The flags at City Hall were ordered lowered to half mast on Friday to honour the late David Birtwistle, a former city councillor, mayoral candidate, and active member of Guelph’s political establishment. Mayor Cam Guthrie in a statement said that Birtwistle “cared deeply” for his community, and that we was an “engaged and active citizen” even after he left formal political life. Continue reading “City Hall Flags Fly at Half Mast for Former City Councillor David Birtwistle”
No one in Ontario has been saying “Thank God, it’s Friday,” lately because Friday is the day that the Government of Ontario announces who’s moving up, or more likely down, the colour-coded ladder back towards lockdown. In a rare instance of advocating for greater health restrictions, the Medical Officer of Health for Wellingt0n-Dufferin-Guelph is asking the Province to consider moving our area from orange to red this Friday. Continue reading “WDG Public Health Wants Us to Move into the Red”
In their meeting Tuesday night, the committee that oversees heritage issues in Guelph unanimously rejected an endorsement of the City of Guelph’s Cultural Heritage Action Plan (CHAP) and requested that City staff do more consultation work before moving forward. Heritage Guelph outlined a number of issues with the plan as it currently stands, and had a number of suggestions for improvement. Continue reading “Heritage Guelph Rejects Cultural Heritage Action Plan at Meeting”
See that picture of an empty University Centre? That was taken on Friday around early afternoon last week. Even now, in the middle of exams, that space would be full of people getting lunch, grabbing a coffee, studying, meeting people, or buying a bus ticket home for the holidays. But it’s empty. How do you lead a student body when the vast majority of the body can’t be there? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #250 – Empty Campus”
Blue box management, real estate, and COVID response are among the topics for this meeting. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here (and 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 December 7, 2020”
There’s been a great deal that’s changed in the world since the last National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, but the need to gather and mark the day has not. With social distancing in mind, this year’s 31st remembrance of both the terrorist attack in Montreal three decades ago – and for all the women killed by men ever since – was held by candlelight in front of computer screens. Continue reading “Virtual Memorial for December 6 Doubles as a Call to Action”
In what will be the last city council meeting of 2020, the horseshoe will look at a couple of planning questions before saying “goodbye” for the holidays. On the one hand, will council save a nearly 200-year-old farmhouse in the south end? And on the other hand, is it about to get easier to build an accessory apartment to help tackle Guelph’s housing issue? Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 14 Planning Meeting?”
The first to two back-t0-back council meetings will be short. Bringing forward items from Committee of the Whole, plus a couple of appointments and a motion for action, council should move quickly through the regular meeting before moving on to the planning meeting in the epic conclusion to this year’s council calendar. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 14 Regular Meeting?”
At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, members of city council will get their first holistic update about the City of Guelph’s corporate response to the pandemic since the last special meeting on the subject in August. Special attention will be paid to the financial bottom line, and there will indeed be a negative budget variance for the City by the end of fiscal 2020, but the good news is that it will be covered by the Safe Restart funding from upper levels of government. Continue reading “So There’ll Be a $3.6 Million Deficit for 2020, But We’re Covered”
Time is running out for action if changes to the oversight role of conservation authorities is of particular concern. On Thursday morning, Green Party of Ontario leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner held a media availability, and leaned on the support of over 100 groups from around Ontario, to make one last push against, what he calls, an “attack on conservation authorities.” Continue reading “Schreiner Demands the Government Pull Changes to Conservation Authorities”
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