Council wasn’t supposed to meet until December, and then the Provincial government announced the More Homes Built Faster Act, aka: Bill 23, and the rapid pace of change to municipal planning rules demanded an immediate response. So council met this past week to talk about what that response should be, and you will probably agree that it’s pretty definitive. Let’s recap this week’s meeting. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Bill 23? No Thanks!”
There are 145,000 stories in the Royal City, and this is some of them. Looking at a week’s worth of media releases from the Guelph Police Service, there’s a lot going on in our little city crime-wise speaking, so let’s run down some of the charges, issues, and requests for information from the Guelph Police Service over the last seven days. Continue reading “POLICE NOTES: Assault Spree Stopped, Suspicious Fire and Video”
Lit in purple, Market Square hosted the launching of “16 Days, 16 Voices of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” on Friday night. Organized by Zonta Guelph and Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, the in-person ceremony marked the beginning of 16 days that will spotlight one new message everyday that will talk about gender-based violence and how we can all do something to fight it. Continue reading “Women in Crisis and Zonta Launches “16 Days” of Activism”
Essentially, this is the fourth meeting in two days, and the second workshop for council in the same time period. This specific knowledge dump is all about the Guelph budget process. How does money work at City Hall? How do you make a budget? What considerations do you have to make? All these questions and more will be answered by a slate of representatives from the financial staff! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 7 Meeting?”
Getting back to the regular routine of council, the new horseshoe will sit down to consider planning matters for the first time this term, and the last time this year. On the agenda are two planning decision, one new planning amendment and, for old time’s sake, a sign bylaw variance to help coffee lovers make better decisions at the drive-thru! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 6 Planning Meeting?”
Council gets back to its regularly scheduled program with a pair of special meetings that will precede the first official planing meeting of the new term. Or should we say “meetings.” So before that first planning meeting, council’s going to learn the bits and pieces of planning policy, and then they’re going to fill up the ranks of Guelph’s very important public boards and committees for the new term. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the Special Meetings on December 6?”
It happened in the middle of the fall election campaign, but the new Strategic Advisory Group on downtown Guelph released a series of short to long-term goals that they hope to achieve to create a safer and more welcoming downtown core. The City of Guelph released a new update on Thursday saying that their aspirations have started to take shape with more formal directions, a “high-level, tactical roadmap to achieving the objectives” if you will. Continue reading “Advisory Committee Lays Out More Specific Plans for Downtown”
While the 13 members of the new city council will have the next four years to refine their ideas about the issues facing Guelph, it feels like we just forget the people who also ran for office just as soon as the results are called. In 2022, nearly 40 people felt like they had the right stuff to be one of Guelph’s civic leaders, so we’re dedicating this episode to the people that didn’t win. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #349 – What’s Next? Part 3: The Candidates”
The new council will tackle Bill 23. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for November 22, 2022”
What does the City of Guelph need to do to attract visitors to our fair municipality? City hall is presently developing a strategy guide to provide direction on how to bring to Guelph new visitors and drive economic growth in culture and sports tourism, and on Monday, leaders and community activists in the areas of arts, culture and sports took part in two community engagement sessions to offer feedback. This is the story of one of those sessions… Continue reading “RECAP: Arts, Culture and Sports Leaders Share Thoughts About Tourism Plan”
Guelph Politico 