Although there’s been a couple of meetings in the last few weeks, the fall session began properly this week with the first of two Committee of the Whole meetings this month. There were really only two things on the agenda, one a matter of diversity and inclusion and the other a matter of major infrastructure renewal. So let’s dig in to the two “recons”, reconciliation and reconstruction, on this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Renew Kids on the Block”
It was business as unusual this past week because city council should have one last week off before the start of September. Instead, there were a couple of extra meetings, one short and one pretty long. At the first meeting, council had a decision to make about the hiring of a new CAO, and in the other there was an even tougher decision regarding a matter so deeply controversial it packed the gallery. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Second Time’s the Charm for Public Space Bylaw”
It’s been a very consequential seven months of council. Meeting after meeting, the mayor and our 12 city councillors have had to dispatch some big issues, make some big decisions, and find some out of the box solutions at times. So given the stakes so far in 2024, perhaps it’s okay if council had a nice, quick and easy last meeting before the usual August summer vacation. Here’s the (brief) recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Over and Out for the Summer”
With council wrapping up for the summer it shouldn’t be surprising that we’ve come back around to one of the biggest ongoing challenges: Creating more housing. More specifically, in this case, we’re looking at the creation of a tiny home encampment somewhere in the city. Long in the works, council was presented with the opportunity to give a greenlight to the project. So what happened? Let’s recap. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Tiny Homes, Tiny Progress”
This month’s planning meeting had a lot stuff going on, but only a couple of items were explored in detail. Yes, more heritage matters were approved, but the real news was in two different development projects; the first was a new project being developed by Habitat for Humanity in the north end, and the other was a final decision on a big project in the south end. Let’s get into the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: A Tale of Two Projects”
Just a few more meetings to go before council and council watchers can enjoy summer vacation, but there’s still a lot of important stuff to wrap our heads around before that needed time off. At this month’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday there was new moves to protect heritage and make an impact on light pollution, but the big news was around whether we should take park land and use if for housing. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: No Walk in the Parks”
The end of June brings the regular meeting of council, but more specifically it means an update about the business of Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc and Guelph Junction Railway, companies owned by the City of Guelph making city council their one and only shareholder. As for that regular meeting, think plastics, and think about that big decision on the Dill Hall for which some other artists in the community had notes. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Shareholder Reports and Drill Hall Decision Refined”
Two meetings this week, one that took care of a lot of planning business in not a lot of time with the monthly planning meeting, and then council tried to absorb four years of Strategic Plan accomplishments in two hours with the annual report. Also, council said goodbye to a very prominent member of staff as he’s about to begin a new adventure as a retiree. Here’s the recap of this week at council… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Planning and a Future Ready Finale”
June began with a very busy meeting that discussed a trio of important topics. Do you like to talk about asset management and infrastructure? We’ve got you covered. Are you concerned about stopping the proliferation of single-use plastic? This is your meeting. Are you concerned about the fate of the Drill hall and/or interested in a new arts centre in Guelph? Then you’re definitely going to want to stay tuned! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Plastic Improvements and Dill Hall Direction”
It was an action-packed week at council, but it was also one of the most contentious weeks seen in the chambers in the last few months. The friction was all about exploring online voting methods for the 2026 municipal election, and whether or not council would proceed with the option reached at Committee of the Whole. Also, there was another question about whether or not too much was collected in development charges. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Internet Voting Remains an Option”
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