Category: Council Post-view

This Week at Council: A Whole in the World

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Money! Much of this month’s Committee of the Whole meeting was about it, but there was also some new climate change policy, a formal farewell to a city councillor with a new job, and, yes, some controversy. What was supposed to be consent item about seeking permission for a request for proposals for daytime shelter services opened a potential kettle of fish when it comes to council at the end of the month. For now, here’s the recap of May’s CoW meeting! Continue reading “This Week at Council: A Whole in the World” →

This Week at Council: Taxi Questions and More Tree Talk

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Just when you thought that the debate about the Private Tree Bylaw was over, it’s not! Although there was a lot of discussion about that at Committee of the Whole earlier this month, some haggling about how big a tree needs to be to save it, there was some attempted re-calibration this week. In other news, council discussed a matter that forced them to reckon with the divide between city hall and Guelph’s disabled community. Here’s the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Taxi Questions and More Tree Talk” →

This Week at Council: Downtown is Getting Higher, While Stone Road is Getting a Plan

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The planning meeting of council for the month of April involved getting high. Or, to put that another way, it involved re-establishing height limits. The ones downtown. Council considered how high buildings can go in the future, and then they moved their gaze to the south end with a new project on Clair Road, before looking at a new way to make housing happen faster in the area around Stone Road Mall. Let’s get into the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Downtown is Getting Higher, While Stone Road is Getting a Plan” →

This Week at Council: More Drill Hall Drama, and Seeing Trees

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Sparing you the April Fool’s joke (at least in the intro), we arrive at the first meeting of April. Naturally, here at the end of the first quarter, we get into some financial matters as financial staff reviewed debt and debentures. And speaking of drains on the spreadsheets, council once again dug into the question of what to do about the Drill Hall, plus there were also some questions about how many trees that council can save. Get all the details in the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: More Drill Hall Drama, and Seeing Trees” →

This Week at Council: More Debate on Public Space, Plus Road Safety

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There was a lot going on at this meeting, and some of it had nothing to do with what was on the agenda. For instance, one city councillor was absent because they’re now busy chasing a new gig at a different level of government.  In terms of stuff at the meeting, there was a new development around the Public Space Use Bylaw, which caused some controversy despite how little about it was available in the agenda. Hopefully this recap has more detail! Continue reading “This Week at Council: More Debate on Public Space, Plus Road Safety” →

This Week at Council: It Was a Planning and Trading Meeting

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Delayed a week because city council gets March Break too, we finally come to the March planning meeting+. Why “plus”? Because this month’s meeting wasn’t just about planning matters, but about trades wars, or rather it was about how Guelph is ready to fight one. As for the actual planning part of the planning meeting, housing was the focus as council got an update about those efforts. To learn more, consult this recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: It Was a Planning and Trading Meeting” →

This Week at Council: Traffic, Containers and Conduct!

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There was something for everyone at this month’s Committee of the Whole meeting. If you have concerns about traffic safety in Guelph, or environmental protection in form or less plastic waste then this was a good meeting for you, but if you’re looking for something meaty there was a lot of back and forth about the update to the council Code of Conduct, as well as the new make-up of advisory committee. So let’s dig into it all in this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Traffic, Containers and Conduct!” →

This Week at Council: A Week for Report Cards

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A short meeting for the end of a short month. The regular meeting of Guelph City Council for February had some promise for controversy with reports from the integrity commissioner and the lobbyist registrar, but it seems like council is just too well-behaved. (This year anyway.) We’ll get to that, and we will also get to all the other business that council didn’t want another bite at in this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: A Week for Report Cards” →

This Week at Council: Construction is Coming

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City council this week was a little more laid back, a little more informal. It’s been a while since council enjoyed some orientation, and last week they got some timely information about  construction season. The requisite dad joke was made about how there are two seasons in Canada, winter and construction, and in the midst of one, council talked about the other, which was more interesting if you were an actual participant. Here’s the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Construction is Coming” →

This Week at Council: In the Heights, and Affordable Housing!

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It was another three-pack of meetings at city council this week with two meetings where council sat as a shareholder of corporations owned by the City of Guelph, and then there was the monthly planning meeting. On that one, no specific projects were discussed, but there was a lot of policy covered including new grants for affordable housing, new heights for downtown, and maybe a new train connection in the region… Continue reading “This Week at Council: In the Heights, and Affordable Housing!” →