After a real August recess this year, city council – now whole again – returned to the council chambers for more hijinks starting with something we thought we had already done in July. After an impromptu planning meeting, council took part in the Committee of the Whole meeting where they covered I.T., WHMIS, and stuff that does have initials like the growing scourge of graffiti. Get all the details in this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Back to Business, and a Rerun”
This is the last council recap you’re going to read for a while, because Guelph City Council is now on summer vacation! Before that though, there’s a lot of action to review including the appointment of a new Ward 6 Councillor, which was a wild ride that came down to a draw between the two finalists. Then, at the regular meeting, there was actually a planning matter, and some more back-and-forth on downtown construction and accessibility. So for the last time, until September, here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Ward 6 is Made Whole Before Summer Vacation”
It was a week of back-to-back meetings at Guelph City Council, and for scheduling reasons we’ve even squeezed in a third that was technically last week. First, we will catch up on a mostly in-camera meeting, and then get into the latest planning matters that came up for council consideration. Last, we catch-up on the report to council about the progress of the City’s Strategic Planning initiatives. Let’s recap…. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Planning and Strategic Planning Matters”
It you were hoping for a lazy July at city council you’re bound to be disappointed because there’s a lot going before summer vacation officially arrives in a few weeks. Much of the action his week was centred on downtown, the massive construction that’s coming to Wyndham Street starting next year, plus a potential Memorial Cup bid, and there was also a discussion about the placement of temporary ramps around town. Here’s the recap…. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Downtown, the Memorial Cup and Ramps”
June’s council business was concluded with a trifecta of meetings. Yes, there was the usual regular meeting and there was nothing really controversial about that business, so instead the friction fell at the Guelph Junction Railway shareholder meeting. At issue was not the business of GJR, but whether or not the company was doing enough to support the develop of trails adjacent to those tracks. Let’s get into it with this week’s recap. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Shareholders Hear that Rail Trail Needs to Be a Priority”
It was a laidback meeting this week at city council as they tucked in around the horseshoe for a workshop meeting. The topic was operations facilities, and the need to lay the infrastructure that will enable the continued electrification of transit. The present bus barn is horribly out of date; not enough space, and not enough capacity to charge more than a couple of buses at a time, but there is a plan! Let’s check out the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Transit, It’s Electric!”
At June’s planning meeting, a lot of ground was covered but there were two primary modes. First, there were a lot of heritage files needing some work, including the latest heritage conservation district and a couple of individual designations that were unexpectely controversial. And then there was the Princess Auto file, an interesting confluence of confusing planning rules that nearly scuttled the future Guelph location of that chain. Here’s the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: The Princess Auto Diaries”
At the June Committee of the Whole meeting we spent almost as much time waiting for the meeting to begin as we spent in the meeting. There was some important stuff on the agenda, but it seems that it was pretty straightforward; employee engagement, the review of Community Benefit Agreements, and more on Corporate Asset Management were all topics needing discussion and decision, so how did it all turn out? Continue reading “This Week at Council: The Waiting *Was* the Hardest Part”
Getting back to work after a week off for the Victoria Day holiday, council dived into some controversy. Promised since the beginning of the month, council dug into the question of where to put a daytime, or perhaps where not to put it. There was also some additional discussion about the renewed Code of Conduct and the Community Climate Action Plan, but for all the details check out this recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Shelter Debate, Climate Action, and Code of Conduct Amendments”
This month’s planning meeting of city council had three phases. First was the one new development application, which came with some very old arguments against it. Then there was a vote about re-approving a heritage designation, which was swiftly followed by a vote to un-designate. And then third, a discussion about administrative changes to the Sign Bylaw that went way too deep. Check out the details in the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Signs and Apartments, and Two Tied Votes”
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