In the second of two council meetings to end the month, the planning agenda for January will be debated and discussed. From a couple of decisions on previously approved properties, to a new planning amendment, to what will likely be another conversation about a much maligned plan for local heritage, here’s the agenda for this month’s planning meeting. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 25 Planning Meeting?”
In the first of two back-to-back meetings, city council will ratify almost all of what they passed at Committee of the Whole, make a couple of new appointments to local boards, and an epic closed meeting session. It should be a brief warm-up for a significantly longer meeting that will happen after this. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 25 Regular Meeting?”
The controversial Emma-Earl pedestrian bridge has hit an unexpected delay after a citizens’ group wrote to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks with concerns about the City of Guelph’s environmental assessment process. The Ministry has concurred with the group that there have been “deficiencies” with the City’s environmental review, and the project could now be delayed by a year. Continue reading “Province Says City’s Environmental Review of Emma-Earl Bridge Doesn’t Go Far Enough”
The new Ontari0-wide lockdown went into effect on Thursday morning at 12:01 am, but it’s been reported in recent days that people still don’t know entirely what that means. In a joint statement, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health and the Guelph Police Service tried to lay down some lines for Guelphites to follow about how to manage your quarantine, and what might happen if you break it. Continue reading “City, Police, and Public Health Outline New Lockdown Guidance for Guelph”
Transit is an area of municipal services that’s been hit especially hard by the pandemic. Revenue has cratered because ridership is way down, so now would be the perfect time for the City of Guelph and other municipalities to hear that they’re getting more money to cover the cost. In an announcement today, Guelph received nearly $100,000 more in Gas Tax money from the Government of Ontario, and there’s more transportation news to consider. Continue reading “Guelph Gets Boost in Gas Tax Funds; Needs Help With Transport Master Plan”
The first round of public feedback on the ward boundary portion of the Council Composition and Employment Status review is currently in progress. On Wednesday evening, members of the consultant team hired for the review along with City Clerk Stephen O’Brien led viewers through the principles they’re using to redraw the map, and answered residents questions as the next phase of this study gets underway. Continue reading “RECAP: Consultants Lay Out First Principles in Ward Boundary Review”
In 1989, the International Malleable Iron Company (IMICo) shut down their foundry at 200 Beverly Street, which had been operating in the Ward for nearly 80 years at that point. Environmental concerns, the size of the site, and a fringe religious group have all been impediments to initiating some direction on the abandonedproperty, and despite recent signs of progress, there’s still no path forward for 200 Beverly Street. Continue reading “Back to the Drawing Board for the IMICo Site”
It’s impossible to look at the events last week in Washington D.C. outside the lens of White Supremacy. Even President-Elect Joe Biden affirmed in a press conference that if the insurrectionists that broke into the Capitol, vandalized, and threatened the lives of elected representatives had been Black, there would have been a lot more arrests, and a lot more than five deaths. Shockingly, 2020 wasn’t the end of racism. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #256 – Racism Wasn’t Defeated in a Year”
Premier Doug Ford has raised the alarm in the last few days that the new modelling of COVID-19 cases was going to make people “fall out of their chair” when they saw it. Tuesday was the day that Ford not only released the new modelling, but the new provincial restrictions based on that modelling, and the Premier said that there are “unthinkable consequences” coming if we don’t change course. Continue reading “Ford Warns of “Unthinkable Consequences” as Ontario Declares New State of Emergency”
Welcome to the first city council meeting of 2021! You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: Committee of the Whole Meeting for January 11, 2021”
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