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”
Politicians are often loved more after they leave office, but few politicians enjoyed decades of popularity, both in office and out of it, the way that Norm Jary did. On Friday night, the former mayor, city councillor, radio man, and all-around good guy Jary passed away at the age of 91. He now belongs to the ages you might say, but for many Guelphites he will always belong in their hearts. Continue reading “Guelph Says Goodbye to Their Favourite Mayor, Norm Jary”
Did you receive this newspaper in your mail box this week? Congratulations, you’ve just received the latest issue of a misinformation juggernaut that was once the voice for a small Chinese spiritual movement that has since pasted itself to the far-right disinformation movement and pro-Trump media sphere. Given the events this week in Washington D.C. there are some things you should now about the Epoch Times. Continue reading “BEWARE: Far-Right Epoch Times Making the Rounds in Guelph Again”
Normally, the second Tuesday of the month is reserved for the monthly planning meeting of city council, but this month, the second Tuesday will feature a workshop that should hopefully help council make better planning decisions. This week, council will hear about the planning processes and the potential impacts in a couple of key areas that frequently come up in the course of planning meetings. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 18 Meeting?”
This coming Monday was supposed to be back to school day for all but post-secondary school students in southern Ontario, but the rising case numbers have been making both parents and educators thinking twice about going back to in-person classes so soon. On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford publicly agreed that it might be too much of a risk to send thousands of students back to school right now. Continue reading “Schools Closed Till January 25 By New Provincial Order”
At a media even on Wednesday morning, Sarah Ricci of the Shelburne Long-Term Care home became the first person in Wellington, Dufferin or Guelph to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Ricci said “Today represents hope!” and in more than one way it does after a couple of days of confusion about exactly how many does of the Pfizer vaccine our public health authority would receive, and when they would get here. Continue reading “Vaccine Distribution Finally Begins in Guelph, Wellington, Dufferin”
The last council meeting of 2020 dealt heavily with the protection of heritage, including one particular case of the Old Crawley farmhouse. Perhaps the fall of the Preston Springs Hotel in Cambridge over the holidays portends a similar fate for valuable heritage buildings in Guelph, but one thing is certain: If we care about our heritage buildings and features, time is running out to save them. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #255 – An End to Demolition By Neglect”
Back in November, Guelph City Council reached the conclusion that they need to get more feedback about the future of council composition. Fortunately, there was a second phase of input for the project, and it’s finally here: the ward boundary review. City of Guelph staff are now looking for feedback on where the new wards should be, and they’re also hoping that there might now be consensus on how many councillors that those wards should have. Continue reading “City Staff Starting Ward Boundary Review (Plus Feedback for Procedural Bylaw)”
We talk a lot about the dangers faced by frontine workers during the pandemic, and Monday we saw that first hand with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health declaring an outbreak at the Guelph Police Service. And since it doesn’t rain but it pours, public health itself announced Monday that they will not be rolling out vaccines today as originally planned. Continue reading “COVID Outbreak Declared for Guelph Police as Local Vaccine Distribution Delayed”
We’ve finished one week of the new lockdown measures here in Ontario, but we have not yet detected any benefit in terms of decreased daily new cases or the rapid rollout of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines. Official Opposition leader Andra Horwath is demanding answers, and she’s demanding to get them in-person from Premier Doug Ford and his ministers, and our own local MPP agrees. Continue reading “Schreiner Joins Horwath Call to Re-open Legislature”
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