A few days before Christmas, downtown at city hall, city council wrapped up the year, with one last Zoom call. Well, Cisco Webex to be precise. Before a much need holiday break, council will spend the last meeting of the year catching up on the business from Committee of the Whole and will consider a request from the Elliott Community. Merry Christmas, indeed! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 20 Meeting?”
For two weeks, we’ve watched the global spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant and wondered when it would be detected here. Wonder no longer. On Friday, Wellington-Dufferin-Gulph Public Health announced that they’ve detected the first local case of Omicron locally. Meanwhile, Queen’s Park announced Friday that they’re departing from original post-new year’s plans to wind down vaccine certification. Continue reading “As Omicron Arrives in Guelph, Ontario Changes Their Pandemic Plans”
For the second time in the last couple of weeks, the Guelph Police Services Fraud Unit is warning Guelphites that online scams are out there, and ready to take money from unsuspecting people. The latest warning from police now comes with a price tag. According to police, Guelphites have lost $1 million in cryptocurrency scams in 2021, and there are all sorts of ways that they’re able to get your money. Continue reading “Police Say Guelphites Have Lost $1 Million to Crypto-Scams This Year”
The new 6-ward map of Guelph passed this summer is the map we’re going to use for the 2022 Municipal Election. This verdict came down Tuesday from the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT), which dismissed an appeal of the new map approved by council this past June, with the Tribunal’s Vice-Chair saying that due diligence was done, and that the new map “achieves effective representation.” for the city. Continue reading “The New Ward Map? OLT Says Let it Be”
It’s not often you pick up a copy of the Globe & Mail and see your sister and her family on the front page, but it’s also not everyday that a town somewhere in Ontario almost blows up. Around dinner time on August 26, two buildings in Wheatley’s downtown area exploded. The source, apparently, is a gas leak, but nobody’s sure and dozens of residents were relocated for safety. One of them was my sister. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #301 – The Town That Dreaded Sundown”
Just a few months after she stepped down as the long-serving Director of Education at the Upper Grand District School Board, news broke on Monday that Martha Rogers had passed away. Rogers had a career that spanned nearly 50 years, starting as a teacher in Peel region in 1972, and finishing her career with an impressive quarter-century hitch in the highest administrative position in local separate school board. Continue reading “UGDSB’s Long-Serving Director of Education Passes Away Months After Retiring”
If it’s December, then it’s time for end of the year lists, and what a year it was in the Royal City! We had a not-surprising surprise election, and we had to get ready for two more. Housing was a major issue, but so was the environment, and the year saw a lot of people get back into the habit of protesting. Transit made some news, so did downtown disgruntlement, and the Dolime Quarry, but what ended up number one? Let’s find out. Continue reading “Top 10 Guelph News Stories of 2021”
Let the last Committee of the Whole of 2021 commence! You can click here for the amended agendas 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: Committee of the Whole Meeting for December 6, 2021”
The Dolime Quarry land will become a part of the City of Guelph on January 1, 2022. This announcement comes from Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark who came to Guelph first thing on Monday morning to announce that he’s signing the Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) that will rezone the quarry once it’s shut down. The struggle to secure the site is over, and the countdown to redevelopment begins. Continue reading “Clark Signs MZO to Make Dolime Residential, Becomes Part of Guelph January 1”
Last week, most political concerns locally were about the council decision on the 2022-2023 budget. While council was debating, Ward 2 Councillor James Gordon was appearing on CFRU’s Open Sources Guelph through the power of pre-recording an interview in advance, and while he did talk about the budget, he was just as interested in talking about a personal political initiative of his own: the Race to Zero action on climate change. Continue reading “Gordon Tells Open Sources He Hopes Council Buys New Climate Action Plan”
Guelph Politico 