April’s Committee of the Whole meeting was short on controversy, but loaded with insightful information about a couple important City departments. This week’s those topics of conversation were built around the annual water quality report, the Stormwater Master Plan, and the transit fare review for Guelph Transit. There were a lot of facts and figures coming at us this week, so let’s recap them the best we can! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Water Talk and Transit Changes”
This week at council marked this last two meetings of the month. The first one was the surprisingly straightforward regular council meeting that was all about affirming the decisions from Committee of the Whole plus some GMHI business. The other meeting was more interesting, the opening of feedback from council about the new Downtown Parking Master Plan. Let’s cover it all in this week’s recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Parking Master Plan and Short-Term Rental Licences Approved”
After a week off for March Break, council returned for a busy work week that saw a major piece of a major heritage project completed, and some new work on the local economic development and tourism picture. But along with the regular order of business, there was some irregular order as council met at 10 am on Wednesday as a new measure of inclusion for the Muslim members of our community this Ramadan. Shall we recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Economic Development and OR Lands Boundary Approved”
If you liked trees and tax policy, then this was the Committee of the Whole meeting for you! The packed agenda saw just about every service areas get some time in the spotlight from the internal audit plan, to potential new rules for short-term rentals, to a new plan to finally get the South End Community Centre built. The big item though, naturally, was the plan to increase the city’s tree canopy. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Trees, Short-Term Rentals, and Rec Centre Back On”
It was a very busy agenda to end February at city council. Along with the potential construction of the operations campus, the likely construction of new space at the Elliott, and the annual (albeit thin) report from the Integrity Commissioner, the big item of the night was The Pledge. Council had to endorse the Government of Ontario’s goal of building 18,000 homes by the year 2031, but they had some serious caveats. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Campus Redux, Elliott Expansion, and The Pledge!”
It was a slow week at city council, but it was still a pretty consequential week as the horseshoe dealt with a sudden matter of community interest in a special meeting, and then got back to the business of refreshing the Strategic Plan. Many notes were offered in the all virtual meeting (thanks #ONstorm!), and now it will be up to the consultants to further refine things into a first draft. Here’s what happened in meeting… Continue reading “The Week at Council: The Strategic Plan Gets Further Refined”
The first planning meeting of the year was a big one, and size did matter. Council discussed the merits and demerits of a redevelopment that could see a 23-storey mixed-use residential building constructed at the corner of Wellington and Wyndham, but a decision on that will come later. In the meantime, the Integrity Commissioner came to town to give council the lowdown on how to avoid conflicts of interest. Continue reading “This Week at Council: New Tower Downtown and the Integrity Commissioner”
February for city council began with a stacked agenda at Committee of the Whole and loads of new information about the Chief Administrative Officer’s 2023 plan, the future of Our Food Future, and the newest iteration of the Operations campus. We also kicked off “Workshop Wednesdays” with a meeting to look at the City’s relationship with long-term care. Continue reading “This Week at Council: CAO Plan, Campus Update, and LTC Workshop”
This was a very busy week at city council with three meetings, one of which was a super-long meeting indeed. Obviously, that long meeting concerned the confirmation vote for the 2023 budget, which saw council trying to balance community need with a hopefully smaller tax burden for the public. This balance was also kind of reinforced by another meeting this week, which looked at creating the next Strategic Plan. Continue reading “This Week at Council: New Strategic Plan Process Begins, and the 2023 Budget Confirmation”
This past week, 2023 really started, at least in terms of council business. In the first two meetings of the year this past Tuesday, the new council discussed the intricacies of the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan as a way to set up council’s future debates about the new version of the plan. After that, the horseshoe dispatched a relatively brief Committee of the Whole agenda, the first one they’ve dealt with in a while. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Strategic Plan Workshop and Committee Business”
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