Some committees take the summer off, but Committee of the Whole is still in session, at least for July anyway. Committee this month dealt with a number of complex issues including the new version of the City’s Strategic Plan, the new version of the Seasonal Patio program, new bylaw reviews that need to be conducted, and a new bylaw for the use of e-scooters. So what final decisions were made? Let’s check out the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council – Bars, Bylaws, and Bicycles”
What was supposed to be a rather unexceptional week at council turned out to be very busy indeed, and it really had nothing to do with what city council was working on. Upset about the Ontario government’s decision to grant Strong Mayor powers to most heads of council in the province’s biggest cities, several delegates came out to let council know it, but it turned out even staff have problems with the implementation. Here’s the recap. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Strong Mayor Blowback”
This was a busy week at city council and it was four meetings long. There was the usual planning meeting, which went by in a way that was largely free of controversy. Less than 24 hours later, council got together again for a triple header, first to receive the audited financial statements from the last fiscal year, and then back-to-back shareholder meetings about energy and trains respectively. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Planning and Shareholding in Four Parts”
It was a long afternoon and evening in June at Committee of the Whole. After a couple of months with some shorter agendas, it seemed like everything came home to roost this month with a massive agenda under the Governance service area including procedural updates, the Strategic Plan annual report and the last (?) you’ll hear from the Smart Cities Office. Also, there’s a lot of work coming soon in Downtown Guelph. Let’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Non-Stop Governance and Downtown’s Future”
This week, there back-to-back council meetings, and one of them looked bigger than normal in terms of the number of people around the horseshoe, which was really more like a round table. A joint meeting of Guelph City Council and Wellington County Council was held to talk about the issues facing paramedics, while Guelph council on it’s own had to deal with a matter of funding more police downtown. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Police Money and Paramedic Needs”
It was a quiet week at city council, which is ironic because the subject matter of the workshop this week was all about communications. Council covered the various aspects of how the City communicates information and how they encourage Guelphites to communicate back to them. Also, how does community investment in Guelph work? That and many other questions will be answered in this week’s recap. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Talking About Communicating”
This month’s planning meeting was probably always going to be a controversial affair, but, as it turned out, making a decision about a 23-storey tower at the corner of Wyndham and Wellington is something council didn’t have to worry about… for now. Instead, council had to find a new source of friction and boy was it delivered thanks to a staff report about the Ontario government’s decision on the latest Official Amendment. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Official Plan Decision Debate Takes Over Planning Meeting”
The month of May started a day late at city council with a two topic Committee of the Whole meeting that focused on last year’s money matters, and then looked to the more immediate future with a new bylaw. In this meeting, there was a rather substantial budget variance to dispatch, and then there was a bylaw for the use of escooters that has to come back to council in less than two months. Let us recap the meeting… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Money and Scooters”
April ended with a very busy trifecta of meetings including a very heavy focus on transit matters. Before that though, council had another workshop to discuss the update to the Strategic Plan for the last time before a finished draft comes back in a few months. As for transit, council made some updates and heard all about those future plans, and other matters of transportation, at a separate workshop. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Strategic Plan Updated Further, and So Was Transit!”
After a week off for the Easter break, council got back to business by bring to an end a process that began before the time of COVID-19, a four-year mission to finally update the comprehensive zoning bylaw after 30 years. That was the major piece of business, but it was not the only piece of business at this month’s planning meeting. As usual, you’re weekly recap of council will cover all the bases great and small. Continue reading “This Week at Council: We’re Back in the Zoning!”
Guelph Politico 