspection and noted in the final report though they did not result in any unproperly treated water reaching customers.
Traffic Calming Policy Update – A lot of people are concerned about traffic, which is why this report in and of itself is going to be so concerning. According to this report, the current policy has been less effective at reducing speeds compared to other municipalities, and the City is so buried by demand that it will take years to dig out of the backlog. With that in mind, the City is going to close many existing requests outside priority areas, and will focus traffic calming efforts for the most part on Community Safety Zones (such as areas near schools), where risk is highest, and now plan to implement measures on 25 streets over five years. This will be done with design tools, meaning measures like speed cushions and raised crosswalks.
Proposal for Amendments to Taxi Tariff (Appendix A) – Red Top Taxi and Canadian Cab are asking for a 6.7 per cent increase in taxicab fares due to rising fuel and operating costs since the last increase in 2022, which was also the same increase. The proposed changes would raise the base fare from $3.00 to $3.20, the per-distance rate from $2.40 to $2.60, and the hourly waiting rate from $32 to $34. Staff are endorsing the change calling it “modest and justified” given inflation and competitive comparisons with other municipalities.
Guelph Politico 