Earlier this week, the Government of Ontario announced their new colour-coded system for the province’s 34 health units to determine what level of COVID-19 restrictions are needed. The government said that there were going to release the starting point for all public health areas on Friday, and they did just that earlier this afternoon, but where is our own region, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph? We’re mellow yellow. Continue reading “It Turns on Saturday, Guelph and Area Will Be Yellow, Not Green”
At a special council meeting on Thursday night, Guelph City Council will vote on their own make-up for the 2022-26 term. The staff recommendation is to change council composition to eight full-time councillors, one from each of eight new wards, plus the mayor, but two electoral reform advocacy groups want to pump the brakes on the council make-up in the wake of their own poll that confirms voters want the status quo. Continue reading “Citizen Groups’ Poll on Council Make-Up: Keep 2 Councillors Per Ward”
Remember before COVID when the biggest issue in front of council was the removal or the retaining of two leash-free, fenced-in dog parks in the city? At the time, council asked staff to look at other sites that might serve as future dog parks outside of residential areas, and they have delivered a report that should come as no surprise to anyone. The best candidate? Eastview Park. Continue reading “Eastview Park the First Choice for New Fenced-In Dog Park”
Halloween this year is going to be different, but how? What Halloween looks like, and what activities people will be able to take part in, might depend on where you live, and what the COVID-19 outbreak situation is, but there’s been no shortage of advice from all our various levels of government. The devil’s (heh) is in the details, but if there’s one thing everyone can agree on it’s no Halloween house parties! Here’s the rest of the advice… Continue reading “Advice from Federal, Provincial and Local Public Health Officials for Halloween”
There’s been a lot of discussion around Guelph lately about the safety of the city, the need for more police, and the newly instigated debate about how much is too much policing. Perhaps this will help the conversation. The Crime Severity Index numbers for 2019 have been released, and although Guelph hasn’t reclaimed a top spot as one of Canada’s safest communities, we have seen a decrease for the first time in six years. Continue reading “Guelph Crime Severity Numbers Head Down for the First Time Since 2013”
Technical issues and technical challenges marked the long-awaited town hall on police presence in schools hosted by the Upper Grand District School Board. Participants were asked to give their feedback on a couple of questions as a community task force races to an end-of-year deadline to decide if having a police resource officer in school, in this year of tremendous social change, is something still worth doing. Continue reading “RECAP: Upper Grand Board Seeks Feedback on Police in Schools”
On Wednesday evening, Guelph’s Member of Parliament, Member of Provincial Parliament, and Mayor all got together by phone for a virtual town hall. Over the space of an hour, Lloyd Longfield, Mike Schreiner, and Cam Guthrie answered questions from the community about the local response to the pandemic, and the issues we will face on health, welfare, and the economy as we enter the winter months. Continue reading “RECAP: Longfield, Schreiner, and Guthrie Answer COVID Concerns”
The City of Guelph puts out a lot of information on a weekly basis, and while it all ends up on the City’s website somewhere, wouldn’t it be easier to just scroll through it all on one easy-to-read article on Guelph Politico here…? Continue reading “CITY PAGES: Covered Bridge, Bookmobile, and New Leadership at PIN”
The ever increasing number of new cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, especially in the three specific areas of Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa, has prompted the Government of Ontario to set back their re-openings. Starting Saturday at 12:01 am, those select areas of Ontario will roll back to Stage 2, as the Government of Ontario tries to avoid a post-holiday weekend flare up of the coronavirus. Continue reading “Back to Stage 2 for Toronto, Peel and Ottawa”
Like other COVID-19 testing centres and assessment clinics across the province, the Guelph clinic is now moving to a model of accepting appointments for testing by phone only. At the same time, the Provincial government is touting its record of testing and its commitment to add capacity despite the fact that the medical staff on the frontlines of testing are overwhelmed. Continue reading “Guelph COVID Testing Centre is Now Only Taking Appointments by Phone”
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