Category: Council Post-view

This Week at Council: Permits and Designations Downtown

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In the first regularly scheduled council meeting of the year 2026, downtown was the centre of attention. Again. In this planning meeting council got its first look at the Community Planning Permit System for the core, and they took their last look at the plan and guidelines for the Heritage Conservation District downtown. Along with that, there was a slight diversion to the south end and a major downtown project was approved. Here’s the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Permits and Designations Downtown” →

The Week at Council: Two Hours In Camera

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Surprise! It’s a surprise meeting, and that means a surprise meeting recap! Following up the first big political controversy of 2026, a special city council meeting was called to figure out what was to be done about the sudden cancellation of the daytime shelter plan out of Royal City Mission and Stepping Stone. The details were mostly in-camera, but you will learn all about what came out of it in this recap of the meeting… Continue reading “The Week at Council: Two Hours In Camera” →

This Week at Council: Squares, Downloading, and Bike Lanes End 2025

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It was the last council meeting of the year, and it’s been a wild ride, but there were at least a couple of surprises left for civic policy nerds before Christmas Break. Yes, as expected, council discussed the final, final design for St. George’s Square as council sought the ever nebulous “wow” factor. In addition to that there was some push back from council about changes to conservation authorities and a twist ending for fans of bike lanes. For the last time in 2025, here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Squares, Downloading, and Bike Lanes End 2025” →

This Week at Council: More ADUs, But Four Units is Enough?

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In the last planning meeting for 2025, there was indeed a lot of planning. No new projects were on the agenda, so no future additions to the housing stock, but maybe the fruits of this meeting will lead the way(?). In the first half, council talked about making it easier to get more ADUs built in the city, and in the second half they looked at doing more than four units as-of-right in low residential areas. Let’s get into the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: More ADUs, But Four Units is Enough?” →

This Week at Council: Money Matters, But Not Too Much

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There were two main topics on the agenda for the last Committee of the Whole meeting of 2025 and they both had to do with money, this year’s money. Appropriate for the first meeting after the budget confirmation process that we continue on with money stuff, but if you’re looking for controversy then this is not the meeting for you. What went down was pretty straightforward. Short and sweet. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Money Matters, But Not Too Much” →

This Week at Council: Renoviction Bylaw Go and the Budget Conclusion!

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It was a busy week for city council business with two big meetings. Nay! Make that huge meetings!! At the regular meeting, council decided (again) to pursue a renoviction bylaw and a vacant home tax with immediate effect. The real money matters though was the budget decision meeting (although technically the budget was already decided and this was just adding amendments) and there was definitely some friction to talk about there. Let’s get into the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Renoviction Bylaw Go and the Budget Conclusion!” →

This Week at Council: The 2026 Budget So Far…

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The time has come to catch up on the 2026 budget process so far. Once again the mayor has re-written the budget (or had staff re-write it to be more accurate) in the name of affordability, but there remains little in the way of relief and there are still struggles between all things the City needs to do and all the other things that people want it to do. Presented here are the recaps of the budget presentation, and the budget delegation night… Continue reading “This Week at Council: The 2026 Budget So Far…” →

This Week at Council: Back to Baker and a Parking Permit

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It was a pretty low-key planning meeting this month at Guelph City Council, and the one bit of friction had nothing to do with the one big planning project that was on the agenda. Yes, parking it always a sore spot in Guelph, but this week it was even a bigger sore spot than usual when the debate came down what was good procedure and what was fast and easy to achieve. Also, we had back to the north side of the Baker redevelopment. Let’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Back to Baker and a Parking Permit” →

This Week at Council: A Renoviction Bylaw Now (or Soon)!

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It was a big meeting of Committee of the Whole, and one that’s been long anticipated. The topic on this day concern’s a proposed renoviction bylaw and a new vacant home tax. The latter was kind of a foregone conclusion because staff were recommending its creation, but the renoviction bylaw… That was going to be another story. But which version of the story was the committee going to want to tell? Find out in this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: A Renoviction Bylaw Now (or Soon)!” →

This Week at Council: Does Anyone Give a Dam?

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It was back to the Allan and Macdonell bridge structure at this month’s regular meeting of city council, but did anyone give a damn about getting rid of the dam? That was going to be the question at this meeting as numerous delegates tried to convince council that the dam’s time was over, and in the interest of flood control and re-naturalization it should be removed. But as you might already know there’s an issue with unknown amount of money needed to make it happen. Let’s recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Does Anyone Give a Dam?” →